www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=1192
Magazine Instant City Work has begun on a huge project in South Korea. KPF looks to plan and bu ild a $25 billion town of 100,000 people--in ten years. By Andrew Yang Posted March 21, 2005 Image courtesy of Kohn, Pedersen, and Fox On the 44th floor of a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper, a small army of arch itects from Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), as well as financial and marketing people from the Gale International of New York and the Korean company POSCO E&C, have been busy planning what its sponsors call the l argest private development in the world: a $25 billion town. Nearly 7,00 0 miles away in Seoul, Korea, a similar office is coordinating construct ion of New Songdo City, which broke ground last fall. Located on a 1,500-acre expanse of landfill off the western coast of Kore a, Songdo will be completed in five phases over ten years. Because a six -mile bridge connects it to Incheon International Airport, Songdo is env isioned as a North Asian business center. In contrast to the sprawl of S eoul, virtually everything in Songdo will be planned: an entirely new ci ty of 50,000 permanent residents, with office space for 50,000 additiona l commuters and visitors. Landmark Tower Songdo will be a business hub, so a landmark skyscraper has been planned as a symbol of commerce. The tower looks out over the park and is connec ted to adjacent office buildings and a convention center. To compete wit h rapidly modernizing cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Songdo must c ontain other significant buildings as well. Image courtesy of Kohn, Pedersen, and Fox Retail One of the strategies of New Songdo City will be to mix office and retail spaces. In this image, a department store, center, is surrounded by off ice towers and serves as a focal point of a busy car and pedestrian plaz a Image courtesy of Kohn, Pedersen, and Fox The Waterfront The waterfront has been designed largely as a series of parks and green s paces with promenades that extend around the city. Cultural facilities a re scattered throughout the site, so in the proposed scheme a theater an d opera house would jut into the water, offering the complex a rich pano rama of the city. Image courtesy of Kohn, Pedersen, and Fox Convention Center Most of the building renderings are merely massing studies; the actual st ructures will be commissioned by Gale International and designed by othe r architects. The KPF-designed convention center broke ground in the fal l "By the time New Songdo City is finished," von Klemperer says, "it wi ll have involved just about every KPF partner." The planning of Songdo-- and the creation of a local culture--also involves an advisory board of local and international experts, who will have a role in the creation of schools, business and health-care centers, and cultural and recreationa l facilities. Image courtesy of Kohn, Pedersen, and Fox Central Park and Canal Songdo's main civic feature will be a 101-acre green space called Central Park. Cultural, retail, residential, and commercial buildings will be l ocated on the park's perimeter. "The openness of the green will create a visual connection between the city's different districts," von Klempere r says. A canal, filled with water brought in from the Yellow Sea, zigza gs through the park, expands to a small lake, and ends at the foot of th e landmark tower and convention center. A water-taxi system provides an alternative mode of transportation. Image courtesy of Kohn, Pedersen, and Fox Housing As a counterpoint to the superblocks surrounding Seoul, the apartment com plexes in Songdo will have both dense and more spread-out areas. "We're designing where the buildings aren't," says James von Klemperer, the KPF partner overseeing the project. Apartment clusters include small parks that will cut randomly through each block. In the more concentrated area s, mixed-height structures interspersed with street-level retail will en courage walking. In the proposal rendering, a canal connects residents v ia water taxis with a downtown park. Image courtesy of Kohn, Pedersen, and Fox Local Government The city planners envision local government buildings sited adjacent to t he park, so that the structures will be highly visible to the townspeopl e Image courtesy of Kohn, Pedersen, and Fox Art Museum Proposed cultural facilities, such as this art museum, will provide citiz ens with a sense of local and international culture. This museum will be located inside Songdos Central Park, similar to the way the Metropolit an Museum of Art is located alongside New Yorks Central Park. Image courtesy of Kohn, Pedersen, and Fox Educational Facilities Educational experts from around the world are helping the citys master p lanners create the design and curriculum of the International School in Songdo. Image courtesy of Kohn, Pedersen, and Fox What do you think?
Reconsidering Eero By Paul Makovsky Saarinen died young and very much out of critical favor, but the judgment of history seems to have turned for this long-neglected master.
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