Archinect - News

New Yorkers are still pissed about disrupted view sheds and 262 Fifth Avenue

2024-03-10T08:00:00-04:00

“It really pisses me off,” Clark said while standing in the plaza in front of the Flatiron Building on Fifth Avenue, a few blocks south of the dueling skyscrapers. “The whole New York skyline has been destroyed. When I moved here I was thrilled with it, and now it’s just getting disgusting. These new buildings have no identity, no design to them. We’ve lost the character of New York, and it breaks my heart.”

The Guardian goes inside some locals' struggle against the new 262 Fifth Avenue condo tower by Meganom and SLCE Architects. The East Siders protesting their obstructed view sheds are also not in favor of its appearance or the design for 432 Park Avenue, including several inspired teen critics on TikTok.

NYT critic Michael Kimmelman also wrote of their plight last year, declaring theirs and other opposition attempts a noble attempt at restoring the city’s history in an era defined by zoning manipulation and visible inequality.

A preservationist named Jorge Otero-Pailos told Kimmelman last October that new regulations are needed to “guarantee a collective experience, a sense of shared identity and civic meaning, which can bind New Yorkers across generations and centuries.”

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 ...

Lawsuit against Viñoly-designed skinny tower is ‘ill-advised’ claims developer, says building is 'without a doubt safe'

2021-12-23T11:48:00-05:00

The developer behind 432 Park Avenue on New York’s Billionaire’s Row has hit back at a lawsuit alleging design defects. As reported by The Guardian, LA-based CIM Group calls the claims within the lawsuit “vastly exaggerated” in their response filed this week to the New York state supreme court.

As we reported in September, the lawsuit is being brought on behalf of the tower's condo board. The $125 million suit seeks damages for around 1500 alleged design and construction defects, causing multiple floods, faulty elevators, a string of electrical explosions, and an “intolerable” noise caused by the building’s sway.

Speaking to The New York Times at the time of the filing, a lawyer representing the condo board compared the uncovering of defects as “peeling an onion,” hinting that more may be discovered in the future. “This is a work in progress in ascertaining what’s wrong,” he noted.

In their resp...

Supertall swaying could soon be a thing of the past

2021-09-28T20:18:00-04:00

Although far from soothing, advances in materials science and construction technology, along with experience, are starting to help residents’ day-to-day comfort levels climb along with buildings’ heights. Experts are constantly refining ideal structural shapes, masses, and weights, as well as more obscure features like the multiton machines known as tuned mass dampers, which are designed to limit a building’s sway.

Residents of Rafael Vinoly’s billion dollar 432 Park tower have begun to pursue legal remedies against the property developers over the building’s annoying sway and a host of other abject failures. Case studies, in addition to advancements in building science could mean a future with fewer problems. Bloomberg CityLab has more on the nauseating lessons of supertall developments here.

Residents of NYC's 432 Park Avenue are suing the developers for $125 million in damages

2021-09-24T16:38:00-04:00

The condo board at the supertall tower 432 Park Avenue, one of the most expensive addresses in the world, is suing the developers for $125 million in damages, citing multiple floods, faulty elevators, “intolerable” noise caused by building sway, and an electrical explosion in June — the second in three years — that knocked out power to residents, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Reports on the shortcomings of the nearly 1,400-foot-tall, Rafael Viñoly Architects-designed luxury tower were initially released in February. Identified by an engineering firm hired by the condo board, damages include the estimated cost to repair around 1,500 construction and design defects in common elements of the building. The damages could continue to rise.

Previously on Archinect: The not entirely untroubled life in supertall luxury towers

As reported by the Times, the decision to go public with the lawsuit was due to the developers’ “band-aid approach” to resolving many of the building’s issues.

The not entirely untroubled life in supertall luxury towers

2021-02-03T13:28:00-05:00

Less than a decade after a spate of record-breaking condo towers reached new heights in New York, the first reports of defects and complaints are beginning to emerge, raising concerns that some of the construction methods and materials used have not lived up to the engineering breakthroughs that only recently enabled 1,000-foot-high trophy apartments.

The New York Times on complaints about substantial "leaks, creaks, breaks" in NYC's preeminent supertall ultraluxury condo tower, and briefly also tallest residential building in the world, 432 Park Avenue.

Previously:

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.

Passing $2B in sales, 432 Park becomes highest selling building in NYC ever

2018-02-07T21:53:00-05:00

CIM Group and Macklowe Properties announced on Wednesday that the world’s tallest residential building just broke another record: the single best-selling building in New York City. According to the developers, they have sold $2 billion in luxury condominiums at 432 Park Avenue, a 1,396-foot tower designed by renowned architect Rafael Viñoly. The building’s most significant closings include 48 residences selling for more than $20 million each.

Rafael Viñoly admits 432 Park ‘has a couple of screw-ups’

2016-05-09T12:13:00-04:00

Critics of the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere, 432 Park Avenue, are quick to try to bring the tower down from its 1,400-foot pedestal. And strangely, its very own architect is the latest jump on the bandwagon. Rafael Viñoly admitted at a Douglas Elliman talk last week that his creation “has a couple of screw-ups,” namely the window framing, which he blames on developer Harry Macklowe, and the tiny issue of “the interior design and layout.”

Previously:

As 432 Park Ave reaches completion, the number of supertall skyscrapers in the world is now 100

2016-01-13T15:21:00-05:00

There are now officially 100 supertall (300-plus-meter) skyscrapers in the world following the completion of 432 Park Avenue in New York City. The construction of supertall buildings has increased at an astounding rate in recent years, an indicator of the tremendous growth within the global tall building industry. Whereas the first 50 supertalls took 80 years to complete – between 1930 and 2010 – the total number of supertalls has doubled from 50 to 100 in just five years.

"With supertall skyscrapers becoming increasingly common, many look to the megatall (600-plus-meter) distinction as the new frontier for the world’s tallest buildings." Buckle up, everyone.

A Trashcan Inspired the Design of Rafael Viñoly’s 432 Park Avenue

2015-06-01T08:45:00-04:00

Most ideas usually end up in the trash but few ideas are inspired by the basket that holds them. A recent discovery has revealed that...432 Park Avenue, was actually inspired by a Josef Hoffmann-designed wastebasket released in 1905. The revelation came via a talk held last December at the Cornell Center for Real Estate and Finance where Harry Macklowe, the co-developer of the supertall, told the crowd that the repository was an “important touchstone” for the 1,396-foot-high design.

Crowded skies: Sunlight as the new amenity for the super rich

2015-05-14T18:37:00-04:00

[...] shadows even turn light into another medium of inequality. Light becomes a resource that can be bought by the wealthy, eclipsed for the poor. [...] multimillion-dollar apartments in the sky will darken parts of the park a mile away. Enjoyment of the park in the park – a notably free activity in a high-cost city – will be dimmed a little to give billionaires views of it from above.

Work at Manhattan's 432 Park Ave tower ordered to stop after pipe falls from 81st floor

2015-01-16T14:37:00-05:00

Work was halted on a luxury-condominium tower in midtown Manhattan after an 8-foot piece of guardrail from a construction elevator fell from the 81st floor to the street below. The New York City Department of Buildings ordered all work stopped at 432 Park Ave., the 1,397-foot tower being built by Harry Macklowe and CIM Group [...]. The building, slated for completion this year, is one of the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere, according to the property's website.

Superscraper 432 Park Avenue is Officially On the Market

2013-03-20T13:22:00-04:00

It's the first official day of spring, and that means this year's crop of new developments is about to start hitting the market. They'll have a lot to live up to, because the season is starting off with a big one: 432 Park Avenue! The city's—nay, the western hemisphere's—future tallest residential building is now available. Or at least, two-thirds of the units are.

The Rafael Vinoly-designed superscraper at 432 Park Avenue -- which, when finished, will be the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere -- has officially kicked-off sales. Prices for what's currently available? $20 million to $82.5 million.