No other city in the world stands for home for people with such different mentalities, destinies and ethnicities. The power and self-confidence of America are represented in New York’s heaven-assailing verticals, in the vehement silhouette of Manhattan. Whoever has seen New York spread out before them from above can understand why even the most critical minds have been unable to resist the dynamic of the city.
The Great Eastern Shipping Company was to have its home at the southern tip of Manhattan and should thereby also convey presence and solidity far beyond the boundaries of the city. The expression of the building connects directly to the other buildings in its environment from 1910 to 1920. The metal spire is reminiscent in form and material of the iron machine age, of a planet cast in iron – an apotheosis of the technical age. The drawing shows a twilight state: the tip is still illuminated by the setting sun, but the urban canyons are already artificially lit. At night, the tip radiates in bottle-green light.
The elements
The gardens inside are of great functional importance in connection with the inner opening up and illumination of the tower. However, they are also a surreal element and fantastic natural cathedrals with fully grown trees. They are home to the unobtainable, the surprising, and at the same time symbols as we know them from the painting of Magritte or the film of the director Eliseo Subiela, Las aventuras de Dios.