Archinect - News

Looking back critically on the two-decade supertall building revolution in New York City

2022-12-24T10:00:00-05:00

We’re living through the birth of a new species of skyscraper that not even architects and engineers saw coming. After 9/11, experts concluded that skyscrapers were finished. Tall buildings that were in the works got scaled down or canceled on the assumption that soaring towers were too risky to be built or occupied. “There were all sorts of public statements that we’re never going to build tall again,” one architect told The Guardian. “All we’ve done in the 20 years since is build even taller.”

The ascendency of “accidental skylines” in Midtown Manhattan, Downtown Brooklyn, Miami, and recently Austin and Los Angeles is becoming a defining design trait of American cities as we move into the century’s third decade. “It’s a message of power,” developer Don Peebles told the Atlantic. “It’s not trying to blend in. It’s trying to stand out.”

The changes to New York City alone can be traced to new engineering techniques, rezoning, and the acceleration of real estate development begun under Michael Bloomberg’s administration, unprecedented wealth transfers that underwrite the high-end luxury residential market, and even the rise of architectural media, with lawsuits and public backlash representing the inevitable resistance against the envelope-pushing designs.

“In 2050, when these slender towers are eligible for landmark protection,” Skyscraper Museum director Carol ...

New AS+GG book explores design process behind world’s tallest towers

2022-11-07T12:37:00-05:00

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has published a new book charting the firm’s design and delivery of some of the world’s tallest structures. Titled Supertall | Megatall: How High Can We Go?, the book uses drawings and details from AS+GG’s archives to explore projects from the viewpoint of sustainability, technology, programming, and contextualization.

Among the schemes featured in the book are the Central Park Tower in New York City, the Chengdu Greenland Tower in China, and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which still holds the record of the world’s tallest building.

Central Park Tower by AS+GG. Image © Royce Douglas

With only 173 completed supertall buildings around the world, defined as a building whose height measures between 985 and 1,970 feet (300 and 600 meters), AS+GG sees the retrospective look at built precedents as an important tool for informing future high-rise projects.

"To go back and see something that was done 15 years ago, and how that's weathering, or how...

Central Park Tower penthouse lists for a record $250 million in Manhattan

2022-09-20T14:31:00-04:00

High rollers in the most expensive residential market in the country now have the chance to own its highest-elevated piece of real estate as the penthouse apartment in Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill's record-breaking Central Park Tower is now up for sale in Manhattan.

The asking price for the triplex unit occupying the 129th–131st floors is reportedly $250 million, easily doubling the $169 million listing price that the 96th floor unit in Rafael Viñoly’s troubled 432 Park Avenue tower commanded when it hit the market a year ago and surmounting the $238 million figure hedge funder Ken Griffin paid for his 220 Central Park South penthouse in 2019.

Previously on Archinect: Recent sales at Central Park Tower close below their asking prices reflecting falling values at Billionaires' Row residences

At 1,416 feet, the apartment is the world’s highest private residence and comes complete with 27-foot ceilings, a ballroom, grand salon, and two kitchens. It’s high enough that the curvature of the...

Recent sales at Central Park Tower close below their asking prices reflecting falling values at Billionaires' Row residences

2021-11-02T19:30:00-04:00

The supertall Central Park Tower, the latest addition by Extell Development to Midtown Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row, had more recorded sales in October, including two full-floor aeries. But both of them, like other recent transactions in the new building, closed well below their asking price.

Of all the recent sales at Central Park Tower, just one was made around the asking price. At the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill-designed luxury skyscraper, which boasts the highest roof in the Western Hemisphere, The New York Times reports three recent apartment sales well below their listed prices. An apartment listed for $78.1 million sold for $48 million; a similar-sized unit listed for $63 million sold for $40.8 million; and another listed for $14.7 million sold for $12.3 million.

This trend according to appraiser Jonathan J. Miller of Miller Samuel is present in other Billionaires’ Row residences, noting that resales at other luxury skyscrapers have not held their value. “Prices in general for Billionaires’ Row peaked in 2015-2016, and since then, they have fallen 25 to 50 percent, depending on the building.”

At the nearby RAMSA-designed 220 Central Park South, however, which sits just outside Billionaires' Row, The New York Times reports a $66 million sale, approximately $15.6 mi...

World's tallest residential building tops out in New York City

2019-09-17T13:15:00-04:00

The Central Park Tower, Adrain Smith + Gordon Gill's 1,550-foot supertall tower in New York City, has topped out.

The 131-floor, 179-unit complex, created for developer Extell, now reigns as the tallest residential building in the world, New York Yimby reports. Wrapped in rippled floor-to-ceiling blue-glass curtain walls, the tower is one of several new supertall structures currently under construction at the southern end of Central Park.

Ground-level view of 217 West 57th Street. Image courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill.

Neighbors include KPF's 1,401-foot One Vanderbilt tower, the SHoP Architects-designed 1,066-foot 111 West 57th tower, and Jean Nouvel's 1,050-foot 53W53 tower.

When completed, the Central Park Tower will include a triplex penthouse totaling more than 17,000-square-feet in size. The base of the building will be occupied by a 320,000-square-foot Nordstrom flagship store that will occupy seven levels. Floors eight through eighteen of the tower will house the bui...

Central Park Tower breaks Willis Tower's record 45-year claim to highest roof in the Western Hemisphere

2019-08-05T07:00:00-04:00

Central Park Tower, aka 217 West 57th Street, has surpassed the 1,450-foot-tall Willis Tower (née Sears Tower) to claim the title of highest roof in the Western Hemisphere. The Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill-designed supertall is being developed by Extell and will soon top-out at 1,550 feet tall over Billionaires’ Row.

Once the world's tallest building from 1974 to 1996, the 1,450-foot-tall Willis Tower in Chicago is, little by little, kicked out from top placements in various height-record categories by the new kids on blocks all over the world.

After losing the overall height crown to the twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur in the mid-90s (when it was still the Sears Tower), the 110-story Modernist structure was ejected from the elusive Top 10 Tallest Buildings club when the 2,073-foot-tall Shanghai Tower was completed, and now, Willis Tower had to pass on also the title of highest roof in the Western Hemisphere to a young, skinny New Yorker on Billionaires' Row, the soon-to-be-completed (and tallest residential building on the planet) Central Park Tower.

View this post on Instagram @CentralParkTower and @One57–– two NYC landmarks gracing the skyline and providing residents with unparalleled views of #billionairesrow
A post shared by Central Park Tower (@centralparktower) o...

Central Park Tower rises above 432 Park, officially becomes tallest residential building in the world

2019-03-27T10:59:00-04:00

Extell Development’s supertall on Billionaires’ Row is officially the tallest residential tower in the world. Central Park Tower, at 225 West 57th Street, has reached its 92nd floor, surpassing the 1,396-foot-tall tower at 432 Park Avenue. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, Central Park Tower will top out at 95 stories, or 1,550 feet tall, making it stand out significantly among neighboring skyscrapers when construction wraps up next year.

New renderings of Central Park Tower aka Nordstrom Tower aka 217 West 57th Street

2018-10-16T13:36:00-04:00

It’s looking to be a big year for Billionaires’ Row: Just one month after sales launched at 111 West 57th Street, Extell has followed suit at Central Park Tower, its behemoth located at 217 West 57th Street. [...] The development has been somewhat shrouded in mystery since plans were announced more than five years ago. Construction got underway not long after, but details about the tower have been few and far between.

With a target floor count of 101 and designed to stand 1,550 feet tall once completed, the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture-designed tower on Billionaires’ Row brands itself as the "tallest residential building in the world". At this height, the upper floors don't have much else standing in their way to interrupt their million-dollar views of New York City's Central Park.

Image via @centralparktower on Instagram