The tower is rectangular in plan, with a curtain wall that contains insulated glazing, as well as a reinforced-concrete mechanical core.

Because One Manhattan West partially overhangs a set of railroad tracks, the mechanical core carries most of the building's structural loads.

[3][4] The building contains 67 usable stories,[5] 2.1 million square feet (200×10^3 m2) and anticipated to achieve LEED Gold certification.

[3] The curtain wall contains insulated glazing; according to SOM design director Kim Van Holsbeke, this was intended to give the impression that the building had been milled from stainless steel.

[3][10] The perimeter of the lobby does not contain columns, as the building's central core carries all of the structural loads through the ground story.

[3][5] The structural system of the tower is composed of a central mechanical core of reinforced concrete and a perimeter steel moment frame.

As such, the foundations cover only 30 percent of the site's area,[3] and the southernmost 20 feet (6.1 m) of the lobby overhangs the railroad tracks.

[10] To avoid the tracks, the perimeter columns on the south, north, and east sides do not come down to ground level, but are transferred to the core above the building's lobby.

[22] The building reached its halfway point in October 2017, when the first glass panels were installed on the facade,[23] and accounting firm Ernst & Young announced the next month that it would relocate to One Manhattan West.

[32][33] That December, Blackstone began negotiations to buy the 49-percent stake from Brookfield and QIA for approximately US$1.40 billion.