New York is a city full of skyscrapers, and a very unusual might make it to the list. The Greek firm Oiio Architecture Office has proposed the Big Bend concept building which will be an upside down U that forms the world’s longest continual building.
The tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa is only 2,722 feet high. The Big Bend is planned to have a length of 4,000 feet, and that is the length, not the height. The skyscraper bends into a U to fold that length into a half.
The Big Bend will include large windows all along, even in the curvature. The building will stand straddling the historic buildings of New York. According to the initial drawing, the building will stand along 57th Street near Calvary Baptist Church and at the core of Billionaire’s Row.
The motivation for the building was New York’s zoning laws. The company website explains, “But what if we substituted height with length? What if our buildings were long instead of tall?. If we manage to bend our structure instead of bending the zoning rules of New York, we would be able to create one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan.”
The first question that would pop into anyone’s mind will be about how people will move around the building. Can we imagine bending elevators? The firm calls it “the greatest challenge in elevator history.” The drawings disclose an elevator design that will travel along the curvature of the building along a track changing system.
The renders look spectacular and promising, but if the proposed plans become a reality, and New York sees the engineering marvel rise, the natives might not be entirely happy. Some have commented that the building will be an eyesore for looking onto Central Park, but we can still hope for the building to be situated elsewhere in the city, can’t we?