The man responsible for making the New York Times building the world’s largest ladder, Renzo Piano, didn’t expect climbers to abuse his design: “I’m frankly quite worried about this new fashion of going up on buildings,” Mr. Piano said in the interview. “This is what I call an inappropriate use of the building.” |NYT|
The ceramic tubes on the exterior of the New York Times were not designed to assist activist, copycat, book promoting climbers, but as a sustainable architectural design to help cool the building. But with the ladder-like facade giving easy access to would be activists—three in the past five weeks—a decision was made to remove some of the ceramic, energy saving tubes, reducing the building’s environmental efficiency and making a mess of Renzo Piano’s original design. |CityRoom|
Late last night, Al Qaeda researching author David Malone became the third person to scale the New York Times building. After the success of the French Spiderman and a copycat climber in June, Malone made his way up the jungle gym-like building a little after 1AM, unfurling a banner to promote his book: “Bin Laden’s Plan.” He was also able to stick some promo flyers on windows featuring an image of Bin Laden controlling a George Bush puppet, which also happens to be the book’s cover art, an image that not even the continually updating City Room has produced. Here’s some great photos of the literary promoting aftermath.
Photo: |Nedward|
Alain Robert the world renowned activist-climber aka the French Spiderman who recently climbed the New York Times Building, walked away with a slap on his wrist: two charges of disorderly conduct. Robert was able to convince the grand jury that neither his life nor the public’s was in jeopardy: “Mr. Robert told the jurors that he handed out fliers before his climb, warning people to stay away from the building, and that he tested the strength of the rods at night beforehand.” |NYT|
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Check out these striking architectural drawings of the New York Times Building which has been likened to a giant jungle gym. The building’s “low-emissivity glass” windows are shielded by ladder-like ceramic tubes that help reduce heat buildup and also make free climbing the facade relatively easy as demonstrated yesterday, twice! But the exterior tubes aren’t just for environmental reasons: “The ceramic tubes provide an aesthetic bonus, taking on the changing color of the sky during the course of the day as light diffuses through them from different angles. Above the top of the building, the screen of tubes becomes less dense, and its lace-like appearance will permit a view of roof garden foliage.”
This just in: someone else is trying to scale the New York Times Building. The man is reported to be about 1/3 of the way up. Just hours earlier, the French Spiderman climbed to the top, amidst lots of fanfare, and was arrested after climbing 52 stories. From what we hear authorities have cordoned off the area and news trucks are already on the scene. As soon as we get some images we’ll be posting. Apparently the Times’ building has become the new staging ground for publicity-stunting artists and activists. Close-up pic of the panting climber after the jump. Update: The City Room reports that he’s been arrested by police after reaching the top. He identified himself as Renaldo Clarke of Brooklyn and was wearing a t-shirt with the word “malaria” printed on it.
Photos: Anthony Macaluso (Click images to enlarge)
Check out these exclusive pictures of free climbing activist Alain Robert aka the French Spiderman, scaling the New York Times Building around 12:15pm today without any gear. They were taken from the 47th floor offices of investment firm ClearBridge Advisors. Robert hopes the publicity stunt will bring awareness to global warming or something, comparing it to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, “Around the 10th floor he put up a banner saying, “Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week.” Robert was eventually apprehended by police when he reached the top of the 52-story building. More flicks of the daredevil in action after the jump.
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