Herzog And de Meuron Design A Shanty Town For NYC

If you’ve ever wanted to live in a tower that you were just positive was about to fall any second then Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron are ready to make you a happy person. The people who built the intriguing Birds Nest stadium in Beijing have unveiled plans today for a new tower in NYC. From the concept images released it could really be the new identifying feature of New York’s infamous skyline.

The structure is made of 145 unique apartments stacked to the sky like a Jenga game mid-progress…if the game was played by drunken college kids. The building will go up in Tribeca at 56 Leonard St. If you’re interested the lower, and smaller, apartments will go for about $3.5 million. The upper floor huge and dangling penthouse suites will run a cool $33 million. That’s a lot of money to pay just to pretend you’re about to fall to your death each morning you roll out of bed.

The design, which Herzog and de Meuron call “pixilated vertical layering,” is achieved using extreme cantilevers. Those looking to live at 56 Leonard will have their chance when Corcoran Sunshine opens its sales office for the building next week. The building is scheduled to open in late fall of 2010.