This Skyscraping NYC Drone Tower Would Redefine Urban Air Traffic As We Know It

Say hello to the drone-scraper of your dreams.

Could the West's tallest tower become a drone hub?

If you’ve ever driven in New York City, you know what a daunting and expensive proposition parking can be. And we’re just thinking about land-based vehicles. How will that be vertically compounded as future proliferations of unmanned aerial vehicles require urban respite?

Designers Hadeel Ayed Mohammad, Yifeng Zhao and Chengda Zhu envision a lanky docking edifice. More specifically, their drone-tastic concept—which recently took second place in eVolo’s 2016 Skyscraper Competition—is a reenvisioning of 432 Park Ave, originally designed by Rafael Viñoly to be the tallest residential tower in the western hemisphere at 1,396 feet. (That’s slightly taller than NYC’s 1,362-foot-tall One World Trade Center, not including its spire, which brings its official height to 1,776 feet.)

An intricate facade of moving hydraulics, hinges and landing platforms
An intricate facade of moving hydraulics, hinges and landing platforms

With a dynamically moving, flexing, constantly reshaping facade, such a massive drone pod would be designed to meet the increasing needs of corporate users, delivery services and legislators looking to regulate all this aerial activity.


It’s either absolute genius or the beginning of the end. Or likely, both. The jury’s out on that one, most likely all hovering around in the taxis of tomorrow.

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