Situated at the southwestern corner of Fifth Avenue and West 29th Street is the site of a proposed 1,009-foot condominium tower, known as 262 Fifth Avenue. Renderings were first released in late 2017, showing the very skinny and slender residential building towering over NoMad and Midtown South. Composed of a mix of glass and aluminum walls, the supertall would certainly stand out on the skyline for its height and profile. After the DOB approved plans back in October of 2017, the site was quickly cleared of the previously extant low-rise buildings, however, activity has come to a grinding halt since then. Boris Kuzinez of Five Points Development is developing the tower, while the architect is Meganom, a Russian design firm from Moscow.

After demolition, the site sat relatively quiet for much of 2018 behind the ubiquitous green construction fence surrounding the property. It stands across the street to the south of Marble Collegiate Church and the planned site of Bjarke Ingels Group’s future office tower at 3 West 29th Street, aka “29th & 5th.” YIMBY last reported on that site several weeks ago, with the first signs of progress and site preparation already underway. Looking back to 262 Fifth Avenue, it is unclear if Meganom’s vision will start to rise this year, and current lack of progress points toward a situation that may never get of the ground.

With only 139,168 square feet of residential space, the footprint of 262 Fifth Avenue would be smaller than Rafael Vinoly’s 277 Fifth Avenue. The height of Vinoly’s tower, however, would easily be surpassed if this skyscraper is completed.

262 Fifth Avenue’s most striking design aspect is the alignment of the building looking up and down the thoroughfare. If built, the tower would easily be seen from Madison Square Park, Herald Square, and the observatory of the Empire State Building, only four blocks to the north. At street level, 10,850 square feet of retail space on the first two floors are proposed to face Fifth Avenue. Up above, a mere 41 residential units are planned, measuring nearly 3,000 square feet each.

The elevator cores would be situated on the western side of the footprint and face west towards the Hudson River. The cores would run up the entire height of the skyscraper, enclosed within a skin of reflective aluminum panels.

The freehand drawing above shows the view looking north with the Empire State Building, 277 Fifth Avenue and 15 East 30th Street all in their completed state. 262 Fifth would be the tallest skyscraper in the neighborhood south of the Empire State Building, and the first actual 300-meter-or-more supertall in NoMad. This would surpass the 777-foot tall, Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed Madison Square Park Tower, aka 45 East 22nd Street, which still holds the title of the neighborhood’s tallest skyscraper.

A completion date has not been announced yet.

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