BIG Wins International Highrise Award

John Hill

2. November 2016

VIA 57 WEST (Photo: Nic Lehoux)

The 450-foot-tall "courtscraper" designed by BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group for The Durst Organization on Manhattan's West Side has won the 2016 International Highrise Award, the biennial award given by the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, DekaBank, and the City of Frankfurt.

The award, which comes with a €50,000 prize, was given out today during a ceremony in Frankfurt's Paulskirche. A special award was given to the Housing & Development Board (HDB) of Singapore "for their exemplary leadership as a public agency realizing innovative high-rise sustainable residential community projects."

The Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) nominated 30 outstanding buildings from the over 1,500 high-rises that were commissioned worldwide over the last two years. From the thirty, a jury of "experts consisting of architects, structural engineers and real estate specialists" selected the finalists and then unanimously chose BIG's innovative high-rise.

VIA 57 WEST (Photo: Nic Lehoux)

A press release on the International Highrise Award 2016 describes BIG's winning "courtscraper" design:

The hybrid of an American high-rise and a European perimeter development turns away from the building to the northeast and is orientated towards a green interior courtyard. The balconies integrated into the roof surface afford protected views of the Hudson River in the West. Almost all of the 709 apartments enjoy a view of the river and the sunset, which would have been geometrically impossible for a normal perimeter development. This sculptural prototype therefore offers a quiet, sheltered oasis within the loud city, without being closed off from it. BIG Architects have created great innovations with this building.