Big has designed a four-tower complex in Manhattan, in the Midtown area overlooking the East River. Consisting of two hotel skyscrapers connected by a huge corner cantilever, and two other residential towers surrounding a public park designed by Ojb Landscape Architecture, the project has at its center the spiraling form of the Museum of Freedom and Democracy.

Situated on a 2.7-hectare lot, Freedom Plaza confronts two major significant points in New York City's urban ecosystem: the United Nations Secretariat Building – a project that brought together Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and Wallace K. Harrison – and the entrance to the Queens-Midtown tunnel.

The two 50-story skyscrapers housing the Banyan Tree and Mohegan hotels will be clad in warm-toned metallic finishes, reaching reach 187 meters in height, and in addition to the multi-story cantilevered corner bridge that will connect them, they will integrate a convention hall and an entertainment center with an underground play area.
The two residential towers will reach heights of 550 and 650 feet respectively, with 1,325 apartments, nearly 40% of which are dedicated to social housing. They will feature facades of glass and aluminum stripes, reminiscent of the typical modernist language of New York buildings of the 1950s and 1960s.

An underground semicircular podium will connect the two towers at the base, with a supermarket and various commercial spaces. Above, there will be a 1.9-hectare park, with a dog run, a children’s playground, and a covered space among curved paths, inspired by the nearby UN headquarters. “When Le Corbusier, Niemeyer, and Harrison designed the UN Secretariat Building, they grafted an oasis of international modernism onto the dense urban grid of Manhattan, creating a park on the river framed by towers and pavilions,” said Bjarke Ingels. “With our design for Freedom Plaza, we continue to build on these architectural principles by uniting three city blocks to form a public green space reaching from 1st Avenue to the East River overlook, creating a green connection all the way to the water’s edge”.

The Museum of Freedom and Democracy at the center of the park, informed by a Möbius strip, will host at its center an open-air amphitheater. “The museum forms a spiraling and infinite geometry over the amphitheater as a symbol of unity and takes cues from the traditional Greek theatre as a nod to those who created democracy thousands of years ago,” said the project team.