Elevators and Escalades

The rise of New York’s super-tall luxury buildings

BY KARRIE JACOBS

IN BILLIONAIRES’ ROW, A BOOK BY THE WALL STREET Journal reporter Katherine Clarke, we are presented with a riveting narrative in which the heroes of her account, the developers Harry Macklowe and Gary Barnett, race to build the city’s first very tall and exceptionally skinny condo towers. And when I say “very tall and exceptionally skinny,” I mean it: Macklowe’s project, at 432 Park Avenue, was planned to be a soaring 1,397 feet in height, while Barnett’s project (known as One57), at 157 West 57th Street, was just over 1,000 feet tall. And because these buildings are so much taller than they are wide, some unorthodox engineering was needed just to keep them standing upright: 432 Park, for example, has five double-height floors open to the elements to allow the…

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The Nation (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2024

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