Archinect - News

Jean Nouvel's controversial 53 West 53rd Street residential skyscraper nears completion

2019-01-03T16:21:00-05:00

Last week, the final piece of the third and highest apex of Jean Nouvel’s first residential skyscraper was anchored and installed over Midtown. 53 West 53rd Street now stands 1,050 feet tall, and is currently the 7th-tallest skyscraper under construction in New York City.

If the introduction of 432 Park Avenue, the 1,300-foot-tall Rafael Viñoly and SLCE Architects-designed apartment tower wasn't a jarring enough addition to the New York skyline, the completion of a controversial second building will soon normalize the movement towards ultra-tall residential living.

Photo by Giles Ashford, via New York YIMBY

Across from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Jean Nouvel's 53 West 53rd Street apartment tower is nearly complete. At 1,050 feet tall, it is currently the 7th tallest building under construction in the city. While not the tallest of the supertall that are coming to define New York City's skyline, it stands as a unique triumph for the French architect and a bold addition to the MoMA block. Below is a rendering of the building from when it was first proposed over 13 years ago.

Rendering of 53 West 53rd Street, 2006.

53 West 53rd Street is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

Video: Jean Nouvel on making 53W53 a 'New York City building'

2018-06-26T19:17:00-04:00

The architect behind 53 West 53rd wanted the tower to be synonymous with New York City, to be a building that couldn’t easily be slipped into another skyline. “A worldwide catastrophe today is the number of buildings that are parachuted because they were preconceived. Offices, housing, shopping malls all look the same,” Jean Nouvel told The Real Deal, translated from French.

Mini video interview with 53W53 'MoMA Tower' architect Jean Nouvel, produced by The Real Deal.

53W53: Jean Nouvel's "New York" Building. Video via The Real Deal on YouTube.

The 1,050-foot luxury tower topped out a few days ago and ranks now—along with Renzo Piano/FXFOWLE's New York Times Building and the iconic 1930 Chrysler Building—as NYC’s sixth tallest building.

Jean Nouvel's MoMA luxury tower 53W53 tops out at 1,050 feet tall

2018-06-15T15:39:00-04:00

Back in January, the Jean Nouvel-designed MoMA tower was on the heels of reaching its full 82-story height and now, that milestone has been accomplished. Last week, the long-awaited supertall, named 53W53, topped out and it now stands at 1,050 feet tall, tying with the New York Times building and the Chrysler Building as the city’s sixth tallest building.

Jean Nouvel's ultra-luxurious MoMA tower 53W53 is now topped out to its full height at 1,050 feet. Once completed, the tower will include 145 residential units designed by Thierry Despont, amenities, and new MoMA galleries and a restaurant that are expected to open in 2019. You can check out recent construction photos of the tower on the blog Field Condition.

New images of Jean Nouvel's posh, MoMA-integrated luxury condo tower 53W53

2017-09-12T19:04:00-04:00

As the brand-new rendering above shows, the luxury condo tower designed by Jean Nouvel will boast an unusual amenity: floors 2, 4 and 5 of 53W53 will serve as new gallery levels for the Museum of Modern Art when construction is completed. Additionally, according to a fact sheet, "benefactor W53 MoMA membership runs with each residence, and includes curated benefits and the potential for the building to host private events in the museum's sculpture garden." The tower, which is slated to top out at 1,050 feet, will be home to 145 residences ranging in size from one to five bedrooms, with a few private-elevator-accessible penthouse suites.

Images above and below: Hayes Davidson

No two condos will have the same layout, thanks to the combination of Jean Nouvel's self-described "diagrid," which refers to the tower's pronounced exterior structural system, and the tapering design itself, which precludes repetitive formats. The interiors of each condo are being designed by Thierry Despont, a...

A new documentary follows Jean Nouvel as he traverses the globe

2016-10-14T13:35:00-04:00

“Every project is an adventure, is a passion,” states Jean Nouvel in a new documentary that follows the Pritzker Prize-winning architect as he travels around the world. The fifteen-minute film, titled Jean Nouvel: Reflections, includes reflections by Nouvel on the major achievements of his career, from the Institut du Monde Arabe to the Doha Tower.

With stylish cinematography and editing, the documentary begins with a meditation on the early influences of Nouvel’s work, notably the events of Paris in May 1968. It shows the architect sketching out his designs and working on site.

You can watch the full movie here:

For more on Jean Nouvel, follow these links:

Jean Nouvel's museum extension plans narrowly rejected in Geneva

2016-03-02T14:04:00-05:00

The people of Geneva have narrowly rejected a controversial plan to extend and renovate the city’s Musée d’Art et d’Histoire by the French architect Jean Nouvel. The “non” camp won the public vote on 28 February with 54%. Ateliers Jean Nouvel in Paris designed the planned extension, which was approved by Geneva’s municipal council last May, in collaboration with the local firms Architectures Jucker and DVK Architectes.[...] The council must now launch a new competition for the museum.

Related Nouvel stories in the Archinect news:

DS+R-led MoMA redesign scaled back, more details released

2016-01-27T13:02:00-05:00

Gone is the “Art Bay,” with a glass garage-like door that would have allowed visitors to enter galleries straight from the street. Gone, too, is the fourth-floor “Gray Box,” with acoustic absorption panels through which passers-by could have peered up at performance art in progress. And there will be no new public entrance to the sculpture garden on 54th Street. The Museum of Modern Art has eliminated these polarizing elements of its sweeping redesign, museum officials said on Tuesday...

MoMA officials also released more information on the construction, slated to begin in February with total costs estimated between $390 million and $400 million.

The Diller, Scofidio + Renfro-led renovation is the second major redesign for the influential museum in recent memory. Just over ten years ago, Yoshio Taniguchi completed a major, $858 million overhaul of the facilities.

According to the Times, the renovation will be divided into three stages: changes to the museum's easternmost site, then renovations to the Taniguchi-designed space, and finally new construction on the former site of the American Folk Art Museum, which was controversially demolished in 2014.

The eastern building is set to be opened up to improve flow to the main lobby, which will be significantly expanded with the bookstore and gift shop moved underground. Galleries on the third floor will be opened up forming two much larger spaces – one 5,000 sq. ft. and the other 10,000. New spaces won't have permanent w...

Jean Nouvel's super-tall 53W53 MoMA tower is "still an art"

2015-05-18T13:19:00-04:00

Nouvel’s aspirations for 53W53, scheduled for completion in fall 2018, sound almost modest: “It’s going to try to hold its place, [...] It’s going to try to be good enough for New York … it’s going to try to make its own small contribution, and it’s done in a way that ensures this contribution is readable, understandable, and it’s maybe a bit more precious than others. And it’s a little linked to this notion – a fairly disputed notion these days – that architecture is still an art, sometimes.”

Here's What The Manhattan Skyline Will Look Like In 2018

2014-11-10T14:03:00-05:00

City Realty made the rendering above, which they say gives us an idea of what the city will look like in 2018 based on projections for buildings currently being planned or already in construction: "New York City skyline circa 2018 2,500 feet above Central Park. Image features upcoming supertall skyscrapers such as One Vanderbilt, 53W53, 432 Park Avenue, 225 West 57th, and 111 West 57th Street are completed."