Moscow-based architecture, urban design, and research practice Meganom is nearing completion of its residential skyscraper at 262 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. Designed for client Five Points Development, the project dates back to 2015 and brings together an international team that includes Norm Architects as interior architect, SLCE Architects as architect of record, and untitled architecture overseeing architectural supervision and project management. Rising 860 feet over 52 stories, the tower contains 26 residential units within approximately 140,000 square feet and draws conceptual inspiration from aeronautics, envisioning apartments as elevated “shelves” that frame expansive views of the city.
The building’s architectural and spatial concept is organized around a structural backbone that supports a series of attached floor modules. These floors are sustained by a reinforced concrete core and two parallel walls running along Fifth Avenue, aligned with the long axis of Manhattan. By pushing the core outward and isolating it from the main residential volumes, the design achieves large, unobstructed apartment interiors with panoramic views. This approach eliminates vertical circulation within the units themselves, allowing for clear-span layouts and flexible, open interior spaces.
Structurally, the tower incorporates a number of engineering strategies developed to address its slender proportions and height. Six mechanical floors act as outrigger levels, tying into the eccentrically placed core to increase lateral rigidity. Wind performance was refined through extensive wind tunnel testing, including aeroelastic studies, informing features such as a void that functions as a windbreak and a damper located on the upper mechanical floor to ensure imperceptible movement for residents. High-strength concrete walls reinforced with 97 ksi high-yield rebar taper as they rise, optimizing structural performance while maximizing usable interior space.
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The building envelope and foundation further support both performance and spatial ambition. The structure rests on Manhattan schist, providing an allowable bearing capacity of 40-60 tons per square foot, among the strongest geological conditions in New York City. The façade combines a curtain wall system on the north and south elevations with floor-to-floor glazing, incorporating glass panels up to 20 feet high and 8.5 feet wide. Triple-glazed, low-iron glass with Low-E coatings, argon-filled cavities, and museum-quality lamination enhances thermal insulation, acoustic performance, transparency, and protection for interiors and artwork.
Mechanical systems and sustainability measures are integrated to deliver what the design team describes as “invisible comfort.” Hydronic radiant heating throughout the living spaces provides quiet, evenly distributed warmth while improving air quality and energy efficiency. A micro-climate HVAC system supplies filtered and conditioned fresh air to each apartment every hour (three times the requirement of New York City health codes), using energy recovery ventilation to reduce energy loss. Additional sustainability strategies include photovoltaic glass and Passive House principles, expressed through an airtight envelope, minimized thermal bridging, and high-performance glazing that reduces heating and cooling demands, contributing to a lower overall carbon footprint.
Other recent high-rise architecture project news includes the completion of two 36-storey residential towers on Irwell Bank Road in Singapore, featuring a pixelated façade designed by MVRDV; the topping out of Zaha Hadid Architects’ Yidan Center in Shenzhen, China, which reached its full height in November as a new global hub for education; and the unveiling of the Oricon Tower by Eduardo Souto de Moura and OODA, a 180-metre mixed-use skyscraper planned for Tirana, Albania.