The 305-meter luxury residential tower joins other skyscrapers transforming the Manhattan skyline, including the new 432 Park Avenue and the 666 Fifth Avenue, yet with an innovative engineering and materials to protect sparkling views of the city.

For all of its modern aluminium and glass construction, the Meganom project rests on New York City history for its foundation. The site parcel for the new tower was prepared with the removal of vacant buildings, but a 12-story limestone building at 260 Fifth Avenue will be integrated into the new tower.

Beyond that, the intentionally slim tower is designed to rise above the neighborhood near Madison Garden Park, appearing almost as an attractive stack of glass cubes connected along a single structural spine on the building's west side. "The idea that implicitly moves the project is aeronautics, putting people on viewing platforms – 'shelves' in the air, from which the city is seen," the architects say.

The design, Meganom says, is what allows for the residential units to be free of support columns within their living spaces, and to deliver the sweeping sensibility of an aerie. The mechanical systems are shifted to the west rather than in a center core, pushing the apartments out and into the sun and sky.

"The form of the skyscraper is inspired by a unique structural system that separates the building's functioning core from its living spaces, creating expansive, unobstructed, column-free and customizable full-floor residences – an inventive design solution unprecedented in a New York high-rise," the architects say. The floors are supported by the core and two walls running north and south.

The other two walls are full-length windows in 4.6-meter panels, meant for taking in the panoramic views. The effect is particularly striking in the full-floor units, which appear to almost float above the Big Apple in their glass and aluminium capsule. While the north and south views are unobstructed, the metal-wrapped east wall also offers an oversized, perforated "porthole" window and viewing panel.

The original plans called for 41 apartments to be built across 54 floors, but height was subsequently altered in the building without further information on how many additional units that might mean or how it changes the 17,700 square meter project. Also atop the building is an aluminium-wrapped and sheltered observation deck, open to all building residents and available for events and gatherings. The "rooftop open room," as Meganom calls it, offers breathtaking views of Manhattan and its environs.

The 262 Fifth Avenue project is part of a construction boom in New York City that's characterized by the slender skyscrapers known as the "supertalls." More than two dozen such buildings, defined as being higher than 300 meters, have been completed in recent years or – as with the Meganom project – are in some phase of construction. Their status as a development option has been enhance by technological improvements in engineering, and the advantages of modern materials like aluminium.

The buildings also seek to achieve sustainability benchmarks that advance New York City's commitment on climate change and the environment, a goal that is a priority of the new 262 Fifth Avenue tower as well.