Brooklyn Tower vs One Vanderbilt

Comparing the Brooklyn Tower and the One Vanderbilt is interesting because they both stand in New York, NY, and were completed within 3 years of each other, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

These two towers present an interesting contrast in their proportions. The One Vanderbilt rises higher at 1401ft (427m), while the Brooklyn Tower reaches 1033ft (315m). However, the Brooklyn Tower accommodates more floors with 74 levels above ground, compared to 67 floors in the One Vanderbilt.

This suggests different approaches to interior space design. The One Vanderbilt has an average floor-to-floor height of approximately 6.4m, while the Brooklyn Tower has more compact floors averaging around 4.3m each. The taller building's more generous floor heights might indicate grander interior spaces, higher ceilings, or different programmatic requirements.

These different proportions likely reflect the specific needs each building was designed to serve, whether driven by zoning regulations, client requirements, or the intended use of the spaces within. The contrast shows how architects can achieve different spatial experiences even when working with similar overall building scales.

Both the Brooklyn Tower and the One Vanderbilt were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Contemporary style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both SHoP Architects and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Brooklyn Tower is primarily residential, while the One Vanderbilt is primarily commercial.

The Brooklyn Tower offers 550 residential units.

The two towers rely on different structural systems, reflecting distinct engineering strategies.

The Brooklyn Tower uses a Frame structural system, which relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight, while the One Vanderbilt uses a Trussed Frame system, that uses diagonal bracing in addition to beams and columns for stability.

Yet, when it comes to their facade, they both employed the same solution, a Curtain Wall facade.

A curtain wall is a non-load-bearing facade hung from the structural frame. It is anchored to floor slabs and transfers only its own weight and wind loads, allowing for sleek, glassy exteriors.