Because of the stepped profile of the pinnacle, 111 West 57th Street is nicknamed “Stairway to Heaven.” But the southern elevation “feathers” its setbacks as the tower rises, shrinking the tower’s footprint on higher floors. Conceived by New York-based SHoP Architects, the tower’s northern elevation rises directly up to the pinnacle. and also the thinnest skyscraper in the world. Surpassing the previous tallest residential tower, 432 Park Avenue, which has a ratio of 1 to 15, it will be one of the highest in the U.S. The residential tower at 111 West 57 Street in New York, enabled by the developer’s purchase of the air rights from the landmark Steinway Hall (designed in 1925 by Warren & Wetmore) will have a width-to-height ratio of 1 to 24. Photo © Lester Ali, click to enlarge.īut you can never be too rich or too thin. This new era of extreme height and thinness so far has been applied mostly to residential rather than commercial towers, at least in the United States, although countries in the Middle East and Far East are betting on extravagant mixed-use towers.ġ11 West 57th Street, by SHoP Architects, is nearing completion. The strength of steel and concrete has increased dramatically, which means, for example, that the thickness of concrete walls can be reduced. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), founded in 1969, developed international standards for measuring tall buildings and is recognized as the arbiter for bestowing such titles as the “World’s Tallest Building.” For the CTBUH, “supertall” is defined as 300 meters high (almost 1,000 feet) or more, while “megatall” rises about 600 meters (almost 2,000 feet).Īggressive advancement in the fields of materials science and engineering have offered developers new opportunities to reach higher. Helpful to business is certifiable height. And having a $100 million penthouse in a supertall with a view of everywhere has a cachet only money can buy. But ownership is supposedly an investment for wealthy buyers.
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To be profitable, developers have to sell units at an exorbitant price per square foot, which isn’t appealing to commercial tenants, who lease rather than buy. The logic is straightforward: buildable lots are fewer, smaller, and more expensive. Scarcity of large plots and escalating land prices forced developers to recalculate their business models. In recent decades, the evolving economics of building tall began to influence real-estate, financing, regulatory, and planning decisions.
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So why aim for the stratosphere? The short answer: Profit. Residents there have complained of mechanical malfunctions and acoustical discomfort-creaking walls, whistling sounds-as well as swaying and even stalled elevators, all because of the wind.
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The New York Times recently reported big problems and angry rich people at 432 Park Avenue, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects and currently the tallest occupied residential building in the western hemisphere, according to the developers. But in the past decade, residential towers have started to rise to staggering heights in Midtown Manhattan and other parts of the city-and the globe-but with repercussions. Historically, skyscrapers have been mostly commercial buildings, where companies lease space and build it out for their needs. What causes billionaires to get dizzy in supertall and megatall towers? Is it the price tag or the side effect of dwelling so far off the ground? Is the public smirking about the correlation between price and altitude? Here is a deep backgrounder for those architects, urbanists, and the concerned public who wonder about the up and down sides of this race to the top of the world.