Some skyscraper designers are taking another, very different direction, and it appears first in the work of that great iconoclast, Frank Gehry. In the summer of 2000, Gehry took part in an invited competition for the new headquarters of the New York Times. He had never built a skyscraper, which may be why he teamed up with David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The Gehry/Childs 45-story tower is roughly square in plan, but the top erupts into sculptural mayhem that vaguely recalls the Times' logo. The effect is nothing like a spire; it's more a jack-in-the-box. Halfway down, the façades peel away from the building and slip to the sidewalk in rumpled confusion. This proposal was never built—Gehry withdrew from the competition—yet, for many architects, his unfettered design pointed toward a new way to think about tall buildings. Pandora's Box has been opened.