VIA W57

MultifamilyAll

Aug 10

VIA 57 West, designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group for the Durst Organization, introduces a new typology to New York City: the Court-scraper. The 830,000 sq ft high-rise combines the density of the American skyscraper with the communal space of the European courtyard, offering 709 residential units with a lush 22,000 sq ft garden at the heart of the building.

The VIA Court-scraper combines the European perimeter block and the traditional American high-rise. The building peaks at 450 feet at its northeast corner, maximizing the number of apartments and graciously preserving the adjacent Helena Tower’s views of the river. VIA’s volume changes depending on the viewer’s vantage point. From the West, it is a hyperbolic paraboloid or a warped pyramid. From the east, the Court-scraper appears to be a slender spire.

The shared green space at the heart of the block is derived from the classic Copenhagen ‘urban oasis’. The courtyard has the same proportions as Olmsted’s park, just 13,000 times smaller – a bonsai Central Park. In a similar accumulation of natural landscapes, the courtyard transforms from a shaded forest in the east to a sunny meadow in the west. Designed by landscape architecture firm Starr Whitehouse, it features 80 newly planted trees and lawns and 47 species of native plant material.