|
AN ICON AMONG ICONS
It is rare that a winning concept for an architectural competition is realized. Rarer still that the integrity of that winning concept remains in its realization.
The renovation of Father Duffy Square and the new TKTS booth will be an exception to that and many other norms. The winning concept for the TKTS booth, submitted by the Australian firm Choi Ropiha and selected by the Van Alen Institute from nearly 700 entries, has been developed by Perkins Eastman and enhanced by and integrated with William Fellows Architects' new design for the plaza. Together these new elements will transform the heart of the Times Square district while raising the bar for public space design in New York City.
Conceived as a public amphitheatre at the Crossroads of the World, the new design will provide the best seats in the house to watch the greatest show on earth - Times Square.
Like its surroundings, the TKTS ticket booth will be visually dramatic and architecturally speactacular, a landmark of incisive visual clarity. The design integrates the plaza, amphitheatre-like steps, and booth to provide a much-needed refuge from the visual cacophony that surrounds it. The amphitheatre is built entirely from glass, placing it at the forefront of glass technology; red glass steps supported on glass stringers and spanning between glass load-bearing walls are illuminated from within by red LEDs. The overall effect is dramatic - a shimmering, floating carpet of color and light. The TKTS booth itself is a free-standing, custom-fabricated fiberglass shell that sits beneath the steps, visible through the glass side walls of the structure.
<< Previous: TKTS Next: An Icon Among Icons, Part 2 >>
<< Home
|
