Manhattan West is one of the largest and most complex developments currently underway in New York City. The project, first conceived in the 1990s and led by Brookfield Properties, is a seven-million-square-foot, mixeduse development above active railroad tracks where minimal buildable land existed. It is an entirely new neighborhood, bounded by Ninth and Tenth Avenues and West 31st and West 33rd Streets, that SOM master planned as part of the larger revitalization of Manhattan’s Far West Side. The master plan encompasses six buildings – three designed by SOM and all but one engineered by SOM – that will bring retail, offices, residences, and hospitality to a previously underdeveloped district. Several buildings, including the tallest tower – the 67-story, 995-foot-tall One Manhattan West – opened in 2019, and the entire Manhattan West development is making its formal debut in fall 2021.

Public space is the heart of the master plan. The buildings are organized around a series of distinct plazas – designed in collaboration with landscape architect James Corner Field Operations – that were enabled by the engineering of a 2.6-acre platform that covers the rail tracks connecting to Penn Station. The development’s central plaza is lined with a combined 225,000 square feet of retail to activate a vibrant new gathering space for residents, office workers, and travelers from the station. From Ninth Avenue, the public space will form a series of urban corridors along West 31st and West 33rd Streets, and the central plaza will pick up where West 32nd Street – which terminates at Penn Station on Seventh Avenue – left off. Together, these urban connections will make Manhattan West an accessible and welcoming destination for all visitors, and at the same time create a much-needed new east-west pathway linking Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall to Hudson Yards and the riverfront. It will also complete the major reactivation of the streetscape on Manhattan’s Far West Side – a revitalization in which SOM has played an integral role, from the transformation of the James A. Farley Post Office building into Moynihan Train Hall to the design of 35 Hudson Yards.

The largest towers, One and Two Manhattan West, will mark the Ninth Avenue entry into the neighborhood. Located at the northeast and southeast corners of the site, the two-million-square-foot, LEED-Gold-targeting towers are designed to welcome visitors arriving from the north, east, and south. Each tower, clad in high performance glass, is designed to accentuate a soft, elegant simplicity that reflects the sky. On the ground, they enhance the public realm by extending the central plaza with additional space both indoors and outside. With triple-height, transparent lobbies, the buildings provide views from corner to corner to reveal the central open space to pedestrians and to offer a permeable connection to the central plaza. The towers are set back from Ninth Avenue – opposite Moynihan Train Hall – to create outdoor public spaces that welcome visitors into the site.

▼简洁的体量和通透的大厅，simple volume and transparent lobby ©SOM