Flying slightly under NYC’s media radar—but not for long—the Danish architectural firm BIG: Bjarke Ingles Group, is now placing its first spire into the city’s skyline.

W57, a residential/mixed use building, commissioned by Durst Organization, is rising alongside the Hudson River Greenway at 57^th Street.

While it is not competing for height with other towers along the midtown thoroughfare, W57 is a midrise tower that will offer spectacular views of the Hudson River; a courtyard park for residence; and amenities including an indoor basketball court, pool, cinema room and golf simulator. 

Unlike its neighboring towers sitting on boxes, with glitzy facades the only design element to speak of, W57's tetrahedral ziggurat with terraced fenestration is the real draw. 

W57's South facade. Photo: Field Condition.

Recently named by Fast Company one of The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Architecture, BIG employs playful strategies for solving serious problems. From including a ski slope atop a waste recycling plant in in Denmark to the Dryline, which includes an artist-designed flood wall along Manhattan’s Lower Manhattan waterfront, Ingles urges his design team to always attempt to invent a new typology.

In an interview for The New Yorker, he said that his mantra, “Yes Is More,” involves “being critical by putting forward alternatives rather than spending all your energy whining about the alternatives you don’t like.”

 
View South from W57. Photo: Field Condition.

Included here are construction photographs of W57 from the intriguing Field Condition website. In addition, an exhibition of the work of BIG: Bjarke Ingles Group continues at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., with Ingles scheduled to speak there on April 15^th. Information. 

Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptiation, The National Building Museum, 401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C.

The accompanying book, Hot to Cold, designed by Sagmeister & Walsh, is available from Taschen.

Watch Bjarke Ingles unbox some books here.

W57, view North from Hudson River Greenway. Photo: Field Condition.