The saga behind the rise of 53 West 53rd Street is finally drawing to a close, and after excavation began approximately one year ago, foundation work is finally beginning for the future supertall. When we last checked on the project, digging had made some progress, but the latest photo set from ILNY shows the base of a crane has now been installed, rebar is arriving, and that excavation work has seemingly wrapped up.
The old Mercedes dealership at 520 West 41st Street and Eleventh Avenue is meeting a quick demise, paving the way for Silverstein Properties to begin preparation work for their future mixed-use development. While the project must still pass through ULURP, YIMBY revealed preliminary renderings last June, showing a 1,400-unit tower rising above a significant retail podium. Now we have a few overhead shots of demolition progress taken from the nearly-completed Skye, just a few hundred feet to the northwest.
With formwork about to rise above ground level at Nordstrom Tower, the Smith + Gill-designed supertall’s plans seem to be finalized, pending possible adjustments at the very top. But other renderings for Extell’s site were created by several firms during the RFP process, and we now have images of proposals by Foster + Partners and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. While they will remain unbuilt, both versions of the building offer fantastical takes on the future of Midtown in their own right.
Last week, YIMBY posted an update on construction at 175 Greenwich Street, aka Three World Trade Center, as the tower reached its halfway point, having risen 41/80 stories. Now we have new information that the building has in fact seen a height reduction from the previous version, dropping from 1,168 feet down to 1,079 feet, and we also have two new renderings of the podium.
Related’s redevelopment of the formerly open-air West Side railyards is now becoming very apparent on the skyline, thanks to the rapidly rising 10 Hudson Yards. The Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed tower is closing in on its pinnacle, and the latest photo sent in by reader Mike McLaughlin shows its newly prominent position on the horizon.
