6. Some of the tallest buildings in Queens can be found in Long Island City
As New York City’s largest borough, Queens is home to more than 36 skyscrapers. Over the years, Long Island City has housed some of Queens’ tallest buildings — beginning in 1927 with the Chase Manhattan Bank Building, a 14-story clock tower and office building that stood as the borough’s first skyscraper. It remained the tallest commercial building in Queens until the opening of One Court Square in 1990. Designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, One Court Square is a 50-story 673-foot-tall office tower. The building has a green-tinted wrapped facade, 27 passenger elevators, six escalators, and more than 1,400,000 square feet of rentable space. One Court Square remained the tallest building in New York State outside of Manhattan for 29 years until the completion of the nearby Skyline Tower in October 2019.
Measuring 778 feet tall, the Skyline Tower is a 68-story residential skyscraper with 802 condos intended to target buyers looking for more space at a lower price point. Units at the Skyline Tower cost an average of $500,000 to $4 million, significantly less than their Manhattan counterparts. Original plans for the skyscraper envisioned the structure as 79 stories tall with a height of 963 feet. However, due to its close proximity to LaGuardia Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration ruled that the building could rise no higher than 752 feet without posing a risk to landing airplanes, forcing developers to modify the structure to its current height. Long Island City also contains Queens Plaza Park, the second tallest building in Queens — measuring in at 755 feet. Topped out in June 2020, Queens Plaza Park incorporated the Chase Manhattan Bank Building, which was designated an official city landmark in 2015, into its design to serve as the building’s commercial base.
