New York City is synonymous with the skyscraper.
Since the late 19th Century, each economic
cycle and architectural trend has driven a
different era of high-rise development, resulting
in the iconic skyline we know today.
Now, as demand for luxury residential property
in Manhattan is far out-stripping the availability
of land, super-skinny towers with a width-to-height
ratio greater than 1:7 are ushering in a new age.
Rising from a narrow site, between an existing
40 storey office tower and New York’s Museum
of Modern Art, 53 West 53rd Street has been
more than a decade in the making.
In 2006, New York City’s Museum of Modern
Art began exploring ways to develop a small
site they owned adjacent to their main buildings
in midtown.
Their idea was make the land available for
development, funding an expansion of the museum
onto part of the site.
With demand for high-end residential properties
in Manhattan exceeding the amount of land available
a super-skinny high-rise tower was conceived,
maximising floor area and value from the development.
Named after its 53 West 53rd Street address,
the tower is officially known as “53W53”
and is located just a stone's throw away from
the city’s emerging “Billionaires Row”
and Central Park.
Originally proposed to stand 381m or 1,250
feet tall – the same height as the Empire
State Building – the original designs for
the tower were rejected by city planners who
considered it to be an over-development of
such a small site and who raised concerns
regarding the large shadow it would cast over
Central Park.
Taking these concerns on board, the project
team re-submitted plans for a shorter 320
metre, 1050 foot tower.
The New York City Planning Commission approved
the development in 2009, on the condition
that enough surrounding air rights were purchased
to offset the extreme height of the new tower
and to ensure that neighbouring sites could
not be developed to the same extent in the future.
The result for the development, would be a
skyscraper that could offer its residents
breath-taking views of the city, without the risk of them becoming obstructed by neighbouring buildings.
Shortly after this breakthrough, the project
was put on hold as the world wrestled with
the worst financial crisis since the Great
Depression and as developer confidence receded.
Despite this setback, the project’s developers
– Hines and Goldman Sachs – used the downtime
to begin purchasing air rights from a number of
the tower’s adjoining sites – including
the University Club of New York, St Thomas’
Church and the sites former owner; the Museum
of Modern Art.
With an eventual resurgence in the property
market some years later, developers formed
a joint venture with the Pontiac Land Group
to resurrect the project.
With the last air rights secured and the city
planner’s pre-conditions satisfied, construction
of the tower commenced in 2014.
Situated within three separate zoning districts,
each with its own height and setback regulations,
the tower’s architect Jean Nouvel had to
take a number of factors into account when conceiving
53 West 53rd’s design.
The result in an impressive and uniquely formed
structure that interprets its context, tapers
in at different angles as it rises, and that
does not feel overbearing from street level.
The tower offers 149 residences across its
77 floors, ranging from one to four bedroom
apartments and a 617-square meter two level
penthouse at its summit.
With an extreme width-to-height ratio of 1:12,
the tower’s structural engineering is considerably complex.
From foundations that extend deep
into Manhattan Island’s underlying bedrock,
the tower rises around a high strength reinforced
concrete core with an impressive diagrid structure
supporting its perimeter façade.
This eliminates the need for internal columns
within the high-end residences, improving
flexibility of the layouts whilst creating
sweeping views.
Whilst the tower’s diagrid perimeter was
originally planned in steel, the floor-to-floor
heights this offered were limiting.
Instead, the project team developed the structural elements in reinforced concrete.
Some of the connections between these structural
members are extremely complex, with as many
as 8 different elements converging into a
single node in some instances.
The steel reinforcement for such junctions
and was so complicated that the project team
constructed full scale mock-ups before construction
commenced.
This ensured that the designs that had developed would work
and that concrete could sufficiently cover and settle around the reinforcement.
53 West 53rd is topped by a breath-taking
40 metre, 131 foot, steel and glass spire
that offers a modern interpretation of New
York’s famous tapering summits whilst obscuring
a feature that is key to the tower’s structural
integrity; a 650-tonne tuned mass damper between
the 74th and 76th floors.
The residences within 53 West 53rd re-define
luxury living.
With prices starting from $3M USD for a one bedroom apartment,
the tower’s
two-level penthouse can be yours for $70M USD.
Designed with solid American oak flooring,
top of the range appliances and marble countertops
– to name just a few features – residents
also have access to a range of amenities including
a library, state of the art theatre, pool
and a private wine lounge.
They’ll also gain benefactor membership
with the neighbouring Museum of Modern Art
as part of its 39,000-square foot expansion
into the lower three levels of the tower.
Though not officially on “Billionaires Row”
– which is broadly located to the north
of 57th Street – 53 West 53rd is recognised
as one of New York’s most exclusive new
residential addresses, thanks to its incredible
design, proximity to Central Park and the
views it offers of the city skyline.
Once complete in late 2018, 53 West 53rd will
join 432 Park Avenue and the emerging 111
West 57th, as Manhattan’s newest super-skinny,
luxury residential tower; the latest step
in the ever-continuing evolution of the world’s
most famous skyline.
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