Sky’s the limit: New towers for the rich soar in New York
The very tall, very skinny residential buildings popping up in Manhattan are being built for the world’s richest people
NEW YORK — Here’s how a 1932 guide to Manhattan describes the view of Central Park from the 43-story Essex House: “an unbroken vista — unequaled anywhere in the city. … Few apartment buildings in the world are more ideally located.”
Today, here’s how visitors typically describe the park view from One57, an apartment building a block south of the Essex House and more than twice its height: “Wow!”
The same can be said of the building itself. One57 exemplifies a new type of skyscraper — very tall, improbably slender, ostentatiously opulent — that is reshaping a famous skyline composed mostly of bulky office buildings.
One such apartment tower under construction, 432 Park Avenue, will have a top floor higher than the Empire State Building’s observation deck. Another will have a top floor higher than any in One World Trade Center, which is officially (by virtue of its spire) the nation’s tallest building.
The 432 Park penthouse has sold for $95 million; two duplex apartments at One57, now nearing completion, also are under contract, each for more than $90 million. Even a studio apartment on a lower floor at 432 Park (designed for staff — a maid or butler) costs $1.59 million.