Álvaro Siza designs his first high-rise in the United States on the far west side of Manhattan
“I didn’t expect to have the opportunity to build in Manhattan,” said Mr. Siza, 86. “Now, at my age, I thought I had lost the opportunity. I was very happy to be invited and thought, ‘Well, let’s see if I still have energy for this project.’”
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The development companies that tapped Mr. Siza for the job are Sumaida and Khurana, which previously worked with the Japanese architect Tadao Ando on 152 Elizabeth Street, and LENY.
“We’ve always admired Álvaro Siza’s work,” said Saif Sumaida, a founding partner of Sumaida and Khurana, who studied architecture as a student at the Cooper Union. “He’s one of the masters.”
After acquiring the slender corner site at West 56th Street and 11th Avenue, just east of a city Department of Sanitation garage, and south of numerous new large-scale rental buildings (including the project’s immediate neighbor, the Max, at 606 West 57th Street), Mr. Sumaida said the developers decided Mr. Siza’s stripped-down geometric work would be an ideal fit for the project.
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