Tribeca skyscraper to get sculpture

Apparently, having Priztker Prize winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss designers of Ian Schrager’s much hyped 40 Bond Street, design the 50-plus-story condominium at Leonard and Church streets in Tribeca wasn’t enough for the project’s developer, New York City-based Alexico Group.

Izak Senbahar and Simon Elias, Alexico’s principals, have announced that 56 Leonard will get a permanent public sculpture by London-based, Turner Prize-winning artist Anish Kapoor.

Kapoor gained wide recognition in the 1980s for his richly colored geometric sculptures employing simple forms and organic materials such as granite, limestone, marble, pigment and plaster. Working on a grand scale since the late 1990s, Kapoor has produced such formidable structures as the 115-foot-tall Taratantara in Gateshead, England; the 110-ton stainless steel Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park; and Sky Mirror, a 35-foot-diameter concave mirror shown in 2006 at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Alexico plans to reveal the design for 56 Leonard Street in the fall. The tower’s foundation is already under construction and completion is slated for spring 2010.
 
Alexico’s portfolio includes The Mark at 25 East 77th Street, designed by Jacques Grange, and 165 Charles Street in the West Village, designed by Richard Meier.
 
Following 40 Bond, 56 Leonard Street is Herzog & de Meuron’s second residential commission in New York City.