New Hells Kitchen Skyscraper Rises

Set back from the podium section is the main glass and steel tower that has been designed by Arquitectonica and will house 800 apartments, 160 of which are aimed at those with lower incomes. As with most towers with this sort of unremarkable look, the quality of the building will depend on the hybrid-wall system that clads it. The slab tower is visually broken up by the architect with pronounced horizontal strips between the glass curtain walling of the floors that become more sparse as the tower rises and decrease in frequency from one floor to seven. 188 metres tall with 59 floors, the building will contain the first North American branch of Yotel, a European hotel chain that will fill much of the lower part of the tower with 669 rooms. Branding the entrance to the hotel section of the tower will be the day-glo logo of the company and a collection of white hexagonal cladding panels that look like they have escaped from Logan's Run. Elsewhere along the base, panels of reconstituted stone feature. The project will also have a new theatre in it costing $60 million dollars that has been designed by Frank Gehry and will be the home of the Signature Theatre Company. As well as doubling Signature Theatre's capacity, the inclusion of the three performance spaces has enabled the developer to get a public subsidy of $25 million to help pay for it, a substantial percentage of $41 million it requires.