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Expanding on its 2013/14 exhibition Sky High & the Logic of Luxury, the Skyscraper Museum has continued its exploration of supertall skyscrapers with a new web tool highlighting New York City’s super-slender, ultra-luxury residential tower. The museum has used a minimum 1:10 ratio of of width to height to categorize buildings as super-slender, and the range goes all the way to 1:23 in the case of 111 W. 57th Street, a building by SHoP Architects that is estimated to complete in 2019.
As the Skyscraper Museum notes, these super-slender skyscrapers are driven by demand for views, are possible through a combination of technological advancement in engineering and zoning. The most notable of these super-slender skyscrapers so far include One57 and 432 Park Avenue, which have already been finished, but towers like Sky House (2008) and One Madison (2010) certainly heralded this change earlier. The vast majority will be completed in the next few years.
Here are the top 10 tallest super-slender skyscrapers constructed and en route in New York City
125 Greenwich Street is designed by Rafael Viñoly and located right next to the former American Stock Exchange Building (which will also turn into condos) and two blocks from the World Trade Center site. Set to be completed in 2018, 125 Greenwich Street would be the tallest residential building in Lower Manhattan at 88 stories and nearly 900 feet. As reported by the Skyscraper Museum, “While earlier images of the project showed a 1,350-foot, all-glass, rectangular extrusion, the latest unofficial renderings depict a series of three glass prisms, separated by landscaped terraces, anchored to a concrete spine, and topped off with a rectilinear spire.”
Quite overshadowing the Woolworth Building next door (itself once the tallest buildings in the world), 30 Park Place is a residential skyscraper by Robert A.M. Stern, who has been favoring more traditional building materials and methods of late in his residential designs– limestone, brick and in this case, granite in a masonry technique. 30 Park Place will be completed this year with a height of 937 feet and 82 stories. There will be a Four Seasons Hotel on the lower floors and a courtyard separating it from the Woolworth Building, located on the same block,
Along 57th Street’s Billionaires’ Row, 220 Central Park South is another work by Robert A.M. Stern, clad in limestone like 15 Central Park West, completed in 2008. Also akin to the earlier residential building, 220 Central Park will have two sections – a 17-story “villa” and a 66-level tower. The total super-slender tower will be 950 feet tall and 77 stories. As the Skyscraper Museum reports, Vornado, the developer of 220 Central Park South, was in a tiff with Extell because of blocked views but “in 2013, the two settled this dispute: Vornado paid Extell $194 million for the parking garage, and both developers agreed to move their projects slightly to secure views.”
One57 has been open for two years now, but at 1004 feet and 90 stories, it still surpasses the height of the five not-yet-finished super-slender towers mentioned before. One57 held the title for tallest residential skyscraper until it was beat by 432 Park Avenue. One57 is a design by architect Christian de Portzamparc, with a Park Hyatt hotel on the lower floors and luxury condos atop.
35 Hudson Yards, designed by David Childs of SOM, will be the second tallest in the development. At 1009 feet, it will be taller than One57 but with 70 stories. As the Skyscraper Museum notes, the design was one originally more cylindrical but “most recent set of renderings show the building as boxier with setbacks and a curvy top.”
The Jean Nouvel-designed residential tower at 53 W. 53rd Street has been in the works for a long time, surviving a height reduction by the NYC Department of City Planning to 1,050 feet (where it is still planned) and a hiatus during the recession. The lower floors (not including the first two floors) will actually be part of MoMA, a museum that has clearly indicated its need for more space.
The first appearance of Brooklyn in the super-slender game will be 9 DeKalb, joining the rapid development in Downtown Brooklyn. Designed by SHoP Architects, the tower will be 1066 feet and 73 stories. What sets 9 DeKalb apartment is the makeup of the units inside, as the Skyscraper Museum writes, “Unlike all the Manhattan towers, though, it will be a rental building that contains 500 rental units, of which 20 percent will be “affordable” due to the project’s 421-a tax exemption status.”
The current king of supertall, super-slender skyscrapers, 432 Park Avenue is visible from nearly everywhere. It holds the title for the tallest residential building in New York City (and the world). 432 Park Avenue tops out at 1,396 feet and 96 stories, with open mechanical floors that break up the simple, piercing form. The building was completed in 2015 atop the former site of the Drake Hotel.
The most slender of them all, 111 West 57th Street has a ratio of 1:23 and will reach 1,438 feet and 80 stories. It has a projected completion date of 2018 and is set back from the street due to its proximity to the landmarked Steinway & Sons building (though the piano maker sold the building in 2013). 111 West 57th Street is designed by SHoP Architects, with a facade of glass, terra cotta and bronze.
The Central Park Tower has gone by many names: The Nordstrom Tower, 216 West 57th Street. When completed in 2019, it is expected to reach 1,539 feet and 99 stories, with a Nordstrom department store and hotel on the lower levels. It will also have a controversial cantilever over the Arts Students League, a landmarked building next door. Extell has deliberately kept information on the design hard to come by, so time will only tell its final form and height.
For more detail on each building, check out the full report at the Skyscraper Museum. Next, check out the Top 10 Tallest Buildings in NYC, planned and existing.
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