New York City’s most ambitious skyscraper could be hanging from an asteroid

The architecture firm behind the project said the structure will be powered with space-based solar panels

A New York City architecture firm has plans to construct a massive hanging skyscraper tethered to an asteroid.

The Clouds Architecture Office announced the concept of the Analemma Tower in a statement accompanied by a video presentation of the structure hanging from the space object through extension cords.

The building will be made accessible by drones, the company laid out in its design.

The Analemma Tower would be constructed in Dubai — for one-fifth of the cost of building the structure in New York City — before the company proposes to launch it above Manhattan.

“Going back to the earliest known structures, we can see a clear pattern emerging,” the firm said in a statement. “We are in the process of dislodging ourselves from the planet’s surface.”

Using the earth’s orbit, the company said the structure would be able to return to its same place in the sky each day after travelling between the northern and southern hemispheres.

The slowest part of the trajectory would occur over New York City. The firm intends to power the building using solar panels, which would be based in space.

Still, questions remain about whether the project would be attractive to everyday consumers. “While there may be a benefit to having 45 extra minutes of daylight at an elevation of 32,000 meters, the near vacuum and -40C temperature would prevent people from going outside without a protective suit,” the company noted.

“Then again, astronauts have continually occupied the space station for decades, so perhaps it’s not so bad?”

Even so, the company expects the residential complex will command record prices based off the current trend that sales price per square foot rises with floor elevation. Once completed, the structure would be considered the world’s tallest building.