The literature on the impact of author architecture has focused mainly on institutional and corporate architecture, particularly about its use in the interest of urban competitiveness. However, property developers are increasingly hiring “starchitects” for housing projects. This paper will focus on the case study of Álvaro Siza's Tower 611W56 in New York (a residential building) and will address two objectives: 1) to understand the objectives of the developer in hiring Siza, taking into account the specificities of the context - New York; 2) to characterise the branding strategy of this building, specifically the image/satus/role of Siza and of his architecture within this strategy. In methodological terms, the work was based on a series of interviews with various actors of the project (from Siza to the building's developer) and content analysis of the different instruments that supported the tower's branding: website, film, book. In a property market as competitive and global as New York's the search for distinction goes hand in hand with the desire to (hyper)monetise a project. The hiring of Siza has one declared objective and another that is unassumed and apparently riskier. The first relates to the intention of creating a residential building that is a work of art, in this case a sculpture that stands out for its “lightness, simplicity, elegance and whiteness” (the developer makes an analogy of Siza's tower to Jane by comparison with a building next door, black and earlier, which would be King Kong), with a dual function: to ensure the distinction (in the present) and the future “permanence” of the building and of the developer in that (so) particular city. The undeclared objective seems to be maximum profitability (using the signature as a lure for investors and buyers), although it is not certain that it has been fully achieved.

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Housing,Real Estate,New York,Starchitecture,Branding,Álvaro Siza