The pandemic has made evident that New York is more fragile than it seems, and it is a never-ending effort to keep it safe, vibrant, and accessible for it to thrive. New renderings illustrating the plan's full, 11-tower scope portray a bolder more adventurous design that is a departure from the brick factory-inspired look of prior phases. Rippling facades, engineering gymnastics, and sculptural forms define the six, yet-to-be-announced towers to come.

The 10-block site is one of the most valuable undeveloped tracts on the East River and its future occupants will forever enjoy sweeping views of the New York skyline. The site previously held the Lumber Exchange Terminal for more than 80 years. The land was rezoned from manufacturing to mixed residential uses in 2005, the same year Greenpoint Landing's developers purchased the lumberyard for $44 million.

With still more unrealized plans on the horizon, the rezoning has already reaped thousands of new apartments up and down the Williamsburg and Greenpoint shore. The rules generally require at least 20% of all units to be set aside as affordable and restrict tower heights to 400 feet tall, resulting in an anticlimactic domino effect when viewed from afar.