Why New York's latest skyscraper is revolutionary

I'm sure most people have now seen New York's latest investment across their Facebook or News feeds in some way. Titled "The Big Bend", it hopes to be the world's longest skyscraper, beating the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The skyscraper will stretch to a whopping 4000 feet long.

The Big Bend

The Burj Khalifa

The 1916 zoning resolution brought in to America meant that height restrictions on buildings were brought into New York and other states around the US. The law was brought in to create a less cramped city and, although tragic for architects, New Yorkers welcomed the law with open arms as it made complete sense. New York is already extremely shady (in a shadow sense) and more skyscrapers would mean that probably very little light would reach anywhere but the tops of these skyscrapers. Air Navigation was also a concern meaning that planes could not fly low to land in to airports near by. Why have all these magnificent skyscrapers if you can't get anywhere near the city to see them? A resolution developed in 1961 which slightly amended the original law by developing incentive zoning through adding one extra floor space to the restriction. This resulted in many architects blending public plazas into their buildings.The original resolution turned 100 last year but this ancient code, although altered since its commencement, still dominates New York's skyline today.

The Home Insurance building in Chicago, 1884 was the first to use steel in its frame in this way and everybody thought this was a massive deal which it certainly was at the time. This revolutionised architecture but look at architecture now!

This particular skyscraper is defying odds. If you can't keep building up but still want to be considered the biggest skyscraper, this is the way. The genius designer is Ioannis Oiaonomou whose inspiration came from hearing about an elevator that moves horizontally. The building would need a two-track elevator system that could go around curves as well as moving horizontally which is quite literally the definition of innovation. Architects are constantly fighting for the latest and greatest in a bid to be noticed and make buildings stand out and this certainly is an incredible step in the architectural direction.

A big question surrounding architecture in this city is that if there were no skyscrapers in New York would tourists still visit? Most likely not. Not everybody appreciates the MOMA, the Met and similar museums or attractions around because if you look up the top 5 things to do in New York at the minute most include skyscrapers (Rockefeller, Empire State building and even Lady Liberty which is again mostly associated with height and grandeur). This is the sole reason that these type of skyscrapers are developing and growing because this is what people want to see. New York is very crowded so there is literally no room to build out, hence why skyscrapers evolved because if you can't build out- build up!

One issue that I have with this particular building though is how can it technically be considered 4000 ft- just because there is a large gap in the middle of it? If measured in height, then it would not be near the tallest building but maybe that is the point that it is emphasising length and not height.

I personally think that it is gorgeous and extremely innovative which is hard to do in this day and age. Here's hoping that it actually works out for Mr. Oiaonomou!

#art #TheBigBend #architecture #Skyscraper #NewYork