In this age of blogs and 24-hour cable news, rarely does breaking news come from an old-fashioned hardcover book. But that is exactly what happened with Studio Daniel Libeskind’s New York Tower, which can be seen above (and which we also talked to the architect about earlier today).

Ever since the project leaked onto the Internet last year, the real estate blogosphere has been following every rumor and murmur about the project. But it took the November 18 publication of Counterpoint, Libeskind’s latest monograph, for the world to get its first look. Indeed it wasn’t until last week, when New York architecture critic Justin Davidson pointed out the project’s publication therein, that people started to take notice. Fortunately for us, we happened to have a review copy lying around the office, from which these images were taken.

But before we go, one caveat. The developer refused to release any of these images–except for the one we posted of the terrace gardens–when we requested them. “They were made at least a year ago, for publication purposes, and no longer reflect the current state of the project,” Lloyd Kaplan, spokesperson for developer Elad Properties, told us. Still, they provide the most complete picture of the project yet. And, even if it does change, as long as it looks half this good, we think everyone will be happy.

Also, if you care to learn more about the book (and, we hope, the tower), Liebeskind and Paul Goldberger–his interlocutor for Counterpoint–will be giving a talk at the Center for Architecture on December 10.