downside life supertall tower creaks breaks

#Downside life supertall tower creaks breaks full#

Examples of this approach can be seen just steps from Steinway Tower on 57th Street. What makes the surrounding condominium towers so unappealing is a symptom of their profit-driven design: they appear alien, rejecting their surroundings so completely that they might have been built anywhere in the world. More than eight million people see the building every day, and it gives back to the public in the form of gratuitous enjoyment. The bronze details give the building a metallic sheen and further detailed depth, adding to the visual complexity of the façade, while remaining a touchpoint with forebears such as Rockefeller Center (1939) and the American Radiator Building (1924). Updated to the 21st century, the terra-cotta blocks on Steinway Tower undulate to encourage shadow play across the ornamented façades. 4 Lucie Levine, “ 10 of NYC’s most impressive Terra-cotta buildings,” 6sqft, October 4, 2018. During the early 20th century, terra-cotta was utilized across the city as a fireproof cladding, for instance in the Woolworth Building (1912) and the Manhattan Municipal Building (1914). Another reference to traditional skyscraper design in NYC arises in the materiality of the terra-cotta and bronze. This design element evokes precedents such as the Chrysler Building (1930) and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower (1909). As compared to the abrupt flat roofs on surrounding buildings, the crown caps the tower elegantly. The crown, a hollow steel structure that is inhabitable, is situated above a mechanical penthouse and a tuned mass damper. Īdditional historical references are visible across the mass of the building. Steinway Tower features glazed terra-cotta tiles and bronze window ornaments that form a wave-like pattern the tiles are painted in different shades of gray, accentuating the step-backs while creating an active visual field. Another feature that separates Steinway Tower from its neighbors while linking it to New York’s design past is the ornamentation on its east and west faces, which references the Gilded Age facades of Louis Sullivan’s Bayard-Condict Building (1899) and Daniel Burnham’s Flatiron Building (1902). The results are evident in many beloved buildings from the 1920s and 30s, such as the Empire State Building and the New Yorker Hotel. Kitt Chappell, “A Reconsideration of the Equitable Building in New York,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians vol.

A solid rectangle 36 stories tall, the Equitable Building overshadowed a half-mile of adjacent city, including Trinity Church directly across Broadway public outcry against the shading-out of the church, designed by Richard Upjohn in 1846, prompted passage of the zoning law.

Graham’s Equitable Building in the Financial District, completed in 1915. The resolution, in turn, can be traced to office towers such as Ernest R. 2 City of New York Board of Estimate and Apportionment, “ Building Zone Resolution,” July 25, 1916. Steinway Tower’s most obvious feature, the stepped-back form, directly references a 1916 zoning resolution that restricted the height of Manhattan buildings in relation to surrounding streets. In Steinway Tower, SHoP Architects have produced a clever pastiche of traditional skyscraper design in NYC. Yet it stands out in a positive way, because in Steinway Tower, SHoP Architects have produced a clever pastiche of traditional skyscraper design in NYC. This building is similar in concept to its contemporaries, in that it maximizes a very small plot of land in Midtown, taking advantage of air rights to build an egregiously tall structure.

#Downside life supertall tower creaks breaks full#

The tower is stepped back and heavily ornamented on the east and west sides (concealing two structural shear walls), while the north and south sides boast floor-to-ceiling windows with full views toward Central Park and Downtown, respectively. But there is one exception: 111 West 57th Street, also known as Steinway Tower, designed by SHoP Architects and expected to be completed this year. I live in Midtown, and I see these buildings every day. 1 See documentation of the exhibition “ New York’s Super-Slenders” at the New York Skyscraper Museum (2016). Over the last decade, New York City has seen an increase in condominium development in pencil towers that cater to the super-rich, especially along the stretch of 57th Street that has come to be known as Billionaires’ Row. Carlos Balza Gerardino December 2021 The Equitable Building (1915), The New Yorker Hotel (1929), and 111 West 57th Street (2021).