Richard Rogers Selected to Design LEED Gold 20 Times Square Above World's Fifth Ugliest Building

2008

Nov

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Back in July, we called Richard Rogers’ design for a proposed LEED for Core and Shell ("LEED-CS") Gold office tower above the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue the "most ambitious" of the three concepts presented by his firm, KPF, and Pelli Clarke Pelli. Today, the Port Authority announced that Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners of London has been selected as the architect for the project, and also released an updated rendering of the proposed 42-story, 1.3 million-square-foot tower. Rogers, of course, also designed Tower 3 at the World Trade Center site (175 Greenwich Street) which will similarly seek a LEED Gold rating from USGBC.

As you can see in the rendering, the roof of the Bus Terminal- which currently serves as a parking deck- would be transformed into green outdoor space; the Terminal, which was built back in 1950 and conceived from day one as eventually supporting a high-rise above, was recently named the world’s fifth ugliest building in a decidedly unscientific study that appeared on virtualtourist.com. The project will be co-developed by Vornado Realty Trus t and Ruben Cos. ; notwithstanding the current lending climate, construction could commence as early as 2009 and wrap up by 2013.

In terms of an anchor tenant, law firm Paul Weiss was in negotiations with Vornado over the summer for 500,000 square feet of space across the building’s middle floors- over a third of the building’s 1.3 million square feet- at what’s rumored to be $95 per square foot, though the current status of those discussions is unclear. Keep in mind that the 20 Times Square project would be directly across the street from SJP Properties’ LEED Gold hopeful 11 Times Square which has yet to land a single tenant at asking rents in the low $100s.

Specific green features outside of the LEED standards are not presently available.