On the heels of YIMBY’s reveal of official renderings for Project Commodore, a 1,646-foot supertall project at 175 Park Avenue in Midtown East, we’ve collected a number of illustrations that showcase Midtown’s future tallest structure’s impact on the New York skyline. Designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill and developed by RXR Realty and TF Cornerstone, the 83-story skyscraper is planned to rise from the site of the Grand Hyatt New York and yield 500 Hyatt hotel rooms on the upper floors spanning 453,000 square feet; 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground and cellar levels; and 2.1 million square feet of office space.
The black-and-white freehand drawing above shows Project Commodore from the northeast set among the Midtown skyline. The setbacks gradually pull back the massing of the edifice further from the edges of its massive footprint, and the tower culminates in a flat roof parapet with crown featuring a lattice of steel columns wrapped in light-colored panels. The rest of the superstructure will largely be enclosed in floor-to-ceiling glass wedged between vertical columns that run nearly the entire height of the 175 Park Avenue from its intricately designed base, which incorporates a similar lattice pattern that would form columns fanning out from each of the four corners. Other completed supertalls featured in the drawing include the Art Deco Chrysler Building to Project Commodore’s east, Kohn Pedersen Fox’s One Vanderbilt to the west, and 30 Hudson Yards rising on the opposite side of the island.
YIMBY user rgarri4 also recently posted several digital renderings on YIMBY’s forum page, showing Project Commodore’s presence looking north and south as it towers above the Manhattan skyline. The supertall is also joined by nearly every structure currently proposed and under construction. The renderings show the row of new office supertalls along Park Avenue, the Penn District, Manhattan West, Hudson Yards’ completed first phase, as well as several more towers spread across NoMad and other parts of Midtown. The final rendering is a nighttime view oriented northward with the Chrysler Building and One Vanderbilt illuminated beside it.
Looking north. Rendering by rgarri4
Looking north at the entire Midtown skyline. Rendering by rgarri4
Looking south above Central Park
Looking north at nighttime. Rendering by rgarri4
175 Park Avenue is slated to be completed in 2030 if the anticipated 18-month long demolition of the Grand Hyatt New York and actual construction of SOM’s supertall goes according to plan. The next step is approval through the Uniform Land Use Review Process that is set to wrap up by the end of this year, followed by a public review in the spring.
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From top to the squat bottom, it’s way too big and ungainly no matter how refined the detailing. This doesn’t improve anything but the bank accounts of its developers.
Why do you pollute this site daily with your obsessive trolling?
Why are you obsessed with someone expressing their opinion? It’s harmless and you can choose to not read it.
Why do you feel the need to police the comment section and scold people for calling out convicted troll “David in Bushwick”? “Jermaine” is doing the Lord’s work.
David actually loves super-tall office buildings, but he made a deal with the Devil and lost.
Now he’s cursed to post at least one deranged comment per day on his favorite projects until the day he dies.
Seldom agree with you, but in this case, you’re right 100%, this is too big, it’s too monstrosity, nothing positive, except being destroy the command position of Crand Central Terminal and Chrysler Building. It’s POS on skyline, nothing else.
there was a time when the Chrysler building was considered a monstrosity, and the ESB too…both art deco giants casting their shadows over Victorian architecture of the late 19th century. It is not too big, it is an office building, it will meet the future needs of the great metropolis.
A lot of people seek to project contemporary opposition to modern architecture onto the past to suggest that people just always hate change. However, it isn’t true. People did not find the Chrysler Building or ESB ugly when they were completed. They were celebrated.
ok so tell me then how are people like, oh i dk, random example, parents going to pay for their kids to live a carefree artist lifestyle in bushwick, if not for new offices like this one to draw in and keep businesses?
Fantastic illustration! So excited for this project, building will look incredible at night.
NYC needs middke income housing. There is no need fir commercial rental space. Seems unnecessary. Hopefully no tax breaks were given.
Curious why you feel that this has an impact on housing? Isn’t that for the developers to determine? Currently there is a hotel occupying this plot of land, so it’s not like the project is taking away housing. And this is in a business district, not a residential district. Final thought, this is next to a mass transit, so why would you place a residential building here?
Because it’s easy to post nonsense on a web forum, and not think for a second why an office building would get built next to the second busiest train station in the United States.
LOL… I think you nailed it!
Another monument to human vanity at the Earth’s expense. A phallic, dead end architectural anemia masked as penile palace. A bland behemoth, all facade and signifying nothing.
At the Earth’s expense’…it is a skyscraper in a metropolis of skyscrapers. ‘What would you prefer to see on the facade, gargoyles at every setback?
I complained about salesforce tower in San Francisco as it went up. But once finished with its changing art display o learned to accept it. As I will this one along with one Vanderbilt
Those of us from the really old school used to complain in the 70’s about how the Transamerica Building and Embarcadero Center development were leading to the ‘Manhattanization’ of downtown SF; the former is now an SF icon and the latter is almost an afterthought as development has moved south of Market. Based on the developments of the last year, SF probably has enough office space for a decade’s worth of growth without anything else springing up. The geological reality is that everything east of the Bank of America is built on fill, and we may have to learn to accept nature’s verdict
“Nature’s verdict”: Also known as an high-magnitude earthquake.
this one has a much better base than salesforce, as does one vandy, which is the part of it most of us will interact with. at least i think they will per the renders.
I love a good super tall but this is just ugly and clunky to me… where’s the whimsy and modernity of the design? Hopefully there will be some updated renderings
clunky is a building that cantilevers out in all directions at its top…wtf is that about? Is that considered clever design…
ask old harry macklowe thats not this building.
These super-large office towers are just never going to be built at this scale. There is a severe lack of demand for new space – and the current glut will continue to persist for many years. This is much ado about nothing.
Not so sure about that. NO investor would sink $$$$$$$ in something that’s a sure loser. Most likely they know something many of us don’t.
“…never going to be built at this scale”, yet so many are. When you consider that Facebook signed a lease for 770,000 sq.ft in August 2020, after having already signed up for 1.5 million sq.ft. in 2019, it’s a positive sign. RXR and TF know what their doing and 2030 is a lifetime from now.
Facebook is an outlier and the handful of companies with the ability to create their own destinations/locations with enormous amounts of cash will do so. However, the businesses that have been the lifeblood of commercial office rentals in NYC (finance, media, law, advertising) will all be downsizing as leases come up for renewal, now way around that.
The idea of having space for 100% of employees, 100% of the time is a thing of the past. The pandemic has proven you just don’t need it and the savings are going to be too good for most CFOs to ever give up; in 2021 or 2030.
I recently saw a photo of Manhattan from the north end of central park, looking south. There is a WALL of supertalls growing, between 40th st. and CPS. This is going to add to it, along with 1 Vanderbilt. the wedge at Hudson yards and so many others. The Empire State and Chrysler buildings are just going to become footnotes in the City’s history, much as the Flat Iron, and Woolworth buildings have. Oh well…
Seriously? Flat Iron and Woolworth continue to be among the most to be photographed and shared on social media. Nothing will ever place ESB and Chrysler in as a footnote… Certainly none of these proposed buildings.
One has to search to find the Empire State Building in these renderings.
Soon the only time sunlight will penetrate to the streets will be on June 21st, when it’s directly overhead.
Years ago, a friend of my parents had this 40th floor apartment with a great view of the Empire State Building. Then they built a taller tower across the street, and soon they had a great view of their neighbor’s living room…
Great Illustration Michael! I love it. It’s a perfect representation. Love the black and white
I wish the author of this article would stop using the word “edifice”. It’s a building. Just say “building”.
Michael, I agree with everyone else, that is an Outstanding Illustration. Need to copywrite and sell signed copies. Put me on the list to purchase. Keep up the great work. Still waiting for the Coffee Table book on Skyscraper Construction photos in Manhattan!
That would be pretty nice. ?
Nice illustration Mr. Young! I was sort of waiting for something like this to happen, and yet it did-and it definitely paints a pretty good picture on how our friend, Project Commodore, will dominate the skyline. And it’s not in a bad way at all actually. True, it’s very big and tall, and possibly obstructing or even distracting, but it still looks kind of cool. We’ll just have keep a look out for more official details and information, which at this point is probably very minimal. Oh well!
This will be absolutely amazing!
Terrible idea.
Excelsior!
Mebbe this bldg. could be a bit slimmer
The logistics of constructing this building will be daunting and super costly. Once that’s addressed it will be a magnificent addition to NYC. Remember, as new space is added, older obsolete and inefficient space will go off-market to be replaced by something else. That’s where open space and/or housing comes in. Cities, like life, grow and evolve.
P.S. Michael, I really hope you’re thinking of making a coffee-table size book of your stunning photographs of this remarkable era of NYC architectural history in the making.
Not really a construction, I’m still excited. In fact, tall buildings must always have a beautiful design: Thanks to New York YIMBY.
I get a sense in Michael Young’s beautiful illustration, that there is more love and detail, afforded to the ‘classics’ especially for the Chrysler Building, than for the newer and future structures of mid-town Manhattan.
WOW, these renderings make NYC look like reboot a of “BLADERUNNER 2030!
And if this continues…all of them will be become future “brownstones” for the
“GIGA-MAXA-MEGA SUPERTALLS” reaching miles and miles
into the sky!! ?
Glad I will miss it…?
This type of architecture, the density and congestion that results is a cause of global warming.
Actually it’s the opposite. This is next door to a mass transit hub, thus encouraging those who work there to live along Metro North or a subway line so they can commute to and from by rail each day, rather than sitting in traffic, one person per car everyone morning and evening.
The enemy of climate change are offices out in the suburbs where the only way to get there is by private car.
It would be great to strip off the mirror glass front added in the 1970s and restore the old Commodore Hotel, which was the same firm that designed Grand Central Terminal, Warren and Wetmore.
This a beautiful building nyc skyline is amazing
Beautiful illustrations by rgarri4 ??????
Please send me an application for a two-bedroom affordable apartment by email.
Thank you,
83-story project? Over 1,600 feet tall and only 83 floors? Why so few? Will each floor have 15 foot ceilings? I’m a little baffled.
Let’s hope tourist are coming back and either „working from the office“ starts again till then or a lot of companies decide to cone to NYC! Exciting times are ahead of us!