Dezeen Magazine

56 Leonard Street by Herzog & de Meuron

Work to restart on Herzog & de Meuron's stalled "Jenga building"

News: construction is set to recommence on 56 Leonard Street, a 250-metre-high residential tower in New York designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron and dubbed the "Jenga building".

Work on the building stopped in late 2008 as its recession-hit developer, Alexico Group, failed to raise the last portion of the project's $600 million in financing.

Representatives from construction manager U.S. Lend Lease this week told a community meeting that work on the 60-storey building could start up again as early as next week.

56 Leonard Street by Herzog & de Meuron

While the architects' plans have not changed significantly, Lend Lease could not confirm if the street-level stainless steel sculpture (pictured above) designed by British artist Anish Kapoor would still be going ahead.

The new timetable of works, as reported by the Tribeca Citizen, sets a completion date for the building of spring 2016.

See more images of the design in our earlier story.

Earlier this year Herzog & de Meuron worked with Chinese artist Ai Weiwei to create a pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery in London, and Dezeen filmed an interview with Pierre de Meuron at the opening in May as well as a tour of the cork structure led by Jacques Herzog. You can see all our stories about Herzog & de Meuron here.

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