The dancing towers of New York

US-based SHoP Architects, in collaboration with luxury developer JDS Development Group, is creating 2 copper-clad bent apartment towers in New York that will be connected by a 3-storey sky bridge 300 feet above the ground, at the 27th and 28th floors.

The sky bridge, supported by steel trusses, will include a 75-foot-long lap pool, a whirlpool hot tub and resident’s bar and lounge, helping to create a new vertical community. The sky bridge carries and unifies the building utility systems and is the first major new sky bridge to be built in New York in the last 80 years.

Each of the 2 ‘dancing towers’ offers more than 300 one-of-a-kind apartment layouts with sweeping views of the Empire State Building, East River and the Manhattan skyline.

Called the American Copper Buildings and formerly known as 626 First Avenue the 41- and 48-storey residential towers are rising on First Avenue and 36th Street on the eastern edge of Manhattan. The waterfront site overlooks the East River. The development is part of an ongoing trend sweeping New York at present for high-end residential towers.

The full project encompasses 900,000 sq feet (83,600 sq metres). Apartment leasing will begin this autumn, with completion of the project scheduled for 2017.