NEW YORK | 111 W 57th St | 1,428 FT | 85 FLOORS

[easy as pie]

well, the best guess is that the 900+ ft tower at 220 cps will rise on the w 58th side of the street.

good article, btw.

[gramsjdg]

Best design for a mid-level supertall I have seen in years...

The design itself should put some pressure on Extell to deliver (architecturally) on 225 W 57th...

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by McSky

Will there be more widespread height restrictions? Not likely during this next cycle, especially if the midtown east re-zoning is approved. But eventually height restrictions might be imposed.

There are already height restrictions. They are called FARs. A developer can build as tall as he wants until it economically doesn't make sense. That was the point of the article.

“It’s the value of the per-square-foot that makes super-slender possible,” she says. “You can spend a lot of money if you think there’s a market that will support five thousand, six thousand dollars per square foot.” The ability to engineer super-slenderness had been around for decades, but the financial rationale was missing. “Everyone thought it was economically preposterous, until people started paying 45, 88 million for an apartment. It’s perfectly logical, but the logic hadn’t been demonstrated until the last round.”

You aren't going to get office towers built with those relatively "tiny" floor plates. And the market is only going to allow so many of these towers to be built at a time. We have a handful that will be rising at the same time, but Manhattan isn't going to be overrun by them. People on 57th Street may think otherwise, but look around.

[King DenCity]

This building will be remembered as a gem of ANY era! Now I wanna see it UC!

[McSky]

Originally Posted by NYguy

There are already height restrictions. They are called FARs. A developer can build as tall as he wants until it economically doesn't make sense. That was the point of the article.

No, I know about FAR. What I was suggesting is an actual height restriction based on location, specifically for lots fronting on Central Park. Right now, with combining lots and air rights transfers, we might see a partial rim of 900-foot+ buildings around the lower quarter of the Park in coming decades. That's a lot of sky lost from the southern Park, especially with the 4 1,000-foot+ buildings that will loom over the area within a few years.

[Hypothalamus]

Originally Posted by NYguy

You aren't going to get office towers built with those relatively "tiny" floor plates. And the market is only going to allow so many of these towers to be built at a time. We have a handful that will be rising at the same time, but Manhattan isn't going to be overrun by them.

Interesting point! So the skyline of a city, in other words, is a representation of the evolution of society at the political economic level. That said, there's limitations that are both unprecedentedly broken, but also new limitations that have been made once a city has met capacity (in terms of city potential). Mid-town rezoning, Hudson Yards and 57th street all make sense now.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by tubeworm

Interesting point! So the skyline of a city, in other words, is a representation of the evolution of society at the political economic level. That said, there's limitations that are both unprecedentedly broken, but also new limitations that have been made once a city has met capacity (in terms of city potential). Mid-town rezoning, Hudson Yards and 57th street all make sense now.

Isn't that the way it's always been? Forget about what's being built around the rest of the world (they see skyscrapers the way we did a hundred years ago), you see new tallest being put forth in a few American cities as well.

The unique problem that Manhattan has right now is age. The vast majority of its stock is old, so there eventually will have to be renewal on a massive scale. You are seeing some of that now with the Hudson Yards developments, and much of that is predictable. The rise of the supertall residential towers though says more about the City in its current state. And truthfully, if the critics looked at it, they would have to admit that it is a good thing, despite the lack of more affordable housing being built elsewhere.

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Isn't that the way it's always been? Forget about what's being built around the rest of the world (they see skyscrapers the way we did a hundred years ago), you see new tallest being put forth in a few American cities as well.

The unique problem that Manhattan has right now is age. The vast majority of its stock is old, so there eventually will have to be renewal on a massive scale. You are seeing some of that now with the Hudson Yards developments, and much of that is predictable. The rise of the supertall residential towers though says more about the City in its current state. And truthfully, if the critics looked at it, they would have to admit that it is a good thing, despite the lack of more affordable housing being built elsewhere.

Even with other places the U.S. is still no slacker. Very tall, bbrilliant crafted towers are still being pumped all over American cities. I feel people look at the crystal meth nature of China when it comes to building or the prick waving going on in Dubai and feel sad and or envious, but remember, we are still up there. Definitely no slackers. We just had a whole economy issue that kinda ruined the fun, but were rising again.

[wilfredo267]

l really hope that this tower will be built.

[NYguy]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...tral-park-view

With $90 Million Condos, Needle Towers Vie for Views





By James S. Russell
October 31, 2013

111 W. 57th Street

This tower, by far the skinniest of the needles so far, will rise from the courtyard of the Steinway building, a stoic classical pile that houses the legendary piano showroom.

The condo will culminate in a series of bronze-trimmed setbacks and finials that visually dissolve the building into the sky. (The Steinway Building’s offices will be converted to apartments, though the ornate showroom will remain. Steinway may sell pianos elsewhere within the development).

While the midtown face of the tower thins dramatically at the top, horizontal bands of full-height glass look north to Central Park, and wrap the corners to widen the view.

Rippling moldings in terra cotta run vertically up the skinny sides. If all of these ideas meld gracefully, this will be the most alluring of the midtown super-slims.

Apartment layouts, prices and amenities are still being worked out, but the tower will accommodate no more than one residence per 5,000-square-foot floor, with some duplexes.

[UrbanImpact]

Yahoo News has done a news article on the building with a video that includes the model.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/future-i...9219.html?vp=1

[Hypothalamus]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

Yahoo News has done a news article on the building with a video that includes the model.

Nice video!

[JayPro]

Direct east-west views and anything as close as possible to them are gonna blow minds away.

The one thing I just thought of is the stuff of dreams till everything, especially this amazing tower, gets done:

The MidTown tunnel approach IMO offers a bafflingly prodigious view of the entire city (i.e. IMO the best by far), such that a true appreciation of the City's size can be taken in.

You think this is true now? 111 in her full glory will be just a piece of it.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

Yahoo News has done a news article on the building with a video that includes the model.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/future-i...9219.html?vp=1

Some good stuff...

The tower is expected to have only 3 high-speed elevators, and each floor will be its own ultra-luxe 5,000 square foot apartment.

The building has roughly 45 apartments and the tower floors. Our first residential floor starts at about 260 feet in the air, so that every single apartment in the tower has a spectacular unobstructed view of Central Park,” says Stern. “You really get this floor-through experience that you’re floating in the city. That was really what we were going for and we think it will be really special.”

And the views from this extraordinary perch in the sky? They’re likely amongst the best in Manhattan.

“The penthouse sits almost twelve hundred feet up in the air. It enjoys commanding views of [Central] Park, across into Long Island City, Queens, and out to Long Island. There’s just going to be nothing like it across the entire cityscape. It’s going to be truly spectacular.”

http://www.architectmagazine.com/arc...kyscraper.aspx

SHoP Goes Skinny
The model-thin design 105–111 West 57th Street is the next tallest tower in New York City.

By Philip Nobel
November 4, 2013

....New York City has a skyscraper complex. Once the undisputed leader in producing buildings of that type, the city has fallen far behind. There’s little hope of ever matching the heights reached regularly now overseas, and even the city’s contender for Tallest Building in the Nation—the recently structurally complete One World Trade Center—is unlikely to overtop its rival in Chicago since its transmission tower was stripped of its planned white radome by some cost-cutting chicanery.

So it was with some relief last week when New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission gave final approval to the design of a new tower planned for 105–111 West 57th Street. At 1,350 feet, it’s no slouch—that height, in fact, will put it higher than the roof of the Empire State Building (sans mooring mast) and, at present, a respectable number 26 on the list of tallest proposed buildings anywhere in the world.

.....The tower’s short walls will be finished with low-iron glass (to the north, overlooking Central Park) and various sun-beating systems (to the south). But the side walls, incorporating the lion’s share of the concrete and steel structure, are a new take on something old. And they will also be very New York: a system of terra-cotta blocks, to be supplied by craftsmen at venerable Boston Valley Terra Cotta in 26 distinct profiles, ranging in shape from the nearly traditional to the almost-futuristic. The blocks will be stacked in strips between tall windows to create a kind of wavering, rippling effect—a challenge to the lingering blobitectural impulse still seen in so much new construction. I’m looking at you, Frank Gehry.

The new take on terra-cotta, and the sensitive way the tower interacts with the adjacent historic Steinway Building, no doubt warmed the hearts of the Landmarks Preservation Commission overseers. And that updating of a native New York way of building sets a worthy precedent.

"It's Art Deco meets CATIA," says Chris Sharples, AIA, a partner at SHoP involved with the project. "The idea here was, how could we design a truly New York skyscraper? Not just something that you could take from Beijing or Shanghai or Dubai and plant here."

[Blaze23]

It's funny that they incorporated TV in that render; to put a building that hasn't even started construction yet and put it in focus from the rest of the skyline by making it green is almost a way of saying "we're in the same league!". Rightfully so I might add.

[generalscarr]

Originally Posted by Blaze23

It's funny that they incorporated TV in that render; to put a building that hasn't even started construction yet and put it in focus from the rest of the skyline by making it green is almost a way of saying "we're in the same league!". Rightfully so I might add.

That looks like a wind tunnel test. For that TV has to be included as - considering it`s height and volume - it can significantly affect wind patterns.

[franktko]

Or maybe both projects got together to split the costs of the wind tunnel tests...

[scalziand]

^^I doubt that. The engineering for Verre was done years ago, before the project went on hold.

[plinko]

Interesting. I hear 'terra-cotta' and get kind of excited. It's an incredibly versatile building material and not used nearly enough anymore.

This should be fun to watch.

[NYguy]

I posted these photos in the One57 thread. I don't think the renderings show just how dominant in height this will be for the area.

For comparison...


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Resized view...


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