Green 'ribbon' for Manhattan skyscraper

NEW YORK • Real estate company Tishman Speyer unveiled a design by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels for a 65-storey skyscraper in Manhattan's Hudson Yards area that will have a spiral of landscaped terraces wrapping around its facade, allowing for outdoor space on every floor above its six-storey base.

The tower, to be called the Spiral at 66 Hudson Boulevard, will rise 306m and contain 2.85 million sq ft of floor space, Tishman Speyer said in a statement on Monday.

Situated a block east of the northern terminus of Manhattan's High Line park, once an abandoned train trestle, the design will form "an ascending ribbon of lively green spaces, extending the High Line into the skyline", Ingels said in a video posted on the website for the project.

The tower is Tishman Speyer's entrant in the race to extend the Midtown business district west towards the Hudson River.

Related Cos is leading development in the area with its 11.3ha Hudson Yards project, built mostly over a railroad yard that serves nearby Pennsylvania Station.

Three skyscrapers are rising at that site. Moinian Group is planning a tower close to Tishman Speyer's site, to be called 3 Hudson Boulevard.

An artist impression of the upcoming Spiral in Manhattan. PHOTO: BJARKE INGELS' INSTAGRAM

Tishman Speyer - which operates Manhattan's Rockefeller Center, Chrysler Building and MetLife Building - said it has obtained more than US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion) of equity for the project from a group of unidentified international investors.

Ingels, 41, is one of the world's most sought-after architects. His New York projects include a pyramid-shaped apartment tower on 57th Street near the West Side Highway. The 2 World Trade Center project designed by Ingels suffered a setback last month when 21st Century Fox Inc and News Corp Inc pulled out.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 13, 2016, with the headline Green 'ribbon' for Manhattan skyscraper. Subscribe