Austrian Cultural Forum Tower

fotografie: Robert Polidori

"My intention with the building was to resolve the extreme condition of smallness of the site, its void, its lateral compression." R.Abraham

The Austrian Cultural Forum tower in midtown Manhattan provides a state-of-the art home for an institution devoted to international cultural exchange. The building is the first major United States project for Austrian-born New York architect Raimund Abraham, whose design was selected in an open competition hosted by the Republic of Austria from among 226 participating architects in 1992. Facilities of the Forum tower include exhibition galleries; a flexible theater for performances, screenings, and lectures; a library; loft-like presentation areas and seminar rooms; reception and meeting spaces; staff offices; a multi-level residence for the Forum's director; and an open-air loggia at the tower's pinnacle. Occupying the diminutive (25 feet wide by 81 feet deep) mid-block site of the institution’s former townhouse, the new building rises to a 24-story height with the authority of a landmark, expressing the contextual relevance of both the architecture and the Forum’s mission to connect European and American creative visions.