New York by Gehry

8 Spruce Street, originally known as Beekman Tower and currently marketed as New York by Gehry, is a 76-story skyscraper designed by architect Frank Gehry in the New York City borough of Manhattan at 8 Spruce Street, between William and Nassau Streets, in Lower Manhattan, just south of City Hall Park and the Brooklyn Bridge. 8 Spruce Street is one of the tallest residential towers in the world, and it was the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere at the time of opening in February 2011. The building was developed by Forest City Ratner, designed by Frank Gehry Architects and WSP Cantor Seinuk Structural Engineers, and constructed by Kreisler Borg Florman. It contains a public elementary school owned by the Department of Education. Above that and grade-level retail, the tower contains only residential rental units (898 in total), a rarity in New York’s Financial District. The skyscraper's structural frame is made of reinforced concrete, and form-wise it falls within the architectural style of Deconstructivism together with Aqua, a skyscraper in Chicago begun after but completed before 8 Spruce.The school is sheathed in reddish-tan brick, and covers 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of the first five floors of the building. It hosts over 600 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade classes. A fourth floor roof deck holds 5,000 square feet (460 m2) of outdoor play space.The school is sheathed in reddish-tan brick, and covers 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of the first five floors of the building. It hosts over 600 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade classes. A fourth floor roof deck holds 5,000 square feet (460 m2) of outdoor play space.The building originally included space for New York Downtown Hospital next door. The hospital was allocated 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2), of parking below ground. It was never used. As of 2016, it is a commercially-operated valet parking garage. There are public plazas on both the east and west sides of the building, one 11,000 square feet (1,000 m2) and the other somewhat smaller. Street-level retail, totaling approximately 1,300 to 2,500 square feet (120 to 230 m2), is included as part of the project.Early reviews of the 8 Spruce Street tower have been favorable. In The New York Times, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff praised the building's design as a welcome addition to the skyline of New York, calling it: 'the finest skyscraper to rise in New York since Eero Saarinen’s CBS Building went up 46 years ago'. New Yorker magazine's Paul Goldberger described it as 'one of the most beautiful towers downtown'. Comparing Gehry's tower to the nearby Woolworth Building, completed in 1913, Goldberger said, 'It is the first thing built downtown since then that actually deserves to stand beside it.' CityRealty architecture critic Carter Horsely hailed the project, saying 'the building would have been an unquestioned architectural masterpiece if the south façade had continued the crinkling and if the base had continued the stainless-steel cladding. Even so, it is as majestic as its cross-town rival, the great neo-Gothic Woolworth Building designed by Cass Gilbert at 233 Broadway on the other side of City Hall Park.' Gehry designed both the exterior, interiors and amenities spaces, along with all 20 model apartments. The building received the Emporis Skyscraper Award for 2011.

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