BIG has shared photos to follow the firm’s completion of the new 2.8 million-square-foot The Spiral office tower in Midtown Manhattan.

Located at the entrance to the High Line Park on 34th Street between 10th Avenue and Hudson Boulevard, the 66-story structure rises to a total height of 1,031.5 feet and offers the neighborhood skyline a distinctive new visual identity taken from its stepped silhouette and a ribbon of outdoor terraces that cascade down the setback facade to a street level podium.

The design team, which also included Adamson Associates, made wind- and drought-resistant biophilic elements a central part of the building’s exterior, working to unprecedented new heights for commercial high-rises. Certain plant species were selected for their ability to flower as early as February, in combination with evergreen ivy varieties. The program also creates flexible workspaces and includes an exclusive clubhouse on the uppermost floor with sweeping views over the Hudson River.

Bjarke Ingels describes: “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. 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. 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.”

“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. Designed to strengthen collaboration and well-being, 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,” BIG Partner Giulia Frittoli explains further.

Another focal point of the project is its connection to the nearby High Line, which begins with lobby floor panels that are cast in the same dimensions as the park’s concrete walkway to make for a singularity between the two projects. The inclusion of extended ceiling heights and a “specially selected” glass finish allows for natural light to penetrate more deeply into the office space. Each office level boasts floor plates that offer a maximized range of configurations. HSBC, Pfizer, and Turner Construction are among the many new tenants client Tishman Speyer has recruited to relocate.

The Spiral won top honors as the overall Best Tall Building category winner at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat conference that was held last weekend in Singapore. It stands as BIG’s first commercial high-rise in the New York market and is its first completed supertall design preceded by their collaborative 919-foot CapitaSpring project which was debuted alongside Carlo Ratti Associati last September.

The firm is now in the process of reorganizing its own operation into their self-designed new office space overlooking the Copenhagen harbor and will complete work next year on the Google King’s Cross headquarters project with Heatherwick Studio in London.