Urban planners have long been advocating the benefits of building dense retail and housing complexes around public transportation hubs. To fully justify this idea, designers Chad Kellogg and Matt Bowles of AMLGM have proposed a mixed use transportation hub called the ‘Urban Alloy Towers’. The towers will allow commuters to have easy access to rail links leading straight into Manhattan’s midtown and downtown business districts.
The proposed structure would be developed at the intersection of the Long Island Railroad and MTA 7 Train in the New York City borough of Queens.
Some of the salient features of this project:
- This project has put forward livable spaces in leftover sites surrounding transportation intersections, for example elevated train lines and freeways.
- This will not only offer convenient access to Manhattan but amenities for work, play and rest as well.
- Instead of concrete, these towers would use glass and steel to maximize the cantilever possibilities and daylight use.
- In residential space, there are luxury apartments on the upper floors and affordable housing lower down.
- Use of sound dampening tubes to negate noise from the trains.
- The surface allows the best possible use of shading and daylight at each grid intersection.
