Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Giant Two-Tower Project to Rise in Midtown West

Silverstein Properties is planning to construct a one million square foot mixed-use project consisting of two glass towers atop a massive retail podium in Midtown West.

CetraRuddy Architecture is designing the 520 West 41st Street, located in Midtown between Eleventh Avenue and Galvin Avenue. Leeding Builders Group will be the general contractor.

The project will consist of two towers enclosed in curtain walls of glass. 

The shorter tower will feature landscaped spaces that break up the building’s huge profile into multi-level volumes. A large retail podium section will occupy the lower levels. 

The new towers will make a significant impact on the western Midtown skyline. Recent submissions to the FAA indicate the taller building will rise to 758 feet, with a swimming pool on the rooftop. 

520 West 41st Street is the last full-block parcel adjacent to the westbound side of the Lincoln Tunnel. Silver Towers, the twin glass towers also owned by Silverstein Properties, are located at 620 West 42nd street, and was one of the first tall projects to rise in the area ten years ago. 


Another relatively tall skyscraper the vicinity is Extell Development's 555 Tenth Avenue, which sits across the street to the east.

The building site was previously home to a large Mercedes Benz showroom and dealership, which was demolished in 2015 after Silverstein Properties purchased the site for $115 million.

An earlier design called for a 106-story mixed-use tower that would have brought 1,400 units to the area, with thirty percent of the homes being affordable. 

The skyscraper was proposed to rise 1,110 feet high, but the project stalled out during the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

Back in 2014, Oppenheim Architecture + Design’s came up with their vision for the property. Known as 514 Eleventh Avenue, the design called for a pair of offset residential skyscrapers with a diagonally connecting member at the top. 

This would have formed an angled frame-shaped profile with a row of sleek vertical lines, highlighting the abstract geometric construct of the building.