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Air rights locked down for BIG's spiral tower in Hudson Yards

Pharmatower

Air rights locked down for BIG's spiral tower in Hudson Yards

At a buy of $157 million, New York–based developer Tishman Speyer secured the final air rights it needed for The Spiral, a massive new BIG building in Hudson Yards.

The green-ribboned glass monolith, which will top out at 65 stories with a $3.2 billion price tag, acquired the rights from lots around the Eastern Rail Yards owned by the Hudson Yards Development Corporation. Pfizer, the New York–based pharmaceutical mammoth, will be the tower’s primary tenant, and has already inked a deal to rent out 800,000 square feet of the total development. To date, Tishman Speyrer has spent $265 million on air rights alone—the tower will rise to a lofty 1,005 feet, which will make it the second-tallest development in the Hudson Yards, right after 30 Hudson Yards.

Designs for the supertall were first released last February by the developer, and feature an ascending spiral of terraces populated with vertical and hanging greenery split between two-floor atria. These spaces, leased out as offices, housing, and hotel, will offer incomparable views over the Hudson River and the High Line, which will extend right up to the tower’s base. The idea for the spiraling greenspaces (a popular trope, especially after Stefano Boeri‘s forested towers in Milan) is drawn from naturally-occurring patterns demonstrated in plant growth, molecular structure, and galactic formations, as Ingels explains in the tower’s promotional video.

With all rights locked down, Tishman Speyer now has the go-ahead for construction, joining its KPF-designed neighbors 55, 30, and 10 Hudson Yards.


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