Bjarke Ingels Group has completed a new skyscraper in New York City, which marks BIG's first completed supertall, and first completed commercial high-rise in New York.

Named The Spiral, the 1,031.5-feet-tall (314-metres) skyscraper has 66 stories and encompasses a total of 2.8-million-square-foot area (260,128-square-metres).

The new skyscraper accomodates offices and a clubhouse on the 66th floor. 

The Spiral, located nearby the High Line Park, visually extends the landscape of the High Line Park. The Spiral’s exteriors feature cascading landscaped terraces and hanging gardens that climb the tower. 

The exterior allows access to green outdoor terraces from each of the building’s 66 stories. 

The skyscraper was developed by Tishman Speyer and built by Turner. The Spiral has officially opened its doors to major companies including Pfizer, Debevoise & Plimpton, Turner Construction and HSBC, among others. 

Located on West 34th Street between Hudson Boulevard and 10th Avenue, The Spiral neighbors the elevated High Line and Bella Abzug Park on Manhattan’s west side. 

The commercial high-rise was designed by BIG, in collaboration with Adamson Associates and structural engineer WSP Cantor Seinuk. The BIG team is pursuing LEED Silver certification for The Spiral. 

"The Spiral punctuates the northern end of the High Line, and the linear park appears to carry through into the tower, forming an ascending ribbon of lively green spaces, extending the High Line to the skyline," said Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG. 

"The Spiral combines the classic Ziggurat silhouette of the premodern skyscraper with the slender proportions and efficient layouts of the modern high-rise."

"Designed for the people who occupy it, The Spiral ensures that every floor of the tower opens up to the outdoors, creating hanging gardens and cascading atria that connect the open floor plates from the ground floor to the summit into a single uninterrupted workspace," he added.

"The string of terraces wrapping around the building expands the daily life of the tenants to the outside air and light. 

As the trees and grasses, flowers and vines have taken root over the last two summers, The Spiral is slowly becoming an ascending ribbon of green wrapping around the entire silhouette of the tower - like a 1,000-foot-tall vine at the scale of the city’s skyline," Ingels added.

From street level, the tower draws the eye upwards to the ribbon of greenery that extends the High Line beyond West 34th Street and into the Manhattan skyline. 

Reminiscent of a conservatory, the tower’s glass panel façade offers passersby a look into the building’s bright and spacious lobby, adorned with artwork by Dutch studio DRIFT and lush foliage, which can be accessed via entrances on both Hudson Boulevard and 10th Avenue.

As a gesture to the building’s surroundings, The Spiral’s lobby incorporates seven different metals to honor the area’s industrial history, with floor panels measured to the exact dimensions of the precast concrete planks spanning the High Line.

The Spiral slowly reduces in volume as it rises, following the zoning envelope of the site. Its stepping language resonates with the design aesthetics of classic Manhattan skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, while its slender proportions and use of modern materials and detailing speak to the design features of contemporary high-rise architecture.

The skyscraper features cascading landscaped terraces and hanging gardens that climb the tower in a spiraling motion. 

This aims to create a unique, continuous green ribbon that wraps around the façade of the building and supplies each office floor with readily accessible terrace space.

The outdoor spaces, covering approximately 13,000-square-feet-area ((1,207-square-metres), and "a landscape of The Spiral’s size has never been installed at or above 300 feet elevation in New York City," BIG explained. 

Most of the plant species used on the ground cover are native to the American prairie, making them resistant to high winds and droughts.

As the building rises, a second layer of shrubs and taller bushes that blossom in winter are introduced, and finally, the landscape is crowned with single- and multi-stem trees that flower as early as February, along with vertical trellises with English and Boston ivy that keep their leaves through the winter. 

The plant palette differs on each side of the building depending on sun orientation and endurance against high-velocity winds.

"The Spiral pioneers a new landscape typology by bringing gardens to a high rise. Its continuous cascade of greenery from one level to another provides office spaces with a new vertical dimension of social and biophilic connectivity," said Giulia Frittoli, Partner, BIG. 

"Designed to strengthen collaboration and wellbeing, each terrace hosts plantings specific to the varying daylight, winds and temperatures at every floor of the tower." 

"These gardens will welcome neighboring birds, bees and butterflies to expand New York's biodiversity to the city skyline," Frittoli added.

As The Spiral ascends, each floor’s accessible terrace offers impressive views over Manhattan, the Hudson River and New Jersey. Select floors offer a double height amenity space and the option to connect adjacent floors via a grand staircase, suggesting an alternative to elevators and encouraging interaction amongst colleagues.

On the 66th floor, The Spiral offers employees its very own ZO Clubhouse, reserved exclusively for people to gather, connect and recharge in the private lounge or open-air terrace.

As BIG noted, the skyscraper offers a contemporary workplace where nature becomes an integrated part of the office environment. In addition, the layout of spatial features are continuously adaptable to the changing needs of its occupants. 

To foster a connection to the outdoors and support The Spiral’s interior foliage, a generous ceiling height and specially selected exterior glass coating enables a deeper incursion of natural light. 

The building’s water management system collects overflow rainwater to treat and redistribute throughout the tiered landscaping, allowing it to save millions of gallons of water annually. 

According to BIG, "this not only promotes sustainable irrigation - it also further cements The Spiral as a green addition to the Manhattan skyline."

Image © Tommy Agriodimas

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Project facts

Size: 2,800,000 sq ft

Location: New York, United States

Client: Tishman Speyer

Collaborators: Adamson Associates, Turner Construction, WSP Cantor Seinuk, Cosentini, Langan, Edgett Williams Consulting Group, Thornton Tomasetti, Heintges, Vidaris, Entek Engineering, FMS, Pandiscio, Doyle Partners, Squint Opera, Siteworks, Northern Design, Space Copenhagen, Michaelis Boyd, Studio Drift, Banker Steel, Roger & Sons, Permasteelisa, CMI, Vitrocsa, W+ W, Top Shelf Electric, Otis, National, Bamco, Garcia, Jacobson & Company, Cooper Plastering, Sponzilli, JBB, BIG Landscape, BIG Ideas.

BIG Team

Partners-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Daniel Sundlin

Technical Director: Douglass Alligood

Project Leader: Dominyka Voelkle

Team: Adrien Mans, Agla Egilsdottir, Ali Chen, Alvaro Velosa, Andreas Buettner, Andrew Lee, Anton Bashkaev, Armen Menendian, Beat Schenk, Benjamin Caldwell, Bernardo Schuhmacher, Cadence Bayley, Carolien Schippers, Cheyenne Vandevoorde, Christopher David White, Christopher Tron, David Brown, Davide Maggio, Deborah Campbell, Denys Kozak, Dong-Joo Kim, Erin Yook, Florencia Kratsman, Francesca Portesine, Gabriel Jewell-Vitale, Gabriella Den Elzen, Gaurav Sardana, Giulia Frittoli, Haochen Yu, Hung-Kai Liao, Ibrahim Salman, Jack Lipson, Jan Casimir, Jan Leenknegt, Janice Rim, Janie Louise Green, Jennifer Wood, Joshua Burns, Josiah Poland, Juan David Ramirez, Julie Kaufman, Kurt Nieminen, Lisbet Fritze Trentemøller, Lucio Santos, Luke Lu, Mackenzie Keith, Margaret Tyrpa, Maria Eugenia Dominguez, Martynas Norvila, Mateusz Rek, Maureen Rahman, Megan Van Artsdalen, Michael Zhang, Nicholas Potts, Otilia Pupezeanu, Phawin Siripong, Rachel Coulomb, Ruo Wang, Ryan Duval, Sang Ha Jung, Seo Young Shin, Simon Lee, Terrence Chew, Thea Gasseholm, Thomas Christoffersen, Tracy Sodder, Veronica Acosta. Veronica Moretti, Wells Barber, Will Fu, Yaziel Juarbe, Yenhsi Tung, Zoltan David Kalaszi.

BIG Landscape: Emily Chen, Giulia Frittoli, Joseph Kuhn, Kathleen Cella, Kelly Neill, Lou Arencibia, Manon Otto, Marcus Wilford, Matteo Gawlak, Matthew Lau, Morgan Mangelsen, Simon David, Tony-Saba Shiber, Varat Limwibul

All images © Laurian Ghinițoiu unless otherwise stated.

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