Tall & Urban News

Possibly the final design for 520 West 41st Street, located in Midtown West between Eleventh Avenue and Galvin Avenue, has been revealed. Silverstein Properties, the owner, has hired CetraRuddy Architecture to design the estimated one million square foot (92,903 square-meter) mixed-use project consisting of two glass towers atop a substantial retail podium. Leeding Builders Group will be the project manager.

The two towers will be enclosed in curtain walls of glass. The shorter tower features several landscaped interstitial spaces that break up the monolithic profile into multi-level volumes. A large podium section with several high-floor ceilings appears to occupy the lower levels, likely to become commercial retail space. The structures should make a substantial impact on the western portion of the Midtown skyline, and recent submissions to the FAA indicate the taller building will stand 758 feet (231 meters) to its rooftop. A swimming pool can also be seen on the rooftop plans of the lower floors.

This is the last full-block parcel that sits adjacent to the westbound side of the Lincoln Tunnel. Silver Towers, the twin glass towers owned by Silverstein, are located at 620 West 42nd Street, and were one of the first tall projects to rise in the neighborhood 10 years ago. Other relatively tall skyscrapers around the vicinity include Extell’s 555Ten, across the street to the east.

The 520 West 41st Street address was once home to a large Mercedes-Benz showroom and dealership, which was demolished in 2015 after Silverstein Properties purchased the site for US$115 million. Several building massing studies and design changes followed thereafter.

One of the most noteworthy proposed schemes was for a 106-story mixed-use tower that would have brought 1,400 units to the area, with 30 percent of the homes being affordable. The skyscraper was proposed to rise 1,110 feet (338 meters) high, but the project stalled out during the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).

In 2014, Oppenheim Architecture + Design’s came up with its vision for the property. Known as 514 Eleventh Avenue, the design called for a pair of offset residential skyscrapers with a diagonally connecting member at the top. This would have formed an angled frame-shaped profile with a row of sleek vertical lines, highlighting the abstract geometric construct of the building.

So far, a start date of 2020 has been proposed, but no official word has yet been given by Silverstein Properties of an actual timeline or a year of completion.

For more on this story go to New York YIMBY.