Mark Foster Gage wants to propose this Game of Thrones-like skyscraper for NYC

Justine Testado

41 West 57th Street a.k.a. The Khaleesi. Image: Mark Foster Gage Architects.

No, these images aren't for an upcoming Lego kit design or a fantasy-genre video game, although they might as well be. They're

Mark Foster Gage

's concept for a 102-story ornamental skyscraper nicknamed

"The Khaleesi"

, proposed for 41 West 57th Street in NYC's Billionaire's Row.

Interestingly enough, the luxury residential tower has garnered enthusiasm that's as amusing as its Gargoyle statue-like exterior, which has been described as "regal", "visionary", and "futuristic". According to a press release from the architect, Robert A.M. Stern commented with a "WOW" in a recent email to Gage. (Interpret that as you wish.)

An undisclosed developer commissioned Gage to design the tower to envision the possibilities of ultra-luxury designs for the site. Built with a concrete frame, the 1,492-foot structure is "draped in a façade of limestone-tinted Taktl concrete panels with hydroformed sheet-bronze details and brass-tinted alloy structural extrusion enclosures," Gage writes on his website. The decorative stone designs would be created at a faster pace using computer numerically controlled (CNC) technology.

The scheme also includes 91 residential units, a sky-lobby and retail shops on the 64th floor, a 2-story-tall ballroom for events, a 4-star restaurant that leads to four cantilevered balconies that promise sweeping views of the city, and a "temple-like observational platform which is then crowned by a golden wreath-like structure fit for any victorious Roman general", as

Gage designed The Khaleesi in response to the steel and glass modernist box skyscrapers that populate NYC's skyline, stating that many of those buildings are "20th century ideas" that are "virtually free of architectural design". While he acknowledges those boxed-shaped skyscrapers have "served architecture well", he claims his 21st-century tower spruces up those ideas and will "aesthetically add to the city". So far, there aren't any plans to build the tower — in the real world, at least.

41 W 57th St - video from Mark Foster Gage

Robotic stonecarving research at Yale University, where Mark Foster Gage is assistant dean of the School of Architecture.