Manhattan's dense landscape has just received another skyscraper, this time designed by a Portuguese Pritzker Prize Winner. At 137 meters high and with 35 floors, 611 West 56th Street, Álvaro Siza's first building in New York, was just completed, on the outside. The luxury apartment complex, which is also Siza's first work in the United States, has several facilities for its residents, such as a swimming pool, a spa, a gym, a playground for children and rooms for events.
Wide horizontal windows and limestone cladding on the façades highlight the building from its built environment. Nearby, another emblematic work, Via 57 West designed by BIG, opened in 2016, attests to the effervescence of the real estate market in the neighborhood.
Located in the famous Hell's Kitchen district on the west side of Midtown, the 15,000-square-meter development was built with the participation of local firm SLCE Architects. It has 77 residential units, ranging from one to four bedroom apartments, duplex units, full-floor apartments and penthouses. The interiors were designed by Gabellini Sheppard Associates.
The final external touches have been ongoing since August of last year. The service elevator was removed from the west facade, the ground floor construction site was cleaned and the scaffoldings on the sidewalk were dismantled. Sidings and fences are still in place in front of the building, but they are expected to be removed in the upcoming weeks.
In recent years, Siza has completed major cultural projects in China and South Korea, and last year he inaugurated a steel frame watchtower dedicated to ecotourism in Serra da Talhadas, Portugal.
