New Renderings Give A Better Look At Jean Nouvel’s MoMA Tower

Architizer News

New Renderings Give A Better Look At Jean Nouvel’s MoMA Tower

December 10, 2012

All images: Ateliers Jean Nouvel / Adamson Associates

It’s been well over a year since we heard any substantial news of Jean Nouvel’s “Torre Verre”, the residential skyscraper and MoMA expansion that sparked more than a bit of controversy when the project was first unveiled in 2007. The design’s apparent irreverence for New York’s sanctified skyline—there were fears that the new tower would compete with the Empire State Building for stratospheric dominance—provoked the disfavor and subsequent bullying of the City Planning Commission, which pushed Nouvel to revise his scheme. The architect obliged, lopping off 200 feet of the tower and stripping it of its expressionistic steel exoskeleton in the process. The axonometric drawings depicting the modified design, which were released last August, reveal little as to what the structure would look like from the street. Now, new renderings give us a look at the tower at ground-level and inside. Continue.

Image via Curbed

Our buddies at Curbed spotted the images on the website of architects Adamson Associates, which lists the firm as the project’s “architect of record”. The renderings show how the tower meets the street, with members of the structural cross-bracing touching the ground at various angles that frame the glazed entrance, setback from the building envelope. Moving indoors, the images depict several different environments—an indoor pool, a lounge area, the lobby—tied together by slanted columns and mixed-media texts and graphics projected on the walls and ceilings.