Foster + Partners supertall skyscraper for JP Morgan progresses in New York

Much of the exterior cladding and superstructural work has been completed on the 270 Park Avenue supertall skyscraper in New York, designed by UK architecture studio Foster + Partners to be "all-electric".

After topping out in November 2023, the 1,388-foot (423-metres) Foster + Partners-designed skyscraper is nearing completion on Park Avenue, set to be complete later this year.

It will be the sixth-tallest skyscraper in New York City and serve as the offices for American financial firm JP Morgan.

The massive skyscraper has four deep setbacks that taper to a pinnacle.

At its base, the tower is supported by a unique truss system that allows its structure to touch the ground in limited places. Foster + Partners described this system, visible from the outside, as an "innovative fan-column structure and triangular bracing".

This structural system allows for the tower to be lifted off the ground, creating room for an 80-foot-tall (24-meter) lobby and allowing for a substantial setback from the street, designed to open up the block.

Along the ceiling of the lobby and between the triangular fan columns are decorative circular steel ringlets tightly clustered. The rings have the appearance of exhaust pipes.

With the construction elevator still in place, the tower now has most of its cladding. Slightly coloured glass gives the building a brownish appearance, and massive diagrids crisscross its east and west-facing aspects.

Its structural inventiveness, the large swathes of metal on the facade and its slightly brown colour demarcate the skyscraper from other recent office towers built in the city, most of which are characterized by reflective glass curtain walls.

270 Park Avenue replaced the SOM-designed Union Carbide building, which became the tallest building to be voluntarily destroyed in 2021 when it was torn down to make room for the taller tower.

According to Foster + Partners, 97 per cent of the materials from the demolition were "recycled, reused or upcycled".

The architecture studio has highlighted the skyscraper's "all-electric" operational systems, claiming that it will have "net zero operational emissions".

In 2023, New York passed a law that prohibits fossil fuel use for heating, cooking, or power in new buildings.

A series of zoning changes for Midtown allowed for the higher construction.

Other skyscrapers under construction in New York include a skyscraper by Snøhetta on Central Park and a beaux-arts skyscraper by KPF.

The photography is by Ben Dreith.

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