BY Matt Chaban
New York City architecture in 2013: The great and the not-so-great
A toast to 4 World Trade Center, Sunset Park's new recycling center and Walker Tower, plus a hard look at Prospect Park's new skating center
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, February 7, 2014, 2:09 AM
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Joe Woolhead
4 World Trade Center.
Gold medal
4 World Trade Center
It may not be the biggest building on the 16-acre site, nor the boldest, but it is certainly the most beautiful — a quiet, dignified tower that honors its sacred home. Using simple geometries, Japanese master architect Fumihiko Maki put a notched parallelogram atop a trapezoid and covered the whole thing in a crystalline glass sheath. The result is a solemn sentinel watching over the site.
Marc Lins
The Sims recycling center.
Sims recycling center
Annabelle Selldorf is best known for designing Fifth Ave. boutiques, Chelsea galleries and luxury apartments. And now a recycling plant in Sunset Park, Brooklyn (below). The firm used standard prefabricated beams and modules to create the hangar-like structure on the harbor. The surprisingly sleek industrial facility shows that simple components and a clever hand can achieve great results.
Walker Tower.
Walker Tower
There's a reason the wealthy and celebs like Cameron Diaz have been flocking to Walker Tower (right). Take a neglected art deco telephone exchange towering over Chelsea, gut it and turn it into a modern throwback. Period details and newfangled accessories are expensive, which explains why the penthouse is in contact for $50.9 million, a downtown record.
Christie M. Farriella
One of the rinks at the Lakeside skating center.
Lakeside skating center
A good effort by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, but the new skating center in Prospect Park (right) is more of an unpolished diamond — nice rinks, but utterly lacking in necessities like changing rooms and benches for hockey. We can only hope the problems will be addressed. Matt Chaban
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