TATLIN NEWS #47

Из квартиры зодчего на Централ-Парк-Уэст видны 12 из его 15 нью-йоркских небоскребов. Он также автор других дерзких башен в Дубае, Гонконге и Сеуле. | 12 of 15 Williams’ skyscrapers in New York can be seen from his apartment at Central Park West. He has also authored some other daring high-rise struc- tures in Dubai, Hong Kong and Seoul.

that Mercury Tower is only 60 meters shorter than the Empire State Building and that there are no more than a dozen build- ings that are even taller in the entire world. The architect came to the model of the tower, standing on low table and almost scraping the high ceiling with its top, crouched, lifted up his head and said in a very loud manner: «This is a very tall build- ing!» However, the building is unique not only because of its height and unusual form. This is one of the first ‘green’, or en- vironmentally friendly buildings in Russia, with energy-saving facades, automatic lighting control system and winter gardens at top floors. In Moscow Williams met leading designers and officials. His meeting with the mayor was not supposed to be longer than ten minutes, but lasted more than an hour. «We liked each other, – Williams tells about his first talk with Luzhkov, – he is a big fan of architecture and knows a lot about it. He doesn’t like mini- malist buildings and this makes us very close because I don’t like them either.» At that time he also met Mikhail Posokhin, head of Mosproject-2. Frank omits some sounds in his name, making it sound closer to French than Russian – «Michael Po- son». In 2004 together, they created the International Sky- scraper Center (ISC). Posokhin and Williams have equal shares in the Center that is supposed to develop architectural and en- gineering solutions in the field of high-rise construction as part of the New Ring of Moscow program. The International center will be engaged in very different designs and calculations con- cerning soil quality, fire safety, high-speed elevators and opera- tion control systems in skyscrapers and render consulting serv- ices in these and other fields. «Posokhin has the license to build skyscrapers in Moscow and I have a lot of experience building them The main thing is that throughout the years I have assembled a very strong profes- sional team of consultants – designers, mechanical engineers, fa ç ade detailers, high speed elevators designers, etc. We built almost all my buildings with them. We work together in a high- ly productive manner and we all are right here in New York.» – says Williams. It is due to the ISC that Williams has received the Mercury Tower commission. His team prepared the concept and the tower design, while Posokhin deals with developing working documents and construction administration. There is a lot of work in Moscow. According to the ambitious New Ring of Mos- cow program, 250 buildings taller than 30 stories at 60 sites between the Third transport ring and the Moscow Ring road, MKAD. Many new orders will be placed to ISC. Right now in ad- dition to the Mercury Tower Williams is designing one of them – a residential complex with three towers 45 to 55 stories high. They resemble the Mercury Tower in the City with their ob- lique roofs. But Williams does not agree with me: «They are very different. However, all these towers could only be built in Moscow». During his frequent rips to Russia he stays at Nation- al hotel and likes to wander along the broad central streets. He is particularly interested in the many complex roofs with spires and attics. They are reflected in the shape of the three residential skyscrapers. As for the tower in the City, it took its expressive shape after the Russian constructivists. «Many New York architects are big fans of Russian constructivists. Recent- ly there were very curious exhibitions of original constructivist drawings from Moscow and local private collections in Colum- bia University. At the presentation of the tower in Moscow I told Luzhkov that the central vertical shape is associated with a gothic cathedral. It is not without reason that the architectural critic Lewis Mumford likened first office towers in New York with

Макет башни Меркури-Тауэр | Mercury Tower, architectural scale model

100 ТАТLIN news 5|47|64 2008