55 Willoughby Street
Situated at the edge of Brooklyn Commons, 55 Willoughby is a 43-story residential tower rising 469 feet above Downtown Brooklyn. The 268,000-SF project includes 295 apartments—89 designated as affordable—along with 3,500 SF of retail and 12,000 SF of amenities.
DeSimone’s structural design for the building navigates a highly constrained site bordered by adjacent structures with minimal clearance. A dramatic 18-foot cantilever on the eastern elevation projects over a neighboring roof and supports 31 floors above. To achieve this, our engineers designed four post-tensioned, one-story-deep transfer beams that eliminated the need for bulky trusses while preserving efficient layouts.
| Client | Lonicera Partners, LLC |
|---|---|
| Architects: | Colberg Architecture and Architecture Outfit |
| Size | 43 Stories | 268,000 SF (24,900 SM) | 295 Units |
| Office: | New York |
| Completion: | 2025 |
High-strength concrete and dual reinforcement systems provide the necessary stiffness and strength. A staged stressing sequence during construction—tracked by precise optical monitoring—helped ensure proper curtain wall alignment and uninterrupted progress.
The tower’s construction leveraged other innovative methods: Doka’s cantilever climbing formwork allowed floorplates to extend without disturbing neighboring roofs, and SPYDERCRANEs enabled careful façade and rebar placement without tower cranes.
Blending engineering ingenuity with urban housing goals, 55 Willoughby introduces a bold structural profile while delivering a mix of market-rate and affordable homes in a dense, transit-rich neighborhood.
