HUDSON YARDS PROJECT BREAKS GROUND

At the groundbreaking ceremony, which took place at the rail yards on Manhattan’sWest Side, were present the architects Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF).

Among those in attendance were real estate brokers, and city officials, as well as Stephen M. Ross, the chairman of the Related Companies, which is developing the $15 billion, 26-acre project along with Oxford Properties Group.

Oxford and Related have agreed to pay the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) $1 billion to lease the site, which unfurls from West 30th to 33rd Streets, Tenth to Twelfth Avenues, for 99 years.

“Today, we formally start the most ambitious construction project in the history of New York,” said Ross. The first building to rise at the site will be a 1,300-foot, 46-story office tower designed by KPF, which also created the master plan.

Coach, the luxury apparel company, will purchase 740,000 square feet of the tower. The tower, which will overhang a portion of the High Line, is expected to open in 2015 and aiming for LEED Platinum certification.

The project involves the construction oftwo angled office towers, to north “30 Hudson Yards” and south “10 Hudson Yards”, rise dramatically above a glass enclosed seven-story retail podium.

Encompassing nearly 5.5 million square feet, this mixed use complex bound by 10th Avenue, 33rd Street, Hudson Boulevard and 30th Street will be the largest commercial building in New York City.

Meanwhile, the project’s entire first phase, which will take up half of the site and be built mostly atop a platform over the rail yards, is set to be completed in 2017.