[Leyva's new 42-story tower at 785 Eighth Avenue; at right, the north wall rising]
We've written about a lot of walls over the years: a green wall, a yellow wall, a sculpted blue wall. That artsy hot pink wall. Don't forget the dying mural wall. Or the new see-through wall. There's the pezzy wall, the pointillist wall. The amazing technicolor dreamcoat wall. Of course we've covered a collapsing wall. Not to mention more than one celebrity wall. But there is a wall from architect Ismael Leyva rising in Hell's Kitchen that puts the rest of those walls to shame.
[The south facade (left) which will be all glass and (right) the solid north facade]
[A map from NYC Department of Finance showing the lot's metes and bounds]
We first told you about this zipper of a sliver last winter, back when few details were known. But over the past few months it has started to reveal itself. First, there's the north facade. Basically it's a wall. It's risen to almost 20 floors and is being put up with the help of DOKA Formworks out of Germany (same gang who helped with the 37 ARTS / Baryshnikov Dance Center complex next to the recently-chopped Glass Farmhouse down in LOKHI). But this new wall is SOLID concrete. As of now it measures about 102 feet wide by nearly 200 feet tall. Our calculations show that equals nearly 1/2 of an acre of concrete. With barely a chink in it. Just a monstrous mass moving upward along that ziggy old property line east of Eighth Avenue. So far they've poured 1,500 tons up there (give or take a ton or ten). And this baby still has more than 20 floors to go. Architect Leyva has claimed that the residents on the upper floors will have spectacular views to the north. But we're seeing no indication of that. Just this big blank wall looming over us.
Anyone with renderings or pictures showing what is planned for this one please send us a tip. We're desperate, as always, for more in-depth information.
[The DOKA concrete forms being loaded up from W. 48th Street]
[The site where Leyva's tower is rising along the diagonal line of 787 Eighth]
Photo from: Johnia!'s photostream
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