New York is divided by extremes.
You either roast in the summer heat or freeze in a winter
blizzard. You either bask in the greenery of Central
Park or dodge yellow taxis amid the noise and concrete
of Midtown. You either live in the cultural theme park
that is Manhattan or, darling, you don't.
The same is
true for its luxury properties. You can have the elegance
of a pre-war apartment on Fifth Avenue or you can buy
cutting-edge design with a new loft apartment in Tribeca.
Now
there is an exception to prove the rule: the shimmering
twin glass towers of Time Warner Center is not only
the biggest-ever mixed-use complex built in New York
and home to the world's biggest media company, it aims
to combine a sought-after Uptown address with the latest
technology.
Designed by David Childs, of renowned
US architecture practice Skidmore, Owings & Merrill,
the 750-ft building certainly has pedigree. As well
as the media giant, the centre houses a 251-room Mandarin
Oriental Hotel and 100,000 sq ft of performance halls
for Jazz at Lincoln Center (an offshoot of the Upper
West Side cultural venue).
However, the owners have
also hired OneSource Building Technologies,
a unit of Fisk, which in turn is a sub-division of
industrial group Tyco Electronics, on a seven-year
contract to ensure residents enjoy the latest in high-tech
gadgetry.
"They are viewing the technology as inherent to the building," says
Greg Weldon, OneSource's vice-president of building
technology services.
Central to OneSource's plan is
a vast cable backbone stretching the length of the
75-storey skyscraper and ensuring the latest in digital
satellite entertainment and wireless communication is
available throughout the 2.1m sq ft development.
High-speed
internet connections run to every room in the building
through fibre-optic lines, enabling residents to present
television broadcasts from their lounge, if they so
wish. Moreover, mobile phone reception is believed to
be the best in the city because OneSource's wireless
network reaches into every corner of the building - even
the lifts.
Such electronic gadgetry is available
in other apartments in other big cities. The difference
for Time Warner Center , according to Greg Weldon, is
that the building will maintain its technological edge
because OneSource is paid to do this over time. As a
start, it has so built the infrastructure that data speeds
can be increased without tearing out the wires.
If residents
cannot see a lot of new gadgets, Weldon adds, it is
because the latest advances are not so much in the hardware
- such as CD players that can store 3,000 albums - as
in the cabling behind the walls that enable faster access
to data.
But is it the kind of stuff that
appeals to the people who can afford to buy a home at
such an exclusive New York address?
According to Susan
de Franca, senior vice-president at the Related Companies,
the lead developer, most of those who have reserved
their places are between their late 30s and late 60s.
Do these people really get that excited about new gadgetry? "I am not suggesting that technology is the single foremost reason buyers have bought apartments here," she says. "But
it is bit of a lie that technology is just for the young.
"We are in the heart of the cultural center of New York with Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall," she adds. "Foremost,
it is the location and views of Central Park , the
12-ft glass curtain walls. Technology happens to be
the cherry on the cake."
Greg Olsen, a 58-year-old who has
bought an apartment on the 74th floor of the south tower,
echoes this view. Although he is chief executive of Sensors
Unlimited, which supplies nightvision cameras and telecoms
hardware to the US government, he admits: "I
am not a real technical nerd."
Indeed, he has enjoyed living across
the street from Time Warner Center at Trump International
largely because of the "excellent" personal
service offered by the staff, something he hopes this
new landlords will be able to match.
With his company
based in Princeton , New Jersey , Olsen plans to use
Time Warner Center as a pied à terre .
He bought his apartment, one floor below the penthouse,
for the views, which include the Statue of Liberty.
He sees the technology as an added bonus.
"I've got four grandchildren who like to send pictures and videos back and forth over the internet," he says. "However,
you have to discipline yourself with technology or
it controls you."
However, he maintains that people
make a home: "It's
things like the doorman who not only remembers your
name but remembers that you went to South Africa last
week and asks you about the trip. I would want that
even more than all the bells and whistles." |
