Hearst Tower
I am reading about the Hearst Tower this morning. In addition to it’s stunning, organic-looking design, it’s environmentally friendly:
Hearst Tower is the first green building completed in New York City, with a number of environmental considerations built into the plan. The floor of the atrium is paved with heat conductive limestone. Polyethylene tubing is embedded under the floor and filled with circulating water for cooling in the summer and heating in the winter. Rain collected on the roof is stored in a tank in the basement for use in the cooling system, to irrigate plants and for the water sculpture in the main lobby.
The main spatial “event” of the Hearst Tower is the grand internal plaza that occupies the entire shell of the historic base. Inside is a dramatic 10-story atrium and café space surrounded by the original windowed masonry facade. More experienced Hearst employees have voiced a feeling of connection with the new facility because they can actually see the windows of their old offices intact in the old masonry shell.
The thing I think is coolest about this building is the dynamic adjustment of interior lighting that reacts to ambient light levels from the outside. So, the interior lights turn down as the exterior light (the sun, you know) increases. From an energy saving standpoint, this seems so stunningly obvious… it’s shocking it hasn’t been implemented on such a large scale sooner. But again, the main reason I write about the building is because of how amazing it looks.
