Skyscraper Design Stacks a Beach, a Forest, and a Stadium in Times Square

Times Square 3015 is Blake Freitas, Grace Chen and Alexi Kararavokiris' mile-high vision for a future Manhattan tower.

March 27, 2015, 8:30pm

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What if you could go ziplining in a redwood forest and then take an elevator ride down to a beach, all inside of a building? A hundred years from now, a skyscraper in the heart of Times Square could hold both of these destinations, in addition to a stadium, mountain range, mall, and a city inside itself. At least that’s the concept proposed by Blake Freitas, Grace Chen and Alexi Kararavokiris, one that recently won an honorable mention in the eVolvo Skyscraper Competition. Their work, Times Squared 3015, truly takes vertical living to new heights—5,687 feet to be exact.

“This tower embraces the problems of overpopulation, farm production, oxygen generation, and the re-purposing of obsolete infrastructure,” the team explains in their pitch. They wanted a way to “fit an entire city within itself,” so they decided on a modular system, stacking residential spaces on top of natural environments on top of malls. A miniature city, they imagine, could grow inside the very top of the skyscraper.

“All of these factors combine to create a lively and dynamic self-sustaining city experience for a rapidly growing future population,” says Freitas, Chen and Kararavokiris. Though only a concept for now, the mile-long skyscraper is a fascinating vision for the future of Manhattan.