Located along Manhattan’s East River waterfront, the Freedom Plaza sets out to create a new civic and cultural hub, introducing a new open and green space in the crowded area, with plans to add an in-park Museum of Freedom and Democracy. Additionally, the scheme designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group includes affordable housing units, two hotels, retail, and restaurants. Developed by Soloviev Group and Mohegan, the Freedom Plaza development reimagines one of the largest undeveloped plots in Manhattan, measuring 6.7 acres located south of the United Nations headquarters in the Midtown East neighborhood.
Surrounding the public green space designed by OJB Landscape Architecture, BIG designed the museum, the podium, and the four surrounding towers. Two of them, measuring 50 and 60 stories respectively, are dedicated to residential units, including 1,325 apartments with nearly 40% of them dedicated to permanently affordable housing. The other two 51-story towers accommodate two hotels, as well as a conference and entertainment center.
The design is adjusted to align with the orthogonal grid of Manhattan and to allow view corridors towards the East River and Queens. The residential towers take cues from New York’s famous modernist buildings, featuring glass and aluminum facades connected at the base by a podium dedicated to retail spaces and a food market. The two hotel towers present a different image, clad in a warm metal finish and connecting at the roof to create visual unity. The resulting sky bridge cantilever offers a multisensory viewing platform with a glass floor and ceiling.
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What Is Hedonistic Sustainability in Architecture?Bookending the park are two pairs of towers, joined at the base or top and each framing a corner plaza: one showcasing the life of the city and the other forming an urban gate from the city to the upper park and East River beyond. Balanced on a perch overlooking the river, the Museum of Democracy neighbors the towers and celebrates the origin and evolution of one of the most impactful inventions of mankind and our continuous struggle to build, maintain, and protect the institutions that uphold it. - Bjarke Ingels, founder and creative director, BIG
By placing the towers at the perimeter of the site, an ample public green space takes shape, featuring spaces for children’s play, dog runs, and a lawn for hosting al fresco events. OBJ have designed the landscape to host native plants and climate adaptive species, while also creating a habitat for pollinators year-round. The museum building is paired with a sculpture garden and amphitheater to take full advantage of its in-park location. The Museum itself takes the shape of a Möbius strip, blending interior and exterior spaces and allowing for outdoor walking paths.
Urban developments of this scale usually feature a multistory podium with parking and inaccessible private amenities on a podium rooftop. Freedom Plaza, however, breaks free from that stereotype by integrating all podium programs such as parking, retail, ballroom, gaming, and entertainment below grade, which allows us to create an over 4.77-acre green space accessible to everyone. The purposefully simple forms of the towers surround the park as an urban oasis with cultural and community programs within. -Martin Voelkle, partner, BIG
The development strives to be operationally net-zero carbon, as it uses the East River as a heat sink and heat source to supplement the buildings’ heating, cooling and domestic hot water systems, thus reducing the demand for potable water significantly. The landscaping includes stormwater capture and retention, while the mature trees help reduce the urban heat island effect.
On a similar note, BIG has recently released images showcasing the nearly completed One High Line development, a set of twisting towers located on ‘Architecture Row’, also in New York City. Additionally, Bjarke Ingels’ office has revealed the updated designs for the Vltava Philharmonic Hall in Prague, after having won the international competition earlier in 2022.
Project credits:
- Partners-in-Charge:Bjarke Ingels, Martin Voelkle
- Project Manager:Andreas Buettner
- Project Designer:Kristian Hindsberg
- BIG Team:Ahmad Tabbakh, Alejandro Guadarrama, Alvaro Velosa, Bernardo Schuhmacher, Brendan Murphy, Cheng Zhong, Hudson Parris, Jan Klaska, Joanne Zheng, Johannes Alexander Hackl, Omer Khan, Otilia Pupezeanu, Paul Heberle, Rafael Alvarez, SangHa Jung, Sparsh Gandhi, Sung-Hwan Um, Will Chuanrui Yu, Youjin Rhee, Beat Schenk, Margaret Tyrpa
- Collaborators:Adamson Associates Architects, OJB Landscape Architecture, The Friedmutter Group, HBA, Thornton Tomasetti, WSP, Langan, Rizzo-Brookbridge, Herrick Feinstein, Kilograph
