“They are mostly built ‘as-of-right’, meaning the developers don’t need planning permission and they don’t need to notify anyone. “The first time most New Yorkers heard about this new crop of towers was when they saw them under construction,” says Tara Kelly of the Mas.
#Tycoon city new york more building series#
They have published a series of Accidental Skyline reports over the last few years, lobbying for the planning process to be opened up to proper scrutiny. T he impact of this new species of tower hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Municipal Art Society of New York (Mas), a non-profit organisation that has been campaigning to protect the character of the city since the 1890s. It is a very large presence on the skyline for all to endure. Except it is not just a trinket in a safe. Sitting alongside rare wine, coloured diamonds and old masters, a full-floor apartment in a pencil tower with a view of Central Park makes a fine addition to the investor’s trophy cabinet. The continued volatility of financial markets has spurred buyers to seek safe havens in super-prime real estate, from London to New York and Hong Kong, begetting stratospheric prices and minting a whole new category that defies the usual rules of the marketplace: the “trophy property”. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, luxury housing has become a new world currency, providing investors with both a tangible asset and a certain cachet that can’t be found in stocks and hedge funds. More than a third of them are based in North America, while those from riskier economic climes favour New York real estate as one of the safest places to park their cash. The world’s population of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, a super-elite with assets of at least $30m, has now mushroomed beyond 250,000 people, all in need of somewhere to store their wealth.
Like leggy plants given too much fertiliser, these buildings are a symptom of a city irrigated with too much money. Building very tall has been technically possible for some time, but it hasn’t made much commercial sense: the higher you go, the cost of building often exceeds the returns. The penthouse was recently acquired by a hedge-fund billionaire for $238m, making it the most expensive home ever sold in the US.įorm has always followed finance in New York, and this latest architectural byproduct of excess global wealth is no exception. The dapper costume has paid off: some apartments in his tower have gone for more than $10,000 per square foot. “Architecture is a banquet,” Stern tells me, “and most architects are starving to death.” He says that “unlike some of its neighbours now under development”, his design “will belong to the family of buildings that have framed Central Park for generations”. A neo-art deco tower clad in silvery Alabama limestone, with set-back terraces and ornamental metalwork, it is the work of Robert AM Stern, expedient purveyor of whatever style his client wants, from Spanish revival to Qing dynasty. Standing right across the street, 220 Central Park South aims to be the gentleman of the bunch. You might even be able to peer into your neighbouring oligarch’s flat, given how close the next-door tower is squeezed.
Designed by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, architects of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tower will form a dizzying stack of superlatives, with the biggest pools, highest health club and farthest-reaching views in town. The sturdy trunk of Central Park Tower is rising nearby – a great glass hulk that will soon steal the crown for the most vertiginous residences on the planet. It is the tallest residential building in the world, but it won’t be for long. He can clearly turn garbage into gold, given the penthouse sold for $95m (£72m).
It is the most elegant of the new towers, recalling the minimalist sculptures of Sol LeWitt, although its architect, Raphael Viñoly, says it was inspired by a trash can.
#Tycoon city new york more building windows#
There is 432 Park Avenue, a surreal square tube of white concrete that appears to shoot twice as high as anything around it, its endless Cartesian grid of windows framing worlds of solid marble bathtubs and climate-controlled wine cellars within. The results range from the sublime to the ridiculous, or even both at once. 'Transferable development rights' and 'Floor area ratio' explainer
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