Plunging into the innovative SUMMIT OV, at a height of 370 meters, is like entering a sensory oasis, surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass in a dizzying promenade above Manhattan.
“We decided to create a unique destination for New Yorkers and visitors from all over the world, and SUMMIT One Vanderbilt is all that and more. You have to experience it to believe it!” says Marc Holliday, President and CEO of SL Green Realty Corp., the most important real estate group for offices in New York.
With interior design by the studio Snøhetta, the new observatory has been conceived as a city of the five senses, with an area of 6000 sqm, offering thrills, restaurants and cocktail bars, an open-air terrace and a garden perched in the skies of New York, the highest in the Western hemisphere.
Created for people who are not afraid of heights, the LEVITATION skyboxes are glass cubes protruding from One Vanderbilt at an altitude of 300 meters, literally floating in the void.
For the fearless and entirely transparent elevator, including the floor, known as ASCENT, takes you directly to the terrace at a height of 360 meters, the highest vantage point in Manhattan.
Levitation, SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, New York
Other stops include the innovative food at the Sky Lounge APRÈS – with cocktails curated by the famous Danny Meyer – and the SUMMIT TERRACE from which to gaze at unprecedented views and a horizon that seems “infinite.”
Magic in the magic, the experiential installation AIR created by Kenzo Digital – artist and CEO of Kenzo Digital Immersive – in collaboration with SL Green Realty Corp., transforms the location into an unexpected destination, “another dimension in which to discover that time has been reorganized in a fluid way,” the artist says. “Through its boundless juxtapositions of forms, AIR encourages us to live in the present: calm, conscious and free.”
An art experience in continuing evolution, which starts with TRANSCENDENCE 1 where transparency and reflections create the illusion of a boundless, multi-faceted space; in AFFINITY, the installation becomes playful and interactive, physically connecting visitors to hundreds of reflecting spheres. TRANSCENDENCE 2, on the other hand, reveals a new perspective on the space below, while UNITY – supported by an impressive 75 sqm screen by Samsung – involves “voyagers,” transforming their portrait into a fascinating and mutable animated skyscape.
At night, AIR drastically changes its allure by means of lights and sounds that shift the ambience into an authentic beacon of energy visible throughout the city. “AIR is a love letter to New York – Kenzo Digital explains – an immersive artistic experience conceived as a living entity that breathes thanks to the multi-sensorial use of materials, sounds, lights and design. A story that evolves, drawing visitors deeper and deeper into the experience itself, until they finally become part of it.”
Photo © SUMMIT One Vanderbilt
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt
45 E 42nd St, New York
www.summitov.com
