See the Final Booklets 2014

_{“Vertical Terminal” by Yiyun Lu, Xiaoyu Liu, Zhiyun Yang, and Ao Li, created a new transportation infrastructure on the building facade to resolve current challenges in the accesibility of NYC's airports .}

Currently, Grand Central is the terminus of New York’s “Metro-North” commuter railroad lines, which go to all suburban points north of the city in both New York State and Connecticut.  In 1991, “Amtrak” Intercity train services were moved to New York’s other major train hub, “Pennsylvania Station.” Though significantly smaller than Grand Central, Penn Station is the busiest rail hub in the United States. In addition to Amtrak service, Penn Station is currently the terminal for both “New Jersey Transit” (a commuter rail network serving points west of the city) and the “Long Island Railroad” (a commuter rail network serving points east of the city). 

The block of older mid-rise buildings immediately to the west of the Grand Central, bounded by Madison Avenue to the west, 42nd Street to the south, Vanderbilt Avenue to the east and 43rd Street to the North has been found to be a particularly promising site for up-zoning as it will sit directly atop the terminal platforms of the East Side access project and form the western gateway to the entire of Terminal City. In 2014, SL Green announced an agreement with the city to construct One Vanderbilt, a 1480 ft (450m) tall office tower, designed by KPF. The building will be the first new tower in a generation to arise near Grand Central.

One Vanderbilt offers a unique opportunity to push vertical urbanism truly into the third dimension. The tower can leverage its location at the heart of mid-town Manhattan and its proximity to one of the most diverse and crucial networks of public space and transit in the city to introduce meaningful public space into its section while adapting to the unique challenges of building vertically in an already dense, confined and historically sensitive site. The students were tasked to develop a tower that pushes the boundaries of what it means to build a truly “three-dimensional city” – mixing programs, encouraging extremely density, and introducing meaningful public space strategically throughout the building.