Manhattan West is one of the largest and most complex developments recently undertaken in New York City, turning a formerly dormant, industrial neighborhood into a bustling mixed-use destination. The project - built above active railroad tracks - serves as a gateway between Penn Station, Moynihan Train Hall, Hudson Yards, and The High Line, all while providing the neighborhood and commuters with a fully pedestrianized setting. The development is conceived as a 24/7 neighborhood, serving New Yorkers day and night with a variety of distinctive planters and seating, art installations, and terraces with unique views of the city. Mixed retail, including healthcare, fitness, restaurants, and a supermarket flank these open spaces, creating a dynamic environment. As part of a larger project overseen by international multidisciplinary firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Landscape Architects from international firm Field Operations brought their expertise to the ground-level experience.

Pedestrian Connectivity
The master plan closes an infrastructure gap with strategically located circulation pathways, sloped surfaces, and steps that promote fluid movement throughout the site. Pedestrians can now finally walk from Moynihan Train Hall to The High Line and cross only one street in the process - providing a safe space above the congested roads outside the Lincoln Tunnel.

Upon exiting Moynihan Train Hall, pedestrians cross Ninth Avenue and enter Manhattan West's plaza, which leads to The High Line - Moynihan Connector, and finally The High Line itself. The award-winning High Line - Moynihan Connector is a 600-foot-long extension of the elevated park that creates one continuous walk in the form of two pedestrian bridges elevated over the street.

As part of the repositioning of existing corporate office building Five Manhattan West, the design team carved out part of the building's southern side to create an elevated breezeway replete with richly textured plantings and outdoor seating oriented towards city views. This passage allowed the team to preserve the existing building while extending the public space to 10th Avenue and creating a continuous walkable connection to Hudson Yards.

 
Plaza Network
The buildings are organized around a series of distinct plazas, enabled by an engineered platform that covers the tracks. The Entry Plaza, adjacent to One Manhattan West, features a bosque of trees, long linear stone marble planters, moveable seating, and sloping and stepped surfaces that create pockets of space for people to linger, while wide pathways along the building façade and 9th Avenue allow for fluid pedestrian movement. The 40-foot-wide Art Plaza provides a dramatic setting for a monumental sculpture at the site's southeast corner in front of Two Manhattan West.

As the heart of Manhattan West's open space, the Central Plaza includes an open and welcoming zone that is active through all hours of the day, creating a much-needed pathway and social amenity in a neighborhood with limited green spaces. Moving west from this entry point, outdoor seating is set within a lush, green landscape that offers shade in the summer while remaining resilient throughout the colder months. Featuring movable furniture and wooden stage benches, the Central Plaza is designed to be extremely flexible, with furniture easily cleared out for larger events like ice skating rinks and red carpet movie premiers or utilized for smaller performances and gatherings.

Located between 450 West 33rd Street and One Manhattan West, Dier Terrace is designed to be inviting, layered, and fluid, utilizing a gently sloping ramp, broad steps, and shade trees to provide enclosure and an attractive setting for the Whole Foods and adjacent restaurants. Magnolia Court integrates diverse social seating opportunities and opens up circulation pathways, complete with a glass railing at its southern end framing a balcony that allows for western views toward Hudson Yards and The High Line Spur. At the northern end, Magnolia Court becomes a dynamic space for outdoor dining, featuring custom-designed planters and seating.

Challenges From The Ground Up
While the team relished the opportunity to design a new neighborhood, the biggest challenge was building the 7-million-square-foot development above active railroad tracks that service Moynihan Train Hall and Penn Station - the Western Hemisphere's busiest train station. With minimal buildable land available, the integrated design team had to find a way to create land while preserving the functionality of the tracks below. The result was a 2.6-acre, precast concrete segmental structure that supported the construction of the development over the tracks, creating a public space where none existed before. This platform - and the location of the terra firma at the edges of the site - directly informed both big and small structural solutions for each building. The team strategically placed the Pendry luxury hotel and high-end apartment building The Eugene in zones where the terra firma already existed. The largest towers - One and Two Manhattan West - are supported by a central core with sloping perimeter columns that reach available foundations around the rail tracks.

As the vision evolved to include a large offering of amenities and public spaces, the city planning framework had to respond. The design team proposed a new framework that satisfies the criteria for Privately Owned Public Spaces while allowing for more variation in size and dimension - ultimately increasing the size of the project to accommodate more public space. The result is a richer public realm with various landscaped plaza zones and extensive amenities, including lush gardens, art, outdoor dining, and a vast amount of public seating.

The site presented a specific challenge in protecting street trees located near underground steam vaults and pipes that generated excessive heat, threatening root systems. To address this, the design team employed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling to analyze heat dispersion and its impact on trees. Based on the findings, an innovative rigid insulation system was installed around the root zones to mitigate thermal stress and ensure the trees' viability.

Environmental Impact
As part of developer Brookfield Properties' commitment to transition its entire U.S. office portfolio to be powered by zero-emissions electricity, 6 million square feet of office buildings at Manhattan West - including One, Two, and Five Manhattan West - are powered by renewable electricity sourced from run-of-river hydropower plants located in New York. This commitment contributes to a reduction in direct carbon emissions by more than 80%.

The project ambitiously includes more than 400 times more flora than required by city zoning, with a plant list featuring native species and a variety of colors and textures for interest all year round. The native species selection reduces water requirements, alongside minimal high-maintenance lawn spaces. Stormwater is collected onsite and reused within the irrigation systems with enough capacity to fill approximately 55 New York City water towers - exceeding the city's stormwater detention codes.

Social Impact
Visitorship to Manhattan West has skyrocketed since completion, supported by the site's direct connectivity to Moynihan Train Hall and Penn Station, proximity to Madison Square Garden, and seamless accessibility to The High Line via the Connector. Daily office occupants are anticipated to reach 15,000 upon the delivery of tenant spaces at Two Manhattan West, and foot traffic at the Connector averages 12,500 daily commuters - nearly 170,000 commuters total since it opened in 2024. The developer's Arts & Events team - responsible for curating the site's free, public programming - has hosted over 150 events and public art installations, attracting over 50,000 visitors. The programming is diverse by all measures and has been widely covered in national and local media outlets.

Manhattan West is among the most successful mixed-use developments in New York City, experiencing a swift lease-up and garnering top-of-market rents across its office, retail, residential, and hospitality programs, as well as establishing itself as a dynamic destination for New Yorkers and visitors alike.

As seen in LASN magazine, December 2025.