Vornado likely to keep Bjarke Ingels’ wave-like canopy design for 2 Penn Plaza overhaul

Instead of razing and redeveloping its 2 Penn Plaza office tower, Vornado Realty Trust said on Tuesday it will simply renovate the building. As Commercial Observer reported, the company’s CEO, Steven Roth, said earlier plans of demolishing the 31-story tower and grabbing 5 million square feet of development rights from Madison Square Garden to build a bigger tower, would not be feasible. Moving forward with option B, Vornado will likely stick with designs from Bjarke Ingels Group. More than two years ago, BIG revealed renderings that showed a wave-like canopy of glass panels that would envelope 2 Penn Plaza above the retail entrances on the ground floor.

During Vornado’s first-quarter earnings call, Roth said the revamp would include adding 300,000 square feet of space to the building through a donut-shaped addition. He described the renovation as “more actionable” than a total redevelopment and said the project is, “certainly well within the abilities of Vornado to finance off our balance sheet today.”

The renovations would not start for a couple of years, Roth noted. But Vornado will definitely stay busy with other Penn Plaza projects, including its $200 million expansion of 1 Penn Plaza later this year. The company is also teaming up with Related Companies to redevelop the Moynihan Train Hall at the site of the Farley Post Office site.

[Via Commercial Observer]

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All renderings via Bjarke Ingels Group