Hudson Yards is getting another skyscraper, and it’s exactly as absurd and magnificent as its name implies. “The Spiral,” so named by architect Bjarke Ingels and real-estate firm Tishman Speyer, is a 1,005-foot, 65-story office building that will span the entire block of Tenth Avenue from 34th Street to 35th Street. Its most striking characteristic is the swoop of terraces that runs around its outer wall like steps and aims at (as Ingels actually says in an introductory video) “extending the High Line into the skyline.” Ingels, of course, is the mind behind the nearly complete VIA 57th West, as well as Two World Trade Center.
The building will offer tenants 2.85 million square feet of “connected and sustainable Class A office space,” according to its website — 27,000 of those feet set aside for retail. And it’s expensive: Tishman Speyer bought the property for $438 million back in 2014 and paid an additional $25 million in settlement fees to two impressively stubborn holdout tenants. The developers received $170 million in tax breaks, according to Gothamist. No word yet on how much space in the Spiral will cost, but the owners are reportedly hoping to pre-lease a third of the building to help pay for construction.
Its open floor plans, they say, are “customized for creativity” and “complemented by soaring ceiling heights, floor-to-ceiling windows, and seamless indoor/outdoor space on every floor.” In mock-up illustrations, work spaces appear to flow seamlessly into one another without the burdensome delineation of walls or doors; they also appear to house several imaginary employees wearing Chuck Taylors and holding slim laptops. In other words, the whole thing is probably designed to attract the sort of people who only own one shirt — Class A, indeed.
