If you thought Dubai was the only place you would find some uniquely designed buildings, then you’re gravely mistaken.
Architecture firms in the United States have proposed extravagant “statement buildings” to redefine city skylines, but they are still in drawing and haven’t been constructed yet.
Here are five mind-bending proposals that challenge traditional building concepts in the US.
The Big Bend
Poised to be the world’s longest building at 4,000-feet long, Oiio Studio’s proposed skyscraper would sit right near Central Park along Billionaire’s Row in Manhattan, New York.
When the proposal was announced, project designer Ioannis Oikonomou said he was inspired to create the Bend’s U-shaped rollercoaster arch after reading about new elevator tech that could “travel in curves, horizontally and in continuous loops.”
Oikonomou has been seeking investors for the project since 2017.
Amazon’s HQ2
Amazon unveiled the first phase of “HQ2,” in Arlington, Virginia last June. The first finished portion of a project has been in the works since 2018.
The building, described as a “glass poop emoji covered in trees,” is set to be the e-commerce giant’s new $2.5 billion headquarters.
However, the site’s spiralling, treelined tower called ‘The Helix’ hasn’t been constructed yet despite receiving approval from Arlington County Board over two years ago.
Sarcostyle Tower
Hayri Atak Architectural Design, a Turkey-based architecture firm, proposed a 688-foot sci-fi-style New York skyscraper in Manhattan that almost looks like the whole thing had been sculpted from play dough.
With twisting tube-like structures coiled inside a towering frame, the building is named after a sinewy filament common to most animal muscle tissue.
The firm described their goal with the proposal as casting ‘a transparent, ghostly stance in the city skyline,’ but there are no official plans to construct it.
Boardwalk at Bricktown
Last December, California design practice Architects Orange (AO) proposed a design for the second-tallest building in the United States, in Oklahoma City.
The 1,750-foot skyscraper would tower above a planned $1 billion entertainment district.
The megastructure would have a hotel, two condo towers, an LED-lit multilevel, tree-lined highline, a pool, and other publicly accessible walking areas, if it is all approved by city planners.
Affirmation Tower
A 95-story skyscraper proposed for near New York’s midtown-area, looks like an acrobatically balanced stack of boxes that gradually increase in size and volume.
It’s approximately 1,660-foot height would hold hotels, offices, and an observation deck, as envisioned by the designing firm, Adjaye Associates.
However, planners might be having second thoughts about what such a building’s center of mass might do in a crisis, like this spring’s surprise 4.8-magnitude earthquake in New York and New Jersey.
