Photography Credit: Kevin Leclerc
With its “apostrophe” top and slightly flaring vertical slits, an elegant, 58-story tower is now rising at 111 Murray Street along West Street. It has all the allure and sexiness of an irresistible, slim and sophisticated dragon-lady.
Flaring-as-it-rises, the slender tower has its higher edge on the south side and its “slits” facing both northeast and southwest. The impressive project is a significant new landmark in Lower Manhattan because it is two blocks from the Hudson River waterfront and overlooks Tribeca's lower-scaled blocks, thus making the building highly-visible on the skyline. It is also one of the most graceful and beautiful new towers the city has seen in several decades, even if hasn't reached 'supertall' heights.
Flaring-as-it-rises, the slender tower has its higher edge on the south side and its “slits” facing both northeast and southwest. The impressive project is a significant new landmark in Lower Manhattan because it is two blocks from the Hudson River waterfront and overlooks Tribeca's lower-scaled blocks, thus making the building highly-visible on the skyline. It is also one of the most graceful and beautiful new towers the city has seen in several decades, even if hasn't reached 'supertall' heights.
111 Murray Street; Credit: Redundant Pixel/ Kohn Pedersen Fox
The building has a very enviable site across from Battery Park City, a block north of One Hundred Barclay, the former telephone building designed by Ralph Walker, a block southwest of the sought-after P.S. 234 with its nautically-themed schoolhouse designed by Richard Dattner, and not far from Cesar Pelli’s great Winter Garden at Brookfield Place, David Child’s fine One World Trade Center tower and observatory, and Santiago Calatrava’s flamboyant, winged transit terminal.
Looking south down West Street; Goldman Sachs headquarters to the right; Photography Credit: Kevin Leclerc
The tower's flared crown, peaking 792 feet above street level, is somewhat similar to that atop the residential tower under construction at 45 East 22nd Street in Flatiron. It is because they are both designed by high-rise extraordinaires at Kohn Pedersen Fox. The developers are the legendary development firm Fisher Brothers, the Witkoff Group and Howard Lorber of New Valley and chairman of Douglas Elliman. Hill West are the architects of record. David Rockwell designed the lobby that has anodized steel walls, hand-blown glass lighting and travertine floors. David Mann of MR Architecture & Décor was the interior designer and Hollander Design Landscape Architects have designed the landscaped public and private spaces encircling the building.
Buildings shown from L to R: 200 Chambers Street, 101 Warren, 111 Murray, One Hundred Barclay, and 1 WTC; Photography Credit: Kevin Leclerc
111 Murray Street with One Hundred Barclay to the right; Photography Credit: Kevin Leclerc
The sales team has informed us the tower is at its 47th floor, more than halfway up, and the curtain wall is up to the 25th floor. Per recently released images, taken by photographer Kevin Leclerc, the tower’s smooth, reflective-glass exterior is among the city’s most beautiful facades. The tower’s main facades bulge very slightly and this adds considerably to the tower’s gracefulness. Kohn Pedersen Fox, who designed the curved-glass midrise, One Jackson Square in the West Village, also designed the very sleek, all-glass office tower at 333 Wacker Drive on the riverfront in Chicago, as well as, the stunning Shanghai Financial Center, and the 108-story China Zun Tower in Beijing.
Photography Credit: Kevin Leclerc
Close-up of the facade; Photography Credit: Kevin Leclerc
The entrance on West Street is a one-story, slightly curved pavilion with an angled roof that rises toward the south and is next to a landscaped garden. The building has a 24-hour concierge, a spa and fitness center, a garden, a veranda, a teen arcade, a children’s playroom, a children’s splash pool, a private dining room, a media room, a hair salon, and bicycle storage of 81 bicycles on the second floor. The building will also have a patisserie where James Beard’s bakery, Baked TriBeCa, will produce nibbles and espressos next to the building’s residents’ lounge and gardens.
Entryway; Credit: Redundant Pixel / Kohn Pedersen Fox
The sales team alerted us that the 157-unit building is now more than 70% sold. There are presently 12 active listings, ranging from a $2.5 million one-bedroom to a $18.9 million 5-bedroom on the 61st floor. 111 Murray is expected to finish construction in 2018.
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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