New York's striking Via 57 West, which was designed by BIG and completed earlier this year, is set get to some very esteemed company at its perch on the Hudson River. Just a block north, three luxury residential towers awash with glass are to be built on a 5-ac (2-ha) site called Waterline Square.
Waterline Square will stretch from West 59th Street to West 61st Street, joining Midtown Manhattan to the Upper West Side. In addition to the new buildings, the development will feature a landscaped park and open spaces covering nearly 3 ac (1 ha), as well as sports, leisure and lifestyle facilities.
The stars, though, are undoubtedly the towers, which will be numbered simply one to three. They've each been designed by a different world renowned, but New York-based architect: One Waterline Square by Richard Meier and Partners Architects; Two Waterline Square by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates; and Three Waterline Square by Rafael Viñoly Architects.
While all different, the towers have still been designed to complement each other. They are each different shapes and are angled and articulated in different places, something which will highlight the huge expanses of glass in which each is covered. Current renderings show full-height windows throughout each building, broken, for the most part, only by the floors and walls dividing the interior spaces. For residents, this promises to provide impressive views of Manhattan and the Hudson.
The Waterline Square site is said to have been one of the last remaining pieces of land on the Hudson that will be developed as part of the Riverside Master Plan, the goal of which was to create a residential neighborhood along the riverbank. The three buildings are to be constructed at the same time with a view to being completed simultaneously, thereby allowing the eventual residents to move into a completed development.
While the plans for Waterline Square have only just been unveiled, construction work actually began last year and is expected to be completed in 2018.
Source: Waterline Square
