Central Park Could Someday Be Home to the World's Tallest Wooden Tower

A proposed wooden tower in Central Park would break world records and clean polluted waters—all while providing visitors with a stunning view of one of the world’s largest urban parks, according to Architectural Digest.

Designed by New York studio DFA, the prefabricated timber structure—called Central Park Tower—would loom 712 feet above Manhattan, making it the tallest of its kind. But it wouldn’t exist purely for ornamental purposes.

Standing in the center of the park’s scenic (yet horribly polluted) Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, the tower would also come equipped with a vertical-axis wind turbine. This eco-friendly feature would generate power to filter the 106-acre man-made lake’s approximately 1 billion gallons of contaminated water. Since few people would likely turn down the chance to score a great aerial view of the Big Apple, Central Park Tower would also offer a 56-foot-wide viewing platform, providing park visitors a panorama of the city.

Central Park Tower would be manufactured offsite and constructed in less than six months, according a DFA press release. Even though the project wouldn’t require months of labor or expensive materials, it would still rank among the city’s metal and glass skyscrapers as one of the 50 tallest buildings in all of New York. We'll toast a glass of purified water to that.

Check out some renderings of the proposed project below:

[h/t Architectural Digest]