Overview
This week we’d like to introduce another famous architecture using stainless steel materials, the VIA 57 West. Acclaimed as “the Best Tall Building in the Americas” by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the Great Pyramid emerges from the Manhattan skyline as a new landmark for its unique design. Let us explore the world and learn stainless steel.
The Manhattan Pyramid
Known as the Manhattan Pyramid or Manhattan’s Great Pyramid for both of its location and its shape, VIA 57 West (its official name) or VIΛ 57WEST is a 41-level residential building equipment with 709 apartments and a 22000 square foot garden at its heart. It covers almost a full New York City block on 57th Street between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues, amounting to 830,000 ft² (or 77,110 m2) with a total height of 450 ft (or 137 m).
The Project Background Information
The Manhattan Pyramid was developed by the Durst Organization with an investment of $465 million to build (Kelly Chan 2106) and designed by the world-renowned Danish Architect firm Bjarke Ingels Group (or known as BIG). By the time when the VIA project was launched, the BIG Group was still a youthful firm, and this was their first building in North America.
The Durst Organization didn’t sail for a traditional residential building in line with market, instead they capitalized on this opportunity to create a new public work of art for inspiration. BIG lived up with their expectation with a unique and striking modern design. The construction took 3 years from 2013 to 2016. Since its completion in 2016, the Manhattan Pyramid won numerous awards and recognition for the excellent design, such as “the Emporis Best Skyscraper award” (New York City Feelings 2025) and the title of “CityRealty’s Top 10 NYC Buildings of the Decade” (CityRealty 2025).
The Design of the Manhattan Pyramid
The Manhattan Pyramid features a distinctive pyramid-like structure, stunning both in the views of and from the building. The view of the building is like a sail with metallic surface on the Hudson River, bringing a sense of tranquility.
As illustrated by Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG, “In an unlikely fusion of what seems to be two mutually exclusive typologies – the courtyard and the skyscraper, the Courtscraper is the most recent addition to the Manhattan skyline.” The Great Pyramid is also known as courtscraper because the deign applies a combination of a traditional Manhattan skyscraper and a European perimeter block with central courtyard.
The Great Pyramid is designed so for two main reasons as below,
• The structure is deformed into a kind of tetrahedron, warping the building’s façade into a sloping roof, enabling each resident in the building’s North Tower to have views of the Hudson River. Meanwhile it allows natural light to enter deeply inside the building’s interior space. Above all, the design politely avoids blocking the adjacent Helena Tower’s views of the River.
• The design of courtyard is inspired from the Central Park. The courtyard features the exact same proportions as Central Park, except at 13000th the size (New Atlas 2025). Located on the west side waterfront of Manhattan, the site is framed by a power plant, a garage and the highway. BIG figures an oasis is necessary on the architectural scale, just like Central Park as an oasis in the heart of city is indispensable at the urban scale.
Stainless Steel Applied into the Manhattan Pyramid
The Manhattan Pyramid applies a typical American skyscraper formula in terms of the building materials, i.e., the blend of glass and stainless steel.
316L stainless steel is selected as the material from the perspective of sustainability. The building is located near the Hudson River, a complex estuary, a dynamic zone where freshwater from the river meets and mixes with saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean. 316L is known as the marine grade, exhibiting high performance in terms of resistance to seawater corrosion, which can thus prolong the building’s service life.
The building facade is composed of 1,200 curved stainless-steel cladding components. These stainless steel sheets are processed offsite, sized from 25 to 30 feet in width and finished in abrasive-blasted texture. They run up and down following the concept of a simple post-and-beam concrete structure (RTF 2025). The beam constituting the structure is also customized in stainless steel 316L.
Stainless Steel Sheets & Stainless Steel Bars at CIVMATS
Whether you are looking for 316L stainless steel sheets for building façade, or 316L stainless steel bars such as stainless steel channels, stainless steel beams as the structure bearing weight, we CIVMATS can be your most reliable stainless steel material choice from China.
CIVMATS proudly supply stainless steel materials in great quality from China to the world. CIVMATS supply stainless steel beyond 316L. Welcome for your consultation.
