Tishman Speyer’s BIG Supertall Spiral Officially Breaks Ground, Hudson Yards

Daylight rendering of the skyline featuring 66 Hudson Boulevard. Credit: BIG/Tishman Speyer.Daylight rendering of the skyline featuring 66 Hudson Boulevard. Credit: BIG/Tishman Speyer.

The prominence of the Hudson Yards district continues to grow, and today, Tishman Speyer has announced the official start of construction for The Spiral. The 1,031-foot tall building will be the fifth supertall added to the area. An event to mark the occasion will be held this afternoon, and will conclude with the planting of a 20-foot Alaskan Cedar tree to serve as Hudson Boulevard & Park’s annual Christmas tree.

Rendering of 66 Hudson Boulevard showing cascading terraces. Credit: BIG/Tishman Speyer

Tishman Speyer originally paid $438 million for the site, and is expected to spend $3.2 billion on the tower. The supertall office building will yield 2.8 million square feet. Its anchor tenant, Pfizer, will occupy 18 floors.

Rendering of 66 Hudson Boulevard. Credit: BIG/Tishman Speyer.

Rendering of 66 Hudson Boulevard. Credit: BIG/Tishman Speyer.

BIG’s head architect Bjarke Ingels spoke to his desired goal, saying the building is, “designed for the people who occupy it. The Spiral ensures that every floor of the tower opens up to the outdoors creating hanging gardens and cascading atria that connect the open floor plates from the ground floor to the summit into a single uninterrupted workspace.”

Hudson Yards from 53 West 53rd Street, image by Andrew Campbell Nelson

Hudson Yards from 53 West 53rd Street, image by Andrew Campbell Nelson

The site is right beside Hudson Yards, which has reactivated Midtown West with the largest development project in American history. Along with the Related Company’s $25 billion mega-development, construction is moving forward for Manhattan West and 50 Hudson Boulevard.

Aerial rendering showing 66 Hudson Boulevard. Credit: BIG/Tishman Speyer.

Permits were filed for The Spiral site in 2015. Approval was recently granted, in February of 2018, and completion is projected for 2022.

 

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13 Comments on "Tishman Speyer’s BIG Supertall Spiral Officially Breaks Ground, Hudson Yards"

  1. Please pardon me for using your space: Sound the alarm if someone doesn’t like progress. (Not me)

  2. Is this the site where the Hudson Spire was marketed?

  3. Is the aim of this ziggurat to climb up to Heaven and confront God? Please clarify.

    • Which God? Please clarify.

      • Hopefully not the god of Jeff Jim Crow Sessions, who claims the twittering & traitorous Trump presidency was ordained by god and therefore can do no wrong, as it snatches toddlers from their mother seeking asylum at the border while it cozies up to dictators across the globe.

  4. The first rendering shows the Spiral in splendid isolation. The reality is much different, isn’t it?

    • No doubt the first rendering is not meant to deceive.
      What self-respecting real estate developer would ever do that?
      Instead, that first rendering is merely an existential comment, a literal illustration, of the fact that in a crowded & often callous city like New York you can be part of a crowd and still be lonely as hell…

      • Howard Miller | June 19, 2018 at 11:47 am | Reply

        I ❤️ your comment!

        So perfectly captures everything and expresses so much that’s so true about our city’s real estate (robber) barrons and life for the rest of us ordinary folks who live and work “in our fair city” ? – spot on!

  5. Howard Miller | June 19, 2018 at 11:17 am | Reply

    Here’s hoping that the building itself looks much better than the renders do (as is happening with 35 Hudson Yards!) as the last thing this emerging vast wasteland (so far except for 35, the Vessel, Shed and Highline Park) of exceptionally disappointing architecture needs (with 30 Hudson Yards already the Fugliest supertall in the world…) is yet another Fugly supertall.

    C’mon folks…we cannot possibly claim to be the “Capital of the World” with the mostly third rate, insipid architecture as we’re seeing in most of our skyline defining Supertalls – or worse full-on Fuglies like 30 Hudson Yards (a building so irredeemably fugly one wishes it was never built at all before it even tops off…)

    Our skline is as much a representation of our aspirations and creativity, as it is a testament to art, beauty, technological innovation/prowess and commerce.

    And when compared to world class citiies around the world, be they in so-called post-industrial nations or in countries seeking to stake their claim on the world’s stage, the buildings rising in NYC now and in recent years are falling DESPERATELY SHORT of what’s seen being built elsewhere.

    For example, where’s our 21st Century versions of Grand Central Terminal, the Woolworth Building, the Williamsburg Bank Building, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center or the Twin Towers, just to name a few architectural gems and iconic buildings that (except perhaps for the Williamsburg Bank Building) were instantly recognized by people around the world as our city’s unique, and until recently, unmatched signature skyline?

    Certainly NOT happening in Hudson Yards (so far) – that’s for sure…

  6. I hate that it’s called The Spiral and isn’t round/cylindrical. This is more like “The Continuous Stepper”

  7. Howard Miller, I totally share your sentiments. What I find beyond comprehension are critics of Robert A. M. Stern’s work. Were it not for his towers, NYC’s skyline(s) would truly be insipid box walls of glass.

  8. I like what is being done here. While I agree with Howard Miller above that the architecture could be a bit more interesting, I do not agree that it is bad. It is on 28 acres. It is the biggest development of its kind. I would love to see some of the 1900s kind of inspired designs, but who is doing that anymore? All I hear is “construction costs are too expensive.”

    The real reason I was writing this is the deceptive initial image presented. It shows this building standing on its own, as if Hudson Yards did not even exist. The fact is, this building does not exist today, but a large portion of Hudson Yards does. To show it with the Empire State Building in the back as the only tall building is a JOKE! Manhattan West is also topping out. All of these buildings are clearly in the frame of this. It is a stupid parlor trick to make the building look more impressive and it is insulting to the readers. Shame on you for doing that. It is a good building on its merits. Don’t screw that up by making am image that is literally impossible to ever exist.

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