A newly revealed rendering shows a proposed ten-story residential building rising at 100 West 79th Street, right across from the American Museum of Natural History on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The project would bring four duplex condominium units to the southwest corner of West 79th Street and Columbus Avenue, replacing a five-story building that currently occupies the site.
The design, revealed by New York YIMBY, calls for a slender rectangular massing with most of the building's frontage running along Columbus Avenue. The facade is planned as a glass curtain wall overlaid with what the outlet describes as a Mondrianesque grid of thin metal spandrels, paired with an earth-toned colonnade framing the ground floor.
According to the same report, permits have not yet been filed with the Department of Buildings, and no construction timeline has been announced. The site sits within easy reach of transit, with the B and C trains at the 81st Street–Museum of Natural History station along Central Park West and the 1 train at 79th Street and Broadway both nearby.
What Would Replace the Existing Building
Property records compiled by LandmarkWest describe a set of alterations tied to the address, including stripping and resurfacing the Columbus Avenue facade, removing the existing cornice, eliminating the stoop in favor of a basement entrance, and adding storefronts along both the Columbus Avenue and West 79th Street sides. Those changes would mark a dramatic shift for a corner currently defined by its older, low-rise structure.
The Upper West Side has not seen much in the way of new condo construction in recent years, a backdrop that gives this small four-unit project outsized attention. The neighborhood is projected to receive just 51 new condo units in the three years through 2028, according to an estimate by Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group cited by Bloomberg. That compares with 869 new condos added between 2016 and 2019, before the pandemic upended developers' plans — a 94 percent slide that Bloomberg's reporting calls the steepest drop among all Manhattan neighborhoods Corcoran Sunshine tracks.
Why New Supply Has Been So Scarce
Brokers say the resulting scarcity of new listings is intensifying competition among buyers, particularly those hunting for move-in-ready homes, per Habitat Magazine. The outlet attributes the broader development slowdown to a shortage of large parcels, the prevalence of historic and landmark designations across the neighborhood's streets, and community opposition to new projects. Corcoran Sunshine research executive Ryan Schleis also pointed to rising construction costs, steep land prices, and elevated borrowing costs as additional pressures weighing on developers.
Other Upper West Side proposals have drawn attention this year as well. West Side Rag has reported on a separate plan to build a 145-foot structure above a Gristedes supermarket at 500–504 Columbus Avenue, and on an even larger proposal for an 86-story tower that would become the neighborhood's tallest building if built.
For now, the 100 West 79th Street project remains in an early, conceptual phase. No permits have been filed with the Department of Buildings, and the project's timeline, financing, and ownership details have not been disclosed, leaving the rendering as the clearest public look yet at what could eventually replace the five-story building on that corner.
