Been a little groggy, but this news wakes me right up..
http://observer.com/2012/12/gary-bar...ment-building/
Gary Barnett Taps Architect of World’s Tallest Tower to Design NYC’s Tallest Apartment Building
By Matt Chaban
December 17, 2012
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There had been rumors that Gary Barnett had tapped Swiss starchitects and downtown darlings Herzog & de Meuron to design his supertall skyscraper at the corner of 57th Street and Broadway, but now The Journal reports that Adrian Smith is the architect for 225 West 57th Street. The bigger surprise, literally, may be that the 1,550-foot height for the Extell tower, which The Observer previously reported, may just be a starting point.
This wouldn’t be the first time Mr. Barnett has jacked up the height of one of his buildings. His One57 tower was listed in building permits as reaching 953 feet with 73 stories, but the finished building tops 1,005 feet with 90 stories.
Whether this could produce a 1,600-foot tower (or taller) remains to be seen, but one thing Mr. Barnett previously told The Observer he will not be pursuing is a spire, a common tactic used to push building heights further into the stratosphere, as is the case at 1 World Trade Center. There, the building is 1,368 feet, matching that of its historic predecessor, while a 408-foot mast pushes the building to the symbolic height of 1,776 feet.
On a side note, Mr. Barnett said it was his partner in the project, Nordstroms—which will anchor the bottom six floors of the tower with its first New York City outpost—that suggest Mr. Smith. A former partner at SOM’s Chicago office, the deisnger is best known for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest tower that reaches some 2,717 feet, more than a mile high. The tower has a spread of apartments on the upper floors that help it lay claim to the world’s tallest apartments, as well.
Another of Mr. Smith’s prominent commissions is the tallest residential tower in Chicago, and this hemisphere, and the city’s second biggest building, the Trump International Hotel and Tower, which reaches 1,389 feet (thanks to spire, of course—the roofline is at 1,170 feet).
And so the fight for the city’s tallest apartment tower continues.
Last year, New York by Gehry surpassed another Trump confection, the World Tower near the U.N., by 16 feet. The Bruce Ratner-built building usurped the crown held for a decade with its rippling metal curves stretching 876 feet into the air. When Mr. Barnett’s One57 opens next year, it will top 1,005, but CIM and Harry Macklowe’s fast-rising 432 Park will be far bigger, in a year or two, even surpassing the Trump Chicago tower, at 1,397 feet, arguably becoming the biggest building in New York. Until Mr. Barnett finishes 225 West 57th Street, of course. Or until something even bigger comes along.
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Extell's Chief Thinking Tall For Midtown
By Elliot Brown
December 16, 2012
Quote:
Gary Barnett, one of New York's leading developers, is planning a new Midtown skyscraper that could rise 300 feet higher than the Empire State Building, and he's has hired the architect who designed the world's tallest tower. Mr. Barnett said in an interview that his Extell Development Co. has tapped Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture LLP to design an apartment tower atop the city's first Nordstrom Inc. Jepartment store. New York-based Extell is aiming high: Last month, the company filed a permit application to build a 1,550-foot tower on the site just east of Broadway between 57th and 58th streets. While the precise height could easily change—Mr. Barnett said plans were very preliminary—the developer is clearly gearing up to build one of the tallest towers in the city, and one that would offer sweeping views of Central Park a block to the north. Of course, any groundbreaking is still quite a ways off and Extell needs to line up crucial construction financing. But Mr. Barnett said: "It's going to be a tall building."
Plans for the building are moving forward at a time that a new type of skyscraper is beginning to emerge on the Manhattan skyline. For decades, office towers accounted for most of the towers built more than 600 feet high, while top residential apartments were generally found in low-slung Upper East Side cooperatives. But now a handful of developers are building very tall, slender luxury residential towers, betting that the wealthy will pay for great views.
Mr. Barnett, currently one of the city's most prolific developers, has been on the vanguard of this change. A few blocks east of the Nordstrom tower site on 57th Street, Mr. Barnett is building One57, a 1,004-foot tower. Extell has said two buyers have agreed to pay more than $90 million for penthouse apartments there, which would be a record price. On 57th Street and Park Avenue, CIM Group and developer Harry Macklowe are building an approximately 1,395-foot condo tower with a waffle-like exterior. "As with all skyscrapers, it's the economics that makes them possible, and it's a strong market," says Carol Willis, founding director of the Lower Manhattan-based Skyscraper Museum. "People who are willing to pay a great deal—millions and tens of millions for apartments in the sky—there's a market for that."
Extell chose Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture for the 57th Street tower after considering a number of avant-garde architects for the project. Those included Swiss designers Herzog & de Meuron, and New York-based SHoP Architects, one of the designers of the new Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn, according to people briefed on the selection process. But this summer, Extell secured a commitment from Seattle-based Nordstrom to build its first New York City location—a 285,000-square-foot store—on the site, and Nordstrom recommended the Chicago-based design firm, Mr. Barnett said.
Colin Johnson, a spokesman for Nordstrom, said it believes the architectural firm shares its vision for a top-quality design for the building, which is scheduled to open in 2018. "We want to have our best Nordstrom store in the best retail city in the world," Mr. Johnson said. "That means being part of a building that we hope will become an iconic part of the Manhattan landscape."
One challenge for Mr. Barnett may come from a rival development firm with similar plans. Just one block to the north, Vornado Realty Trust VNO +0.66%is planning to build a condominium tower that could obstruct many views from Extell's building, though the planned height is unclear. Mr. Barnett, however, stands to delay the timing of that building, 220 Central Park South. He controls the lease to a parking garage on the site that runs until 2018, thus having the ability to block Vornado from building in the short term.
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NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
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