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Design Category
Corporate communications design, 2003
Design firm
Pentagram (New York, New York)
Collection
(2004) AIGA 365: 25
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The New York Times Company will occupy only one half of the new landmark building designed for it by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano on Manhattan’s West Side. The other half will be leased to a very limited number of corporate tenants. Our client, developer Forest City Ratner Companies, wanted to separate the building from other, less distinguished buildings in the same neighborhood by presenting it as a new icon, the first great piece of New York architecture in the twenty-first century.
To promote the building, rather than create a slick marketing piece, we chose to document the elements that went into the design process: work sessions, sketches and study models. Almost all text is drawn from verbatim quotes by Piano and other project participants. Journalistic photography is used. There is no hard sell. The honest approach to content works in counterpoint to the quality of the printing: high-grade paper bound with French folds, a silkscreened translucent slipcase. The goal was to establish a sense of importance about the building without making the typical extravagant claims.
Pacing and organization is deliberate and easy to follow, seems almost effortless. Great architectural aspects of the piece, nicely merged into the design.
“They knew how to stay out of the way.” Cheryl Heller