project: Hearst Tower, New York City client: Hearst Corporation architect: Foster and Partners, London—Norman Foster (chairman, founder); Brandon Haw (lead architect); Michael Wurzel (project architect); Peter Han (associate architect); Mike Jelliffe (team member) associate architect: Adamson Associates development manager: Tishman Speyer Properties engineers: Cantor Seinuk Group (structural); Flack & Kurtz (M/E/P); VDA (vertical transportation) lighting: George Sexton
"In a nod to the fashion industry promoted by Hearst magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Seventeen, elevator panels are lined in Italian purple silk laminated between layers of glass. Compared with the sculptural and considerably smaller LVMH Building housing the Louis Vuitton headquarters across town on East 57th Street, designed by Christian de Portzamparc in 1999, a certain je ne sais quoi is decidedly absent here. Hearst’s seat of power is muscular, while the latter is refined; beyond an obvious issue of scale, it’s a matter of rhetoric versus understanding, and posturing versus the execution of a tailored fit. "
