The Spiral by Bjarke Ingels Group

The Spiral redefines the high-rise typology by seamlessly integrating landscape architecture into the vertical dimension of a skyscraper. Rising 1005 feet above Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, the tower features a continuous sequence of sixty cascading landscaped terraces and adjacent atria, forming a spiraling green ribbon that wraps around the façade and offers accessible outdoor space to every office floor. This unprecedented fusion of architecture and nature creates a new urban landmark—a vertical parkland in the sky—and transforms the tower into a living ecosystem of people, plants, and pollinators.

The project introduces a biophilic workspace typology, where landscape is not ornamental but fundamental to the building’s identity, performance, and use. Each terrace acts as a double-height atrium, connecting multiple levels in the building while encouraging physical activity, informal interactions among colleagues and recreational activities. These terraced gardens, collectively totaling over 13,000 square feet—the largest landscape of its kind ever installed at or above 300 feet in New York City—bring nature into the daily experience of thousands of office workers.

The landscape is not just extensive; it is ecologically intelligent. Inspired by native horticulture, the plant palette echoes the nearby High Line and Hudson River Park, and evolves as the tower ascends. While most of the plant species on the ground cover are native to the American prairie, known for their resilience to high winds and drought, the planting on the tower includes mid-story shrubs and flowering bushes, culminating in single- and multi-stem trees and climbing ivy that thrive even in winter. This layered planting strategy responds to sun orientation and wind velocity on each side of the tower, ensuring biodiversity and resilience across microclimates. This rich and varied vertical landscape also turns the building into an urban habitat. The planting attracts birds, bees, and butterflies—chickadees, warblers, hawk moths, and Ruby-throated hummingbirds— turning the building into a year-round biodiverse habitat. Where traditional towers express identity through spires or lighting, The Spiral does so through seasonal planting, creating a dynamic and ecological performative tower that changes throughout the year.

The architectural and landscape concept stems from the project’s urban context—at the nexus of the High Line and Hudson Boulevard Park—extending the logic of linear green space upwards in a continuous spiral. Landscape becomes a connective tissue binding together architecture, ecology, and user experience. The stepped form allows for unique floor plans that suit tenants of all scales, while the integration of nature at every level fosters health, productivity, and social interaction. Planting and edge details are designed to maximize comfort, mitigating exposure to wind and sun, while framing views of Manhattan and providing diverse social gatherings. A curated furnishing kit-of-parts enables flexible uses, from private reflection to communal events. Generous ceiling heights and high-performance glazing further draw daylight deep into the interiors, supporting both comfort and the vitality of the vegetation. At the same time, an advanced water management system captures and recycles rainwater from terraces, exceeding NYC’s stormwater detention requirements and enabling sustainable, self-sufficient irrigation.

The Spiral’s holistic landscape strategy blurs the boundaries between building and park, private and public, inside and outside. It reimagines the high-rise as an extension of the city’s ecological network—a vertical prairie and forest wrapped in glass and steel. More than a green gesture, the landscape is a vital, performative layer: enhancing biodiversity, promoting environmental stewardship, and offering a new model for how cities can grow upwards with nature. By combining architecture and landscape into a single expressive and performative gesture, The Spiral creates a new icon for New York’s skyline and pioneers a future-forward approach to sustainable urban development.

“The Spiral pioneers a new landscape typology by bringing gardens to a high rise. Its continuous cascade of greenery from one level to another provides office spaces with a new vertical dimension of social and biophilic connectivity. Designed to strengthen collaboration and well-being, each terrace hosts plantings specific to the varying daylight, winds, and temperatures on every floor of the tower. These gardens will welcome neighboring birds, bees, and butterflies to expand New York’s biodiversity to the city skyline.”
Giulia Frittoli, Partner, BIG.

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Photography: Laurian Ghinitoiu, Eric Petschek, Tishman Speyer

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