A new $US1 billion financing package from a group of Asian banks is breathing life into a stalled plan to build the 320m tall MoMA Expansion Tower in New York City. The building was designed more than seven years ago by French architect Jean Nouvel — who imagined a shard-like steel framework of cross-bracing that terminates in three sharp glass wedges up top.
Inside, the building would house 145 apartments and 3345sqm of gallery space for MoMA — an almost 20 per cent expansion for the museum, which is located next door.
According to the Wall Street Journal, this cash infusion is just the latest peg in a new real estate trend: The resurrection of mega-projects all over the city that have been dormant since the 2008 crash. Other towers that have been given a second chance this year? The Herzog & de Meuron-designed 56 Leonard, plus Norman Foster’s 50 United Nations Plaza.
Construction on Nouvel’s tower, meanwhile, is expected to begin as soon as 2014. Barring any other financial meltdowns, of course. [Wall Street Journal]
