Observations on TurbinesAuthor(s): Julian RoseSource: Log, No. 3 (Fall 2004), p. 50Published by: Anyone CorporationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41765662 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 16:06

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Anyone Corporation is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Log.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.17 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:06:30 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Observations on Turbines

What does the proposed New York Jets football stadium have in common with the Freedom Tower? Wind turbines . In the

original design for WTC Tower One - now called the Freedom Tower -six to eight large wind turbines ( SO feet in diameter ) and JO to 40 smaller ones (if to 20 feet in diameter ) were distributed throughout the

building's exterior cable struc- ture. Their number and dimen- sions have since been called into question by the dramatic

resizing of the tower, but the turbines are nevertheless

increasingly part of its identity. Prominently featured in ren-

derings and publicity blurbs

and slated to supply 20 percent of the tower's electrical power, the turbines constitute what one project engineer describes as uthe world's first urban wind farm."

The }4 wind turbines of KPF's Jets stadium, each 40 feet tall and 12 feet in diameter, are described by its designers as the icon of the project. Indeed, the only striking feature on an otherwise box building is the double row of wind turbines, rising 250 feet above grade to crown the north and south facades. The turbines were to

generate enough energy to ren- der the stadium electrically self-sufficient, but this changed 50

when the building morphed from a mere football stadium, open for 1$ games ajear, into a k& component of the far more

energy-demanding New York

Sports and Convention Complex. New York mqy be the old

New Amsterdam, but what are all these windmills real(y doing here ? Efforts to develop new

energy sources are laudable, but will Environmental Impact Studies consider the impact of "environmentally correct " tur- bines on the city ? And is all this fanfare about wind tur- bines an attempt to answer the

question " Is it good design?"

with the non sequitur a It's

green design?" - Julian Rose

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.17 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:06:30 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions