Air Rights in Action: When the NYC Skyline Gets a Bold Remi 8

As an architect, I’m often immersed in the intricate layers of NYC’s urban fabric, but every so often, something stops me in my tracks and reminds me just how remarkable our city is. I snapped these photos while walking between site visits, and what immediately struck me was the dramatic cantilever—one of the starkest examples I’ve seen in “real life” of what air rights look like in action.

For those not familiar, air rights are the unused development potential of a property. In NYC, property owners can sell these air rights, allowing developers to build higher by essentially borrowing unused vertical space. However, what you see in these photos—a striking cantilevered section—isn’t actually part of most air rights transfers. The right to cantilever over an adjacent property is a separately negotiated agreement, often requiring creative solutions and careful coordination.

Take “The Westly,” for example, a modern addition to NYC’s skyline that uses a stepped cantilever to expand its floor area in an innovative and visually compelling way. And then there’s the MoMA Expansion Tower (53W53), a stunning, slender skyscraper that ascends gracefully above the Museum of Modern Art, enabled by air rights purchases from nearby properties.

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As an architect, I’m often immersed in the intricate layers of NYC’s urban fabric, but every so often, something stops me in my tracks and reminds me just how remarkable our city is. I snapped these photos while walking between site visits, and what immediately struck me was the dramatic cantilever—one of the starkest examples I’ve seen in “real life” of what air rights look like in action.

For those not familiar, air rights are the unused development potential of a property. In NYC, property owners can sell these air rights, allowing developers to build higher by essentially borrowing unused vertical space. However, what you see in these photos—a striking cantilevered section—isn’t actually part of most air rights transfers. The right to cantilever over an adjacent property is a separately negotiated agreement, often requiring creative solutions and careful coordination.

Take “The Westly,” for example, a modern addition to NYC’s skyline that uses a stepped cantilever to expand its floor area in an innovative and visually compelling way. And then there’s the MoMA Expansion Tower (53W53), a stunning, slender skyscraper that ascends gracefully above the Museum of Modern Art, enabled by air rights purchases from nearby properties.