Central Park Tower is a supertall skyscraper under construction in Midtown New York, in the United States. The tower will become the tallest building in America by roof height.
Below are facts about Central Park Tower.
Name & Location
The official name is Central Park Tower.
Despite its name, Central Park Tower is actually not built adjacent to Central Park, but one block from the park. The nearby tower at 220 Central Park South is located closer to Central Park.
The tower’s address is 217 West 57th Street, besides the intersection of Broadway and 57th Street.
Many other notable skyscrapers are located on the sides of 57th Street, including One57, 111 West 57th Street, Hearst Tower, Carnegie Hall Tower, 432 Park Ave, Trump Tower.
Height
The architectural height of Central Park Tower is designed to be 472 meters (1550 ft), which is measured to tip of the parapet on the roof.
In an original plan, the tower was designed to be 1775 ft, only one foot shorter than One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, but containing a spire, the roof would be only at 1479 ft high. After revisions on design, the spire was removed and roof height is increased. The highest occupied floor is 442 meters (1450 ft) high.
Once completed at 472 meters high, Central Park Tower will become the second tallest building in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, only after One World Trade Center. If judged by roof height and highest occupied floor, Central Park Tower will be the tallest, as the roof of One World Trade Center is at only 417 meters high and Willis Tower in Chicago is 442 meters measured to roof.
In addition, the ground on which the Central Park Tower sits has an elevation of 72 ft, this is 69 ft higher than that of One World Trade Center, so if the elevation is counted, the roof of Central Park Tower is 251 ft higher that of One World Trade Center.
In the world, Central Park Tower will become the 15th tallest building if completed in 2020 as expected.
Read more: 10 tallest buildings in the world 2019
Uses
Central Park Tower mainly serves as a residential building, the bottom 5 floors will be occupied by a Nordstrom (Seattle based luxury retailer) store, which will become Nordstrom’s flagship store in Manhattan. Nordstrom has signed on as anchor tenant for the building, the store will have 7 floors, including two floors underground, occupying a total area of 285,000 square feet.
The residential condominiums start on the 32nd floor of the building, to the 129th floor. There are a total of 179 condominiums, which range in size from 1,435 square feet (133 square meters) to 17,500 square feet (1626 square meters).
As of 2018 the average price per square foot is $7,106 ($76,034 per square meter). The price of a condominium start at above $1 million, twenty units cost more than $60 million, the most expensive unit currently listed sells for $95 million, the unit is not the on the highest floors but on the 53rd floor, what makes it different from other units is that it contains a 2,000-square-foot terrace. Labeled Unit 53, the condo spans a full floor that measures 7,984 square feet and contains 4 bedrooms, the residents can get 360-degree views of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park.
The tower’s penthouse is Unit 129, occupying three whole floors on the 129th floor through 131st floor, spanning 15,898 square feet and contains 7 bedrooms. The unit will be equipped with a media room, library, observatory, gym and ballroom. The 131st floor has a terrace spanning 1,433 square feet, the price is not yet announced, estimated to be close to $200 million.
Read more: 5 Most Expensive Houses in the World
In total residential space occupies 695,200 square feet (64,586 square meters) of area in the building.
There are also 50,000 square feet (4,645 square meters) of area dedicated to amenities for residents, spreading over three floors, respectively are the 14th, 16th, and 100th floors.
The 14th floor has a screening room, conference room, a play area, and an outdoor terrace with a 60-foot outdoor pool.
The 16th floor has a 63-foot indoor pool, fitness center, and spa.
The 100th floor has a grand ballroom that can seat 126 people, and another outdoor terrace.
Other floors between the Nordstrom store and the residential floors will be occupied by a hotel.
Design
The design architect of Central Park Tower is Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, and Adamson Associates acts as the architect of record. The interiors of the condominiums is designed by Rottet Studio.
The tower has a total of 131 floors, 95 floors are habitable, the total floor area is around 1.2 million square feet.
The east side of the tower begins cantilevering at 290 feet (88 meters) high, the cantilever extend the tower 28 feet (8.5 meters) to the east, overhanging the neighboring 4-story American Fine Arts Society Building.
The cantilever is said to designed to enable the Nordstrom store having column-free floor space, offering uncompromising shopping experience for its customers.
The base of the tower is covered with a translucent wave of curved glass above the entrance on both 57th Street and 58th Street.
Development
In 2009, the developer Extell Development Company (the developer behind the One57) proposed to build a high-rise building at 217-225 West 57th Street, east of the northern end of Broadway.
To make way for the new skyscraper, demolition work for the original building (an eight-story century-old building that was purchased by Extell Development earlier) on the site at 225 West 57th Street began in June 2011.
The Morton Williams grocery store at the base of the building continued opening until on October 25, 2012 when it was closed, and the building was completely demolished in lately September 2013.
While the demolish work was underway, the design for the tower was still undecided. In December 2012, the president of Extell Development Gary Barnett told the Journal that his firm has chosen Chicago-based architectural firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture to design Central Park Tower. The firm’s co-founder Adrian Smith is well known for designed Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture was chosen because their design for the tower was in favored by Nordstrom, the anchor tenant of the tower.
In October 2013, Gordon Gill, co-founder of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, presented the tower’s design at a New York Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting. At that time, the tower was designed to be 1,424 feet (434 meters), the height was later bumped to 1775 feet (541 meters) with a spire added and then reduced to 1550 ft (472 meters), with the removal of the spire.
In the same month, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved Extell Development to cantilever a section of the tower over the adjacent landmark American Fine Arts Society Building.
Excavation work began in early 2014, the construction for the foundation took more than a year. The tower’s concrete core rose above the street level in September 2015.
In February 2014, the developer acquired the air rights from American Fine Arts Society Building for $31.8 million.
In May 2016, Extell Development established a partnership with SMI USA (the US subsidiary of Shanghai Municipal Investment, who developed Shanghai Tower), to co-develop the Central Park Tower, SMI USA paid $300 million for the construction of the tower.
Installment of facade on the tower’s retail base began in March 2017.
And in lately August 2017, the facade on the tower itself began to be installed.
By the end of April 2018, Central Park Tower reached the height of 300 meters (about 1000 feet) above ground, becoming a supertall tower.
On October 16, 2018, the sales for the 179 apartments in Central Park Tower have officially launched.
By the end of 2018, the tower surpassed its 90th floor at a height over 1,300 feet (about 400 meters) above street.
The building was initially expected to cost $1.2 billion to complete, but this number is far below the real cost, which will be over $2 billion. The funds are from a variety of resources, including $168 million from EB-5 investors, $300 million equity investment from SMI USA, $400 million from Nordstrom, and $900 million of loan from lenders such as JPMorgan Chase, Blackstone Group and Fortress Investment Group.
On March 25, 2019, Central Park Tower surpassed 432 Park Ave as the tallest residential building in the world.
On September 17, 2019, Extell announced that the tower has “officially topped out at 1,550 ft”, many medias also reported that. Despite the claims, the tower actually had not reached 1,550 ft, but was at a height of 1,515ft or 462 meters as of Sep 18, it’s not really “officially topped out”, but had structurally topped out, which means the main structure of the tower had completed, the next step is to construct the steel parapet on the top, after that the tower will actually top out at its full height of 1,550 ft (472 meters).
On October 16, 2019, a small section of the steel parapet reached the expected height of 1,550 ft, making the tower finally topped out at its full height.
The tower is expected to fully complete and open to its residents in 2020, but the Nordstrom store at the base is going to be opened in a few weeks.