Intelligent Glass Solutions — “Sculpting a Good Neighbor: New York's Solar Carve Tower”

Author
Jeanne Gang

Publication
Intelligent Glass Solutions
USA Summer 2020 Issue

Year
2020

Tags

For Intelligent Glass Solutions' summer 2020 issue, Jeanne Gang writes about how Studio Gang's design for Solar Carve (40 Tenth Ave) demonstrates how density can be added to the city in a sensitive way that helps to enhance its surrounding environment.

"Since the early days of the modern movement, discussions about glass in architecture have focused on the physical property of transparency and the evolving cultural meanings associated with its use. There’s no doubt that transparency will always be one of the most crucial and wondrous qualities that glass offers architecture, but there’s also no reason that today’s designers should limit themselves to exploring this single attribute. As readers of IGS are well aware, advancements in glass technology have radically expanded the characteristics and capabilities of this material over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, with emerging developments promising even more. At the same time, we have also arrived at a moment in which the urgent challenges facing our world – from widening inequality to climate change – demand that architecture find new ways of connecting with people and nature for mutual benefit. When we wield glass as a multifaceted material in service of this mission, what new trajectories for glass architecture become possible?"

Solar Carve office building designed by Studio Gang, interior view of Hudson River in New York City

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