New York skyscraper opens today

Foster and Partners' new addition to the New York skyline - the 46-storey HQ tower for the Hearst Corporation - officially opens today. Its crystalline form rises above Joseph Urban's existing six-storey Art Deco building, realising founder William Randolph Hearst's original vision and reinforcing the vibrant media hub at Columbus Circle. Hearst Tower is the first occupied commercial building in New York City to achieve a LEED 'Gold Rating' (under the US Green Buildings Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Program). It will enable one of America's largest publishing companies to consolidate 2,000 of its New York City employees in one location.

Norman Foster said: "The completion of the Hearst Tower is a defining moment for New York. It represents great optimism and a sign of more good things to come after the trauma of the city's recent history."

The Hearst Corporation's drive to create an improved workplace is articulated by the building's light-filled, environmentally progressive status. Designed to consume significantly less energy than a conventional New York office building, Hearst Tower is utilising outside air ventilation for up to 75% of the year and is a model of sustainable office design.

Unlike a traditionally framed structure, the tower has a triangulated form. With its corners peeled back, the effect emphasises the building's vertical proportions and creates a distinctive facetted silhouette on the skyline that reveals unique views across the Manhattan grid. Requiring 20% less steel - 85% of which is recycled - it is also more efficient than a conventional tower.

Establishing a creative dialogue between old and new, the tower is linked to the existing building by a transparent skirt of glass which floods the spaces below with natural light, giving the impression of a glass tower floating weightlessly above. The main spatial event is a vast internal plaza - an 'urban room' - that occupies the entire shell of the historic base. This dramatic space, surrounded by the original windowed masonry walls, creates a bold entrance that echoes the tone and texture of the Art Deco exterior to evoke a sense of the civic realm. Providing access to all parts of the building, it is the social heart of the Hearst community, incorporating 'Café 57', the Joseph Urban Theatre and exhibition spaces. For designated events it also becomes a public space.