Fosters working on four-tower New York masterplan

Foster & Partners has been appointed to design four new towers rising above New York’s Times Square as part of a major redevelopment of the world’s busiest bus terminal.

The practice is working with US-based design firm Epstein on the latest plans to replace the 72-year-old Midtown Bus Terminal in Manhattan for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The overcrowded site, located one block away from Times Square, has seen several redevelopment proposals come and go including a 40-storey tower designed by RSHP in 2008 which was scrapped three years later.

The new masterplan will see the existing 1950 building replaced by a much larger complex spanning three New York blocks and with a length of more than 800m.

Early graphics released by Fosters show a building extending from the terminal’s current site across 9th and 10th Avenue on land currently occupied by vehicle storage areas and ramps leading into the terminal.

The images also show four blocks of currently unknown use rising from the complex. Their heights have not been revealed but the graphics appear to show that the tallest, rising from the eastern edge of the complex, is significantly taller than Renzo Piano’s neighbouring 52-storey New York Times building.

The current bus terminal, which is the main gateway for buses travelling to and from New York, is operating beyond capacity and requires buses to park on surrounding roads during layovers and while picking up and dropping off passengers.

The new plans aim to expand capacity to accommodate bus growth beyond 2050, including off-street space for storing buses.

Port Authority chairman Kevin O’Toole said the appointment of a design team demonstrates “real momentum” for the project.

Foster & Partners partner Juan Vieira-Pardo added that the practice would develop a “unified vision” for the site. 

“Already the world’s busiest bus terminal, the project also has the potential to become the most desirable destination in Midtown.

“We believe that together with the Port Authority, Epstein, representatives of the surrounding community, stakeholders and passengers, we can help deliver an innovative, state-of-the-art, net zero transportation facility that is fit for the 21st century,” he said.

Epstein New York office director Paul Sanderson said the scheme was a “historic” project with transformative potential for commuters and people living near the terminal.

“The greatest city in the world deserves the best facility in the world, and we aim for no less than that,” he said.

Epstein and Fosters & Partners will work on the project throughout the design phase and an environmental review, the Port Authority said.