Danish architects Bjarke Ingels
Group have designed a residential building for Manhattan,
New York, with a rectangular plan pulled up at one corner to
form a triangular tower.
Called West 57th, the 600-apartment block will be organised
around a central courtyard, providing residents with views of
the Hudson River.
The sloping roof will rise to a peak of 467 ft and its
surface will be punctured by roof terraces.
The other three façades will comprise balconies and bay
windows serving each of the apartments.
Construction is due for completion in 2016.
DURST FETNER RESIDENTIAL SELECTS BIG TO DESIGN 600-UNIT
RESIDENTIAL BUILDING ON W57TH STREET
West 57th, designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, introduces an
entirely new residential typology to New York City that will add
an inviting twist to the Manhattan Skyline.
Durst Fetner Residential (DFR) today announced the design of
West 57, a 600-unit 80/20 residential building on West 57th
Street between 11th and 12th Avenues.
The building is designed by renowned Danish Architect firm
BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and is their inaugural North American
project. The building’s program consists of over 600 residential
units of different scales situated on a podium with a cultural
and commercial program.
The building will strive for LEED Gold Certification. “It’s
extraordinarily exciting to build a building whose architecture
will attract visitors from around the globe,” said, Hal Fetner,
CEO of Durst Fetner Residential.
“BIG’s design is innovative, evocative and unique and the
building’s beauty is matched only by its efficient and
functional design that preserves existing view corridors while
maximizing the new building’s access to natural light and views
of the Hudson River.
West 57th will establish a new standard for architectural
excellence and its creative design, sustainable-construction and
operations, breathtaking views and distinctive amenities will
make it New York’s most sought after residential address.”
The building is a hybrid between the European perimeter block
and a traditional Manhattan high-rise.
West 57th has a unique shape which combines the advantages of
both: the compactness and efficiency of a courtyard building
providing density, a sense of inti- macy and security, with the
airiness and the expansive views of a skyscraper.
By keeping three corners of the block low and lifting the
north-east corner up towards its 467 ft peak, the courtyard
opens views towards the Hudson River, bringing low western sun
deep into the block and graciously preserving the adjacent
Helena Tower’s views of the river.
“New York is rapidly becoming an increasingly green and
livable city.
The transformation of the Hudson River waterfront and the
Highline into green parks, the ongoing effort to plant a million
trees, the pedestrianization of Broadway and the creation of
more miles of bicycle lanes than the entire city of my native
Copenhagen are all evidence of urban oases appearing all over
the city.
With West 57th we attempt to continue this transformation
into the heart of the city fabric – into the center of a city
block,” Bjarke Ingels, Founder, BIG.
The form of the building shifts depending on the viewer’s
vantage point. While appearing like a warped pyramid from the
West-Side-Highway, it turns into a slender spire from West 58th
Street.
The courtyard which is inspired by the classic Copenhagen
urban oasis can be seen from the street and serves to extend the
adjacent greenery of the Hudson River Park into the West 57th
development.
“The building is conceived as a cross breed between the
Copenhagen courtyard and the New York skyscraper. The communal
intimacy of the central urban oasis meets the efficiency,
density and panoramic views of the tall tower in a new hybrid
typology. The courtyard is to architecture what Central Park is
to urbanism: a giant green garden surrounded by a dense wall of
spaces for living”, Bjarke Ingels, Founder, BIG.
The slope of the building allows for a transition in scale
between the low-rise structures to the south and the high-rise
residential towers to the north and west of the site. The highly
visible sloping roof consists of a simple ruled surface
perforated by terraces— each one unique and south-facing.
The fishbone pattern of the walls are also reflected in its
elevations. Every apartment gets a bay window or a balcony to
amplify the benefits of the generous view and balconies which
encourage interaction between residents and passers-by.
DFR commissioned Copenhagen based BIG in the spring of 2010
to introduce a new residential typology to Manhattan. As of 2011
BIG has opened a new office in New York in order to oversee the
development and upcoming construction of West 57th.
W57 DATA
PROJECT: West 57th Street
CLIENT: Durst Fetner Residential
ARCHITECT: BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group SIZE: 870,000 ft2 (80,000 m2)
LOCATION: Manhattan, New York, USA
STATUS: Direct Commission
COLLABORATORS: SLCE Architects (Architect of Record) , Starr
Whitehouse Landscape Architects, Thornton Tomasetti (Sturctural),
Dagher Engineering(MEP), Langan Engineering (Civil), Hunter
Roberts (Construction Manager), Philip Habib & Assoc.
(Transportation), Israel Berger & Assoc. (Building Envelope),
Nancy Packes (Marketing), Van Deusen & Assoc. (Vertical
Transportation), Cerami & Assoc. (Acoustical), CPP (Wind), AKRF
(Environmental), German Glessner (Renderings & Animation)
Partner in Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Project Leader: Beat Schenk
Project Architect: Sören Grünert
Team: Thomas Christoffersen, Celine Jeanne, Daniel Sundlin,
Alessandro Ronfini, Aleksander Tokarz, Alessio Valmori, Alvaro
Garcia Mendive, Felicia Guldberg, Gabrielle Nadeau, Ho Kyung
Lee, Julian Liang, Julianne Gola, Lucian Racovitan, Marcela
Martinez, Maria Nikolova, Minjae Kim, Mitesh Dixit, Nicklas
Rasch, Riccardo Mariano, Stanley Lung, Steffan Heath, Thilani
Rajarathna, Xu Li
