Excavation work has commenced for 29th & 5th, Bjarke Ingels Group‘s proposed skyscraper at 3 West 29th Street in NoMad. Excavators, piling machines, and other construction equipment are in use at the site, which is located just five blocks south of the Empire State Building. Developed by HFZ Capital Group, the future 34-story, 551-foot-tall office tower will yield 300,000 square feet and incorporate shear glass walls and staggered outdoor terraces along the eastern elevation.
Recent photos show activity on the property.
Looking up at the Empire State Building, which is only five blocks away. Photo by Michael Young
Looking north at the site of 29th & 5th. Photo by Michael Young
A number of construction machines are now working on all corners of the site. Photo by Michael Young
Work is currently in the very early stages, but excavation should progress to a considerable depth by the end of the year. The reinforced concrete foundations will follow next, and the structure will likely rise above street level in 2020. A centralized concrete core and structural steel shell is the most probable makeup of the superstructure.
Looking south at 3 West 29th Street, rendering by BIG
Though the tower will stand 37 feet shorter than its nearby residential neighbor, Sky House, the renderings from BIG show the new skyscraper dwarfing the neighboring structures, presumably through the use of forced perspective. Nonetheless, 29th & 5th will still make an architectural mark on the cityscape in this quickly rising neighborhood, and provide a foil to the Empire State Building. The Art-Deco masterpiece by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon has gracefully anchored and visually dominated the center of the Midtown skyline for the past 88 years.
A completion date for 29th & 5th has not been formally announced yet, but sometime in 2021 or 2022 seems likely.
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“Foil to the ESB”.. really?
Yeah that’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard…
3 W 29th: “I feel bad for you”
ESB: “I don’t think about you at all”
You would think B.I.G. would come up with something more visually striking. The first render is atrocious… Another glass box joining the skyline.
Another ugly super tall glass box.
I don’t see how you can mention this thing in the same breath as the iconic Empire State Building.
To say that this will be a foil to this great building is absurd on it’s face.
Re:foil “Foil” is not really a positive way to describe something. I think the author may have (accidentally) hit on the truth. Check the definition.
This new skyscraper will indeed be a “foil” to the Empire State Building – it will stand in marked contradiction to it, challenge it as in opposition, and be vastly different in appearance (Art Deco vs. International Style), in colors, in materials AND in height. Proximity means everything, if the new building were to be constructed on 60th and Park NO “foil” situation would exist, BUT located only five blocks from the Empire State Building suggests a “foil” condition certainly exists. GEEZ!
Exactly.
Just another eye-sore blotting out the view of the ESB from Madison Square Park. “The Art-Deco masterpiece” is under siege.
a big nothing of a building, and in comparison to the ESB, a real loser. I expected more from BIG.
Pretty typical and ugly box by “BIG DEAL”
A marketing firm that sells “BS” architecture
To the masses