Nearly one year ago, Brooklyn-based Urban-Scape nabbed a property on the Lower East Side’s 100 Norfolk Street, between Rivington and Delancey streets, for $8.8 million in cash, announcing that a 12-story condoplex building would soon rise from the site. Now renderings by architecture firm ODA are out and they reveal a modern, glass-coated wedding-cake building that has already begun to generate controversy in the neighborhood.

The architect describes the project as “combining its mass from the surrounding properties to create a stepping volume which cantilevers over the adjacent low rise buildings like an inverted ‘wedding cake’ or ziggurat. The unexpected massing, cladded in a glass curtain wall, reflects a paradoxical mid-block freestanding building offering striking views and strong interior light exposure for an array of residential spaces – a pendant above the city.”