THE BEEKMAN TOWER , NEW YORK CITY - 8 SPRUCE STREET - 76 fl - 867 ft/267 m - by Frank Gehry

Very unique design,

 Alien and strange looking but at least the cladding looks better than expected. Usually renders are overly optimistic but this one worked out fine. Overall it doesn't look too bad up close.

From the NY TIMES on Beekman Tower by Frank Gehry

"So Mr. Gehry’s 76-story Beekman Tower, which is under construction just south of City Hall and whose latest design was released on Friday, should be considered long overdue. 
Rising just south of the entry ramps to the Brooklyn Bridge, it will join an imposing cluster of landmarks around City Hall, including Cass Gilbert’s 1913 neo-Gothic Woolworth Building and McKim, Mead & White’s 1914 Municipal Building, early examples of the city’s deep romance with the sky. Draped over a classical shell, the tower’s crinkled steel skin is proof that the skyscraper has yet to exhaust itself as an urban art form.
Just as important, the design suggests that the city is slowly if hesitantly recovering from the trauma of 9/11. Only a few years ago, as plans were readied for a bunkerlike Freedom Tower downtown, it seemed as if the Manhattan skyline would be marred by jingoism and fear.
Mr. Gehry’s tower, by contrast, harks back to the euphoric aspirations of an earlier age without succumbing to nostalgia"

CLOSE UP OF THE EXTERIOR WALL OF THE BEEKMAN TOWER BY FRANK GEHRY FROM THE NY TIMES ARTICLE

The curved surface of the Beekman Tower looks to be a lot more pronounced in the model/render posted in post 1 than it does in the final result. Why is that?

The curved surface of the Beekman Tower looks to be a lot more pronounced in the model/render posted in post 1 than it does in the final result. Why is that?

-tikinyc

It's dependent on the viewing angle. The curves seem to be more prominent on one side or some sides of the 4 "vertical" planes than they are on the other. The curves are also more pronounced when you view it from a near distance.

It's a nice addition to the downtown skyline.

Spectacular exterior surface design, not too tall and it compliments the other towers visible from across the East River.

I like it.

Great interview, TN.

Well, the Beekman Tower is the 8th tallest building in Manhattan, and when Freedom Tower is finished - it will be the 9th.

It's a big building!

Great interview, TN.
Well, the Beekman Tower is the 8th tallest building in Manhattan, and when Freedom Tower is finished - it will be the 9th.
It's a big building!

-archnyer

THE GUARDIAN UK

Interview with Frank Gehry about 8 Spruce Street, Lower Manhattan's Wavy Twin Beekman Tower

"What was I really thinking of?" Gehry says. "Michelangelo and Bernini." Really? "Really. Those guys drew bookloads of folds and fabrics, so beautifully. I've looked at these a lot over the years. Michelangelo does softer lines; Bernini's are harder. I love the architectural quality of those folds, and these are what inspired the skin of the building."
This undulating skin, fabricated from 10,500 individual steel panels, gives many of the individual flats a baroque quality; there are bay windows where the folds billow up and across the facades. Set at any number of angles around the three draped sides of the tower, these offer a dazzling variety of views across New York.
"Originally, I wanted to have the folds going all the way around," Gehry explains. "But the marketing folk said that 15% of people didn't want apartments with wrinkles. So that's why there's a straight side. But, then, they started to rent out the wrinkly apartments, and asked for more of them. By then I'd begun to like the straight side. The models we made showing the tower completely wrinkly just didn't look tough enough for New York."
I had thought that the straight side was a symptom of cost-cutting. Surely all those towering folds of stainless steel and the building's complex floorplan on the other three sides must have been expensive? "No. We got the curtain wall with all the curves at the same price as doing it straight. It's all the 3D computer stuff we've developed. Fifteen per cent of construction cost is usually wasted in design changes on site, caused by the fact that architects are still doing 2D drawings for 3D buildings. We do 3D modelling that shows exactly how the whole building fits together, and we don't need many design changes. That way we've come in on budget."