2013-2025, Designer / Associate Images: SHoP Architects111W57
111 W 57
New York, New York | @SHoP Architects
How can we transform a super-slender tower of billionaire pied-a-terres into a beloved icon for NYC? 111 West 57th Street rises 1428 feet from the courtyard of the historic Steinway Hall and holds the strange title of being the "slenderest tower in the world" with an aspect ratio of approximately 1:24.
This was the first project of my career after graduating with my architecture degree, with a large and amazing team at SHoP Architects. I was tasked with designing the ornamental spire and the undulating terra cotta facade.
The building is experienced as a new object on the skyline, more of an obelisk marking a point in space than a building. The unit layouts are amazing, with panoramic views almost perfectly centered on Central Park to the north, straight through the entire penthouse (1 per floor, with duplexes on the higher floors) to the Midtown skyline to the south.
The way it rises out of the courtyard of the historic Steinway building, it never really touches the ground. The expected daily occupancy of its investment properties - each most likely owned by an LLC consisting of more LLCs - was so low that the building only has two elevators.
The mass is articulated as a hyper-thin, intensified version of the classic New York setback skyscraper. The terra cotta facade hearkens back to the early 20th century skyscrapers like Woolworth Building, with undulating profiles designed in Grasshopper/Rhino and fabricated as a series of extrusions.