UPDATE: One of the designers behind the project reached out to Curbed to clarify the project. The structure surrounding Central Park will in fact be habitable and have public and private spaces with unobstructed views and access to the Park. The 100-foot amount refers to the thickness of this structure. The 1000-foot glass walls will rise to street level, hence the Park would be dug extensively underground to reveal the bedrock below.
Could a New Yorker ever imagine Central Park being demolished and then surrounded by a giant glass wall on all sides? Well a couple of designers just did. What's more, their idea won first place in eVolo Magazine's 2016 Skyscraper Competition.
The project description isn't the most informative, but it seems like the winning duo, Yitan Sun and Jianshi Wu, want to get rid of the existing Central Park, lower the ground to reveal the existing bedrock underneath, and then erect a structure with 1000-foot walls with reflective glass that run all along the Park. It looks like they want to maintain the park in one form or another, but the renderings certainly bear no resemblance to the existing landscape. This glass wall would rise up to street level.
This 1000-foot superstructure would be 80 times bigger than the Empire State Building, and be habitable - used for public and private spaces. Those inside will have unobstructed views of the Park and access to it.
The idea behind the project was to "make Central Park available to more people," according to the designers.
With its highly reflective glass cover on all sides, the landscape inside the new park can reach beyond physical boundaries, creating an illusion of infinity. In the heart of New York City, a New Horizon is born.
And so it follows that the designers have called it New York Horizon. The second place finish in the competition would perhaps qualify as even more outlandish than the first: A skyscraper made out of drones.