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 ...

SHoP's 111 West 57th Street supertall tower is one important step closer to completion

2022-04-05T20:00:00-04:00

A milestone development on the way to what is one of the most anticipated new openings of the year as the exteriors have been completed on SHoP’s award-winning 111 West 57th Street supertall tower in Midtown Manhattan.

Once completed, the building will stand as the second-tallest residential structure in the Western Hemisphere and sit atop the landmark Steinway Hall building, which houses 14 of the 60 total full-floor and duplex residences located within the 1,428-foot-tall development.

Video courtesy of SHoP Architects.

The exterior is defined by a stepped design that tapers along the south-facing facade as it reaches ever skyward to create a dramatic visual statement in combination with an east-west oriented terra cotta pilaster cladding system and a 300-foot decorative steel crown.

Photo by Evan Joseph, image courtesy SHoP Architects.

Per the architects: “The intricate façade is designed to be viewed from multiple scales and vantage points: Terra cotta panels with 22 different ...

Passersby injured by falling ice from Billionaires' Row supertall

2022-02-28T13:55:00-05:00

Ice believed to have fallen more than 1,400 feet from a Midtown condo crushed the roof and smashed the windshield of Deneice O’Connor’s car as she drove up Sixth Ave., the shaken motorist said Saturday. “It just crashed down on me. I immediately thought a body had fallen on my car,” O’Connor, 35, told the Daily News.

The ice is believed to have fallen from the SHoP Architects-designed 111 W. 57th Street supertall, one of the world's thinnest skyscrapers and tallest residential buildings in the Western Hemisphere. It is a prominent fixture along “Billionaires’ Row”. Police have also reported that another person, a 17-year-old girl, was injured by falling ice originating from 40 W. 57th Street. The Friday afternoon incidents are being investigated by the city Building Department, with the inspectors issuing a violation against the owners of 111 W. 57th Street.

The TikTok post below shows large panes of ice falling one by one onto the surrounding street as pedestrians walk by.

@japanesecarlos The thump was loud af #nyc #nyclife #nycproblems #omg #newyorker #newyorklife ♬ Paris - Else

What do you know about "Skinny Scrapers?"

2019-08-08T16:09:00-04:00

Rising high in the skies over New York City, Chicago, Hong Kong, and other great metropolises are tall towers that appear impossibly slender. Fueled mostly by market demand from wealthy clients who desire spectacular views, the design and construction of these superslim, generally residential skyscrapers also depend on engineering advances over recent decades in building materials and damping technologies as well as careful coordination by the design teams.

"Slender" towers are beginning to pop up all over the world, notably, in cities like New York, where real estate is scarce, but the desire to maximize ROI is strong. "The limited space for new buildings in places like New York City generally involves small parcels of land, which means that these new structures tend to be both tall and slender," explains WSP director of building structures, Silvian Marcus, in a recent story by Civil Engineering, the official magazine of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The structural acrobatics required for such structures, when coupled with the soaring real estate costs for a place like Manhattan, means that these slim buildings cater almost exclusively to the ultra-luxury market. These buildings often have "just a single apartment or condominium per floor," for example, with some penthouses selling "for as much as $90 million," according to the article.

What constitutes a bonafide "slender" building designation, exactly? According to New Y...

NYC's super skinny skyscraper is fat with cost overruns, prompting a lawsuit

2017-07-27T17:09:00-04:00

The best things in life are free, but construction cranes still cost money, which has prompted an investor to sue the developers behind SHoP's 111 West 57th Street for failing to budget appropriately for the cost of cranes (among other things) for the super skinny tower, which is already way over budget and only approximately 25% assembled. According to Curbed NY:

One of the investors on the project is suing the developers and the lender over alleged construction cost overruns.

The lawsuit, filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges that the project is already $50 million over budget when it hasn’t even reached 20-stories yet. Eventually the building is proposed to rise to 1,421 feet with 82 stories.

111 West 57th Street: The World’s Skinniest Tower Will Also Be the Hemisphere’s Tallest Residential Building

2015-01-15T14:19:00-05:00

That’s a lot of accolades for one building, but the SHoP Architects-designed tower at 111 West 57th Street is looking to sweep the supertall competition. Originally planned to rise 1,397 feet, the tower will now soar to 1,421 feet, surpassing 432 Park Avenue (the current tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere) by 24 feet, according to city records uncovered by Crain’s. It will also retain its title as the world’s slenderest tower.