In his book Spectacle, architect David Rockwell describes Times Square in New York as “one of the world’s most amazing outdoor rooms! Times Square is the intersection of theatre and motion. The architecture is a framework for change and transformation. And the transformation of urban to festive space is one of the primary characteristics of spectacle.” This sentiment is echoed in architecture practice Snøhetta’s proposal for reconstructing this congested area in Manhattan, streamlining the traffic around a multipurpose space that can function as both urban plaza and outdoor stage.

“We began looking at the site in the context of New York and quickly understood that the it is really about the signage and the billboards,” says Snøhetta’s landscape architect Misako Murata, who has worked on the project since it began. “Our tactic was not to add more, but rather to enhance the experience of being there, both as a New Yorker and as a tourist.” The resulting intervention on the space that sits at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue is a simple gesture: pedestrianising the area through the introduction of a singular clear surface that unifies the space through the use of pre-cast concrete paving.

The paving is repeated along the crosswalks where the pedestrianised zone of Broadway is dissected by 43rd, 44th and 45th street, which are all still vehicular roads. “This makes the entire bow tie-shaped zone appear both visually and experientially as one continuous plaza,” says project architect Nick Koster, “allowing visitors to focus on the signage and excitement that surrounds them.”

The New York Department of Design and Construction and the New York Department of Transportation selected Snøhetta to lead the reconstruction of Times Square in 2010. While the area is a popular entertainment and cultural venue within Manhattan, in recent years the increase of congestion and the deterioration of road, pavement and sewer infrastructure has left the space in need of an upgrade.

Snøhetta identified the main task as being to simplify and reduce the clutter occupying the space. “We were looking at how we could take the traffic signage, street lights and crossings, and consolidate them into a singular location while removing telephone booths and relocating trash cans and newspaper kiosks to create a really open space,” explains Koster. The goal was for the changes to feel subtle and minimal. “I think its something that you feel subconsciously when you’re walking through the site,” says Murata. “We tried to create a fluid connection between plazas so you really read the entire space as a single room with a single surface.”

In the past, the high volume of traffic passing through Times Square has made it feel more like a busy thoroughfare than a place to stop and look around. But in its initial research, Snøhetta found that a lot of people still tried to carve out space for themselves in the site. This discovery was translated into a series of oversized benches installed along the entire site. Measuring 50ft long by 5ft wide, “the benches are strategically located within the space to really provide directionality and frame the space,” says Koster. “People can appropriate a section of the bench however they choose - there are spaces for sitting and leaning. The back of the bench in some locations is at table height, so you can stand and eat a sandwich or have a conversation with someone and begin to look up at the signs of Times Square.”

The rush to complete the first phase of the project in time for New Year’s Eve meant that the benches still need to be installed for the phase to be complete. Like with any large project, there were multiple timeframe challenges, but Snøhetta describes itself as used to working on public projects with diverse user groups. The practice has previously created public works such as Stockholm's Nobel Center and Oslo's Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. “The first two years of the project were spent hosting meetings in our office where sometimes upward from 50 people would be sitting around the table and discussing their hopes, dreams and fears; each requirement by every different group was taken into consideration,” says Koster.

The complexity and scale of the $55m project led to it being broken up into different phases, each to redesign a specific plaza along Broadway, but with a consistent design strategy. “The work isn’t any different in any of the future phases,” says Koster. “But because the site is so large and around a quarter of a million to 300,000 people pass through the area on any given day, we needed to stagger the process to make sure businesses could still function.” In the end, “there was a certain inevitability to the design,” adds Murata. “Whether it’s the Naked Cowboy or a Black Eyed Peas concert, by transforming this space we’re creating something that everyone is really excited to make their own. Especially in a place like Times Square where it really is about the users and their activities.”

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