Towering Excellence Worthy of the Stars
Putting its residents close to everything, one of the best known residential skyscrapers in New York, The Orion, is right in between 8th and 9th avenues where restaurants, Times Square, the Theater District, and a myriad of subways and buses are right outside the door. Living up to its iconic name, the Orion is a towering, 60-story, glass residential building in Midtown West that, ever since its completion almost a decade ago, has been the apple of many buyers’ and renters’ eyes. No wonder it was named after one of the most conspicuous constellations in the sky. The Orion was the first modern residential tower to bring sleek and sophisticated living to the west side of Times Square.
CetraRuddy, the architect and interior designer, designed this ground-up, massive residential building for Extell Development Company. The 650,000 square-foot tower is one of New York City’s loftiest, notably the sixth tallest residential building at the time of its completion. It’s impressive in stature and its vibrant in color with a brilliant blue and green glass curtain wall that may have even inspired its moniker.
Located at 350 West 42nd Street, the elegant and sculptural tower contains 550 apartments, most of which feature dramatic 360-degree views of the Hudson River, Central Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan. Resident amenities are centrally located on the 29th and 30th floors and include a luxurious 8,500 square-foot fitness center.
The building color pays homage to its historic neighbor to the east, the McGraw-Hill Building. The construction and architectural team wanted a striking look to make the building standout for years to come. They hired W&W Glass to install the impressive unitized curtain wall. The team’s choice was a Sotawall® Hybrid-Wall® System. The distinguishing feature of Sotawall® Hybrid-Wall® is its ability to install between floor slabs like that of a standard window wall, while maintaining the superior performance of a pre-glazed, unitized curtain wall. This allowed the system to be installed with greater adjustment tolerances using field drilled anchors in lieu of embeds in concrete. It also kept the stand-off distance from the building slabs to a minimum with notched out mullions in the spandrel areas.
The building includes 20,000 square feet of amenity space which incorporates a breakfast café, indoor swimming pools, as well as screening rooms. The building entrance complements the dramatic exterior with 18-foot lobby ceilings and sophisticated, modern decor featuring rosewood and metal paneling, and a 50-foot long angled wall of variegated Pompeiian stone.
The luxurious units at The Orion were so coveted when the building was first being sold it set off a pre-sale frenzy. Voted one of the top amenity and service buildings in NYC, The Orion offers a full-time doorman, on-site garage, concierge services and an amazing three-story amenity suite. This high-end tower in the sky certainly offers a five-star experience across the board.
W&W Glass LLC is a family-owned business with a 70-year history in the metal and glass industry, one of the largest metal and glass companies in the New York metropolitan area and the largest supplier of structural glass systems in the country. We have over two decades of experience in the design and installation of various building enclosure systems, including stick-built curtain walls, pre-glazed unitized curtain walls, Pilkington Planar™ structural glass facades, and custom metal and glass enclosure systems. We install all of our work with our own dedicated union labor force. W&W is consistently the largest employer of glaziers in the NY metropolitan area.
