Dive Brief:
- New York–based Five Points Development is planning to build a "skinny" supertall residential tower in Manhattan, according to Dezeen. The architecture firm behind the design is Moscow-based Meganom.
- The skyscraper will rise 1,001 feet, and according to Bisnow, there will be one condominium per floor or one condo for every two floors. The roof of the building will feature a viewing deck, and the first two floors are reserved for 11,000 square feet of retail space.
- This is Meganom's first foray into the U.S. market, although it has taken on significant projects in Russia, like the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts extension and Kremlin Museum renovation.
Dive Insight:
The Manhattan tower will include north- and south-facing floor-to-ceiling windows and column-free floor plans, which will be made possible by running the mechanical systems up one side of the building, rather than utilizing a core design. Project officials called this design strategy "unprecedented" in New York City.
The new tower will join other New York City supertalls, like the $3 billion One Vanderbilt, which are tweaking the city skyline project by project. When complete, One Vanderbilt will feature 1.6 million square feet of Class A commercial space, a public transit hall and a 14,000-square-foot public plaza.
Developer SL Green started construction on the 1.7-million-square-foot skyscraper in October of last year after it settled a legal dispute over the value of air rights with the owner of Grand Central Station, Midtown TDR Ventures. Midtown and SL Green were in negotiations for air rights when the city rezoned the area, leaving Midtown out of the deal. As part of New York City’s public review process, SL Green agreed to privately fund $220 million worth of public transit improvements in and around the Grand Central Terminal transit network.
Thomas Leslie, professor of architecture at Iowa State University, told Construction Dive last year that developers like Five Points are overcoming lack of building space by going taller within a smaller footprint, with "skinny" skyscrapers as a result.