Bjarke Ingels, the 36-year-old head of the Danish architecture firm known as the Bjarke Ingels Group, which is known as BIG, told Sally McGrane in an interview in today's edition of The New York Times, that he is working on a major residential project for the Durst Organization.
According to ny.curbed.com, the site is west 57th Street at 12th Avenue.
Mr. Ingels last year completed the 8 House, a sustainable, mixed-use project in Copenhagen with nearly 500 apartments that is shaped literally like a figure eight with a looping public pathway that reaches from the street to the 10th floor. The article said it was the largest private development ever built in Denmark.
"Mr. Ingels, whose comic-book-style architectural treatise, 'Yes Is More,' was just acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, is now bringing his forward-thinking architecture to New York," where it has recently opened an office, the article noted.
"I met Douglas Durst three and half years ago, because the mayor of Copenhagen invited him to come talk about sustainable skyscrapers, to see if Copenhagen could embrace high-rises for density, but invent a new, Scandinavian form of skyscraper. The Durst Organization is one of the more radical innovators in sustainability and density."
A November 8, 2010 article by Joey Arak at ny.curbed.com reported that the site is adjacent to the 38-story Helena apartment building erected by the Durst Organization and that the Department of Buildings had a schedule filed for the 12th Avenue site indicated it would have "parking for 538 cars and 250 bikes."
"The Dursts got a rezoning to build the Helena, and we're guessing they'll try to do the same here, but City Planning tells us no application has been filed yet," the article said.
"Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, the young former protege of Rem Koolhaas who heads up white-hot international firm BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), is opening a New York office and working on a top-secret high-rise condo in Manhattan, which he told an interviewer would be 'a new hybrid that combines the classical New York high-rise and the traditional European block, with a courtyard in the middle.' Sounds just flashy enough, no? UPDATE: Forget all that speculation! As a commenter below points out, here is an online graphic novella in which, no joke, Ingels goes to New York, parties in the Boom Boom Room, meets with Amanda Burden, reveals the location of his secret project and unveils the zany vision seen below. It's sloping green roof time, y'all! DOUBLE UPDATE: Faced with the undeniable awesomeness of the Bjarke Ingels comic, the Durst Organization now tells the Observer that the architect is indeed working on an 80/20 residential building for the company."
On November 11, Mr. Arak wrote that "BIG's hush-hush plan for a crazy new residential tower (featuring a sloping roof planted with green succulents!) on the butt end of West 57th Street was just revealed, in part due to a comic book created about Ingels' work. Here's something even better: An actual rendering of the building shown by Ingels during a discussion at Harvard last night....a tipster writes in to share more details on the design ('three sided with an opening to the west and a courtyard on the interior') and the disappointing news that the Durst Organization has decided to nix the facade planting due to feasibility concerns (that might explain the lack of green in the rendering). That's a lot of action for a site that isn't even zoned for residential use yet."
A November 5, 2010 article by Matt Chaban at observer.com said that Jordan Barowitz, the director for external affairs for the Durst Organization, said that the company had filed "as-of-right plans to maintain participation in a brownfield program" for the site and that without the filing the tax credits would have lapsed. Mr. Chaban noted that the Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation had a two-story warehouse on the site where it made neon signs.
According to ny.curbed.com, the site is west 57th Street at 12th Avenue.
Mr. Ingels last year completed the 8 House, a sustainable, mixed-use project in Copenhagen with nearly 500 apartments that is shaped literally like a figure eight with a looping public pathway that reaches from the street to the 10th floor. The article said it was the largest private development ever built in Denmark.
"Mr. Ingels, whose comic-book-style architectural treatise, 'Yes Is More,' was just acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, is now bringing his forward-thinking architecture to New York," where it has recently opened an office, the article noted.
"I met Douglas Durst three and half years ago, because the mayor of Copenhagen invited him to come talk about sustainable skyscrapers, to see if Copenhagen could embrace high-rises for density, but invent a new, Scandinavian form of skyscraper. The Durst Organization is one of the more radical innovators in sustainability and density."
A November 8, 2010 article by Joey Arak at ny.curbed.com reported that the site is adjacent to the 38-story Helena apartment building erected by the Durst Organization and that the Department of Buildings had a schedule filed for the 12th Avenue site indicated it would have "parking for 538 cars and 250 bikes."
"The Dursts got a rezoning to build the Helena, and we're guessing they'll try to do the same here, but City Planning tells us no application has been filed yet," the article said.
"Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, the young former protege of Rem Koolhaas who heads up white-hot international firm BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), is opening a New York office and working on a top-secret high-rise condo in Manhattan, which he told an interviewer would be 'a new hybrid that combines the classical New York high-rise and the traditional European block, with a courtyard in the middle.' Sounds just flashy enough, no? UPDATE: Forget all that speculation! As a commenter below points out, here is an online graphic novella in which, no joke, Ingels goes to New York, parties in the Boom Boom Room, meets with Amanda Burden, reveals the location of his secret project and unveils the zany vision seen below. It's sloping green roof time, y'all! DOUBLE UPDATE: Faced with the undeniable awesomeness of the Bjarke Ingels comic, the Durst Organization now tells the Observer that the architect is indeed working on an 80/20 residential building for the company."
On November 11, Mr. Arak wrote that "BIG's hush-hush plan for a crazy new residential tower (featuring a sloping roof planted with green succulents!) on the butt end of West 57th Street was just revealed, in part due to a comic book created about Ingels' work. Here's something even better: An actual rendering of the building shown by Ingels during a discussion at Harvard last night....a tipster writes in to share more details on the design ('three sided with an opening to the west and a courtyard on the interior') and the disappointing news that the Durst Organization has decided to nix the facade planting due to feasibility concerns (that might explain the lack of green in the rendering). That's a lot of action for a site that isn't even zoned for residential use yet."
A November 5, 2010 article by Matt Chaban at observer.com said that Jordan Barowitz, the director for external affairs for the Durst Organization, said that the company had filed "as-of-right plans to maintain participation in a brownfield program" for the site and that without the filing the tax credits would have lapsed. Mr. Chaban noted that the Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation had a two-story warehouse on the site where it made neon signs.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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