Central Park Tower

Site

Central Park Tower is in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States. It is on the east side of Broadway between 57th Street to the south and 58th Street to the north. It is one block south of Central Park and Columbus Circle. The northwestern corner of the building abuts 1790 Broadway, while the southwestern corner is adjacent to 1776 Broadway. Central Park Tower is also near 240 Central Park South and 220 Central Park South to the north; the American Fine Arts Society (also known as the Art Students League of New York building) and the Osborne apartment building to the east; and 224 West 57th Street and 218 West 57th Street (the former American Society of Civil Engineers clubhouse) to the south.

Central Park Tower is one of several major developments around 57th Street and Central Park that are collectively dubbed Billionaires' Row by the media. Other buildings along Billionaires' Row include 432 Park Avenue four blocks east, 111 West 57th Street and One57 one block east, and the adjacent 220 Central Park South.

Former buildings

In the 20th century, the area was part of Manhattan's "Automobile Row", a stretch of Broadway extending mainly between Times Square at 42nd Street and Sherman Square at 72nd Street. Before the first decade of the 20th century, the area was occupied mostly by horse-related industries and was described by The New York Times as "thoroughly lifeless". By 1907, the Times characterized this section of Broadway as having "almost a solid line of motor vehicle signs all the way from Times Square to Sherman Square". In the late 1900s and early 1910s, several large automobile showrooms, stores, and garages were built on Broadway, including the United States Rubber Company building at 5 Columbus Circle and the Demarest and Peerless Company showrooms at 224 West 57th Street.

On the western side of the building's base is the 12-story facade of the former 1780 Broadway, which formerly contained the B. F. Goodrich Company showroom. There was also an 8-story building at 225 West 57th Street, which contained the Stoddard-Dayton showroom. Both structures were built in 1909 to designs by Howard Van Doren Shaw in collaboration with the Manhattan firm of Waid and Willauer. The two buildings shared a freight elevator. 1780 Broadway was one of the most visible buildings on Automobile Row because of the site's elevated topography, and it was leased to various automotive firms during the early 20th century. Goodrich came to own both 1780 Broadway and 225 West 57th Street; when the company sold the structures in 1928, they were collectively called the "Goodrich Building". A single-story annex was built for the Lincoln Art Theatre in 1962–1964, and the Goodrich Building became a supermarket in the 1990s before being acquired by Central Park Tower's developer, the Extell Development Company, in 2006. In addition, the Hard Rock Cafe and Broadway Dance Center occupied the structure at 221 West 57th Street before that building was purchased by Extell, also in 2006.

Architecture

Central Park Tower was developed jointly by Extell and Shanghai Municipal Investment Group. It was designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, with AAI Architects as the architect of record. WSP Global was the structural engineer for the project, while Lendlease was the main contractor.

The building has 98 physical above-ground floors and three basement levels. The top story is numbered 136, and several floor numbers are skipped. The tallest habitable story is 1,417 feet (432 m) high, while the roof and architectural tip are 1,550 feet (470 m) above ground level. The use of development rights transferred from other structures nearby, as well as about 300 feet (91 m) of mechanical spaces, enabled Central Park Tower to reach a taller height than would have ordinarily been allowed. Central Park Tower is the tallest primarily residential building in the world; the much taller Burj Khalifa has 900 residential units but is mixed-use. Central Park Tower is also the second-tallest skyscraper in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, the 15th-tallest building in the world, and the tallest building outside Asia by roof height. The building's top floor and roof height are higher than that of One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Due to its high slenderness ratio, the building has been characterized as part of a new breed of New York City "pencil towers".

Form and facade

The facade of Central Park Tower was designed by James Carpenter Design Associates, in partnership with facade contractor Permasteelisa Group. According to Gill and Smith, the glass cladding was intended to help the tower fit into the skyline. The entrance for Nordstrom is on 57th Street, as is the main residential entrance. A secondary residents' entrance is on 58th Street. The upper stories are set back from the base.

To maximize residents' views of Central Park, Extell built a cantilever extending 28 feet (8.5 m) from the eastern side of the tower, set back 80 feet (24 m) from the street. The cantilever starts roughly 290 feet (88 m) above the Art Students League building and covers roughly one-third of the total space above that building. Without the cantilever, Vornado Realty Trust's 220 Central Park South (immediately to the north) would have blocked the lowest 950 feet (290 m) of the tower. The Art Students League building itself could not be modified because it was a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The cantilever was constructed in conjunction with an air rights sale in 2013, which shifted 220 Central Park South slightly west. This agreement, in turn, ended a years-long dispute over the site of 220 Central Park South. Since 2019, Central Park Tower has held the Guinness World Record for being the tallest cantilevered building. The critic Justin Davidson wrote that, because of the cantilever and the retail podium, the building gave the appearance of several buildings in one.

The base of the tower along 57th and 58th Streets is made of glass, arranged into fluted panels that are insulated and laminated. The panels are installed in a serpentine "wave" pattern. These glass panels have a total combined surface area of 52,700 square feet (4,900 m2). The panels are set within aluminum frames and locked together with steel plates, fitting between the concrete floor slabs on each level.

The facade for the upper stories is mostly a curtain wall made of aluminum and glass. Over 10 million pounds (4.5 kt) of these materials were used in the facade. According to Permasteelisa, 610,300 square feet (56,700 m2) of glass curtain wall is used on the upper floors. The magazine Informed Infrastructure states that 620,000 square feet (58,000 m2) of glass is used on the facade, comprising over 12,000 panels. Each of the panels measures, on average, 12 feet (3.7 m) tall and 5 feet (1.5 m) across. The residential stories have casement windows, within the curtain wall, that can swing up to 4 inches (100 mm) outward. In addition, some condominium units have motorized windows at least seven feet (2.1 m) above the floor. For the eastern facade, which cantilevers over the Art Students League building, a zinc facade was installed to reduce reflections of sunlight onto nearby buildings. Zinc was chosen because it would eventually degrade into a matte finish.

Structural features

Central Park Tower stands on hard bedrock. The foundation consists of reinforced concrete mats as well as spread footings and strip footings. Some parts of the foundation are anchored to the bedrock. Over 75,000 cubic feet (2,100 m3) of rock was excavated to pour the concrete mat, which is 8 feet (2.4 m) thick. The substructure for the three basement levels is built of reinforced concrete as well as composite steel and concrete.

The superstructure is made of reinforced concrete along with a grid of structural steel. The first 12 above-ground stories (comprising floors 1 through 20) contain a reinforced-concrete and composite steel-and-concrete superstructure. Above the thirteenth physical story (floor 32), the superstructure is made of reinforced concrete which is cast in place. Residential and mechanical stories are separated by concrete slabs with a minimum thickness of 9 inches (230 mm). The roof consists of a concrete panel 4 feet (1.2 m) thick. Atop the building is a weighting system to balance the building against the wind. The weighting system consists of two suspended tuned mass dampers.

The tower contains a concrete structural core, which is positioned near the eastern end of the site to accommodate the cantilevered upper stories and create larger floor plates for the Nordstrom store in the base. To create the core, metal formwork was assembled above the eighth floor and lifted to upper floors by crane, where concrete was poured into the formwork to a thickness of 5 feet (1.5 m). While the superstructure on the first 83 stories was constructed with electronic assistance, the superstructure for the top 16 stories was erected entirely manually. At intervals of 20 physical stories, shear walls connect the core to concrete walls surrounding the tower. Additionally, steel columns and beams transfer loads from these shear walls into the bedrock. On higher stories, the corners contain setbacks and notches that also deflect wind loads. The cantilever on the building's eastern side is not structurally supported from beneath, so large shear walls extend east-west between the cantilever.

Interior

The building has a gross floor area of 1,285,308 square feet (119,409.0 m2). The first seven floors of the tower are anchored by New York City's first Nordstrom department store, while the next five floors house amenity spaces for residents. Separate mechanical systems, such as power, cooling, and heating systems, are provided for the retail and residential portions of the building. The core of the tower is shifted to the eastern side of the base, creating an open floor plan for the retail floors. Gordon Gill, one of the building's architects, said the core was shifted to the side before the rest of the tower was designed. The residents' lobby has brass-and-wood details, a Lalique chandelier, and an indoor waterfall. Throughout the building are amenity spaces designed by Colin Cowie, who commissioned other experts to create custom scents and music for the residences.

The building has 11 elevators. Four serve residential stories: three for residents and one shared by residents and service workers. Three other elevators are installed within individual suites: one in the duplex on floors 107/108, one in the duplex on floors 127/128, and one on the penthouse on floors 129–131. The residential elevators, developed by Otis Worldwide, travel 2,000 feet per minute (610 m/min). There are two additional service elevators in the building, one serving the base and another serving the highest stories. The retail base is served by its own set of elevators. The building has two emergency exit stairs extending its full height, and the retail space has at least three exit stairs.

The building contains 179 residential condominiums starting on the 32nd floor. Each unit has two to eight bedrooms, with 1,435 to 17,500 square feet (133.3 to 1,625.8 m2) of floor area. The average apartment spans 5,000 square feet (460 m2). The cheapest apartment was a $1.5 million studio, according to offering plans in 2017. By contrast, twenty of the largest units were being sold at over $60 million each, and the penthouse was originally listed at $250 million. The interiors of the building's condominiums were designed by Rottet Studio. According to Gordon Gill, the materials and arrangement of each unit was intended to "address a softer, more sustainable, and sophisticated expression". The units have open layouts and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Central Park or other nearby structures. Some of the units have double-height ceilings. Interior features include Miele and Sub-Zero appliances, custom cabinetry, and white oak floors. A small number of units have concrete terraces, but there are otherwise no balconies.

History

Planning

The Central Park Tower was Extell's second tower to be constructed on Billionaires' Row, after One57. Extell began buying land for what would become the Central Park Tower in mid-2005. Extell purchased 221 West 57th Street and a neighboring lot for $67.5 million, yielding over 261,000 square feet (24,200 m2) of buildable space. That September, Extell served one of 221 West 57th Street's occupants, the Broadway Dance Center, a notice of default for operating without the required public assembly permit. Extell also revoked the Center's use of the building's internal staircases due to theft concerns and offered the Center $1 million to move to a new home on 55th Street. Extell purchased 136,000 square feet (12,600 m2) of air rights from the Art Students League of New York in early 2006 for $23.1 million, and later paid the Art Students League another $31.8 million for 6,000 square feet (560 m2) of air rights.

Further air rights purchases followed in 2006 and 2007. This included 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of air rights above the Osborne Apartments on 205 West 57th Street in January 2006; another 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of air rights from the Saint Thomas Choir School at 202 West 58th Street in November 2006; and 14,290 square feet (1,328 m2) of air rights from the 13-story apartment building at 200 West 58th Street in January 2007. In addition, in two separate 2006 purchases, Extell gained 156,000 square feet (14,500 m2) of development rights from the purchase of 1780 Broadway and two contiguous properties and 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2) of development rights from the purchase of a plot of 58th Street. Combined, these purchases allowed a building with up to 563,000 square feet (52,300 m2) of floor area.

In July 2013, Extell paid $25 million for the lot at 232 West 58th Street, adding another 20,750 square feet (1,928 m2) of development rights, and thus completing the site. That October, Extell purchased 90,000 square feet (8,400 m2) of air rights from the Atlantic Development Group.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) attempted to protect 225 West 57th Street and the neighboring 1780 Broadway in 2009, having unsuccessfully attempted to designate the structures as city landmarks in 1994. After Extell and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn pushed back, the LPC dropped its proposal to designate 225 West 57th Street as a landmark. In an LPC hearing, almost all parties except for the Real Estate Board of New York supported designating 1780 Broadway as a landmark. However, the proposed designation of 225 West 57th Street received both significant support and opposition: the American Institute of Architects, New York State Assembly member Richard N. Gottfried, and the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois spoke in favor of that building's designation while City Council members Melinda Katz, Daniel Garodnick, and Jessica Lappin spoke against landmark status.

Design

In June 2012, Nordstrom committed to occupying nearly 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2) at the base of Extell's proposed tower. In exchange, Nordstrom agreed to buy the retail condominium on the tower's lowest seven stories; the Nordstrom deal earned Extell $400 million. Extell took out a $300 million mortgage from The Blackstone Group on the land around the same time. The new mortgage allowed Extell to repay a $250 million loan from HSBC on the site's existing properties. Extell raised a further $300 million by issuing bonds on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. In total, Extell received $1 billion from the retail condominium, the Blackstone mortgage, and the Israeli bond sales.

Construction permits were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings in November 2012. Extell revealed that Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill would design the tower, which was to be known as the Nordstrom Tower. The structure would rise 1,550 feet (470 m) to become the second-tallest building in New York City. It would rise higher than the roof of One World Trade Center, the city's tallest building by architectural height, and would be the tallest mostly-residential building worldwide, beating out several other buildings on Billionaires' Row. Adrian Smith's firm, which had been recommended by Nordstrom, beat out other contenders for the design including Herzog & de Meuron, SHoP Architects, Jean Nouvel, Foster and Partners, and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

After learning that 220 Central Park South would block views of Central Park from the proposed tower, Barnett and his associates devised plans to cantilever part of the tower away from 220 Central Park South. This cantilever would overhang the Art Students League of New York's building at 215 West 57th Street. Since the Art Students League building was a designated city landmark, the LPC needed to certify that the cantilever would not have a negative visual impact on the older building. In addition, the tower would need to be structurally strengthened to support the weight of the cantilever. Gordon Gill sketched plans for the cantilever, which Barnett estimated would increase the construction budget by $300 million. The proposed cantilever garnered opposition from the community. In October 2013, Manhattan Community Board 5 voted against allowing the cantilever, although the vote was merely advisory; final power over the decision rested with the LPC. The LPC approved the air rights sale and cantilever in a 6–1 vote. The commission's chairman Robert B. Tierney concluded that, despite the tower's large size, the cantilever would have a "negligible impact on the landmark site".

Construction

The company began excavating the building's 80-foot-deep (24 m) foundations in May 2014. A new design for the tower was leaked in July 2014, with the tower containing a 1,479-foot-tall (451 m) parapet. The spire was to reach 1,775 feet (541 m), just 1 foot (0.30 m) shorter than One World Trade Center's pinnacle. After nearly a year of excavation, the building's concrete foundation was poured in February 2015. Revised plans were announced in May 2015, showing a parapet height of 1,530 feet (470 m) and an architectural height of 1,775 feet (541 m) with the spire. If the spire had been built, it would have been on the eastern side of the tower. The website New York YIMBY reported the next month that the spire would rise to 1,795 feet (547 m), making the Nordstrom Tower the tallest in New York City and the Western Hemisphere. Extell founder Gary Barnett denied these rumors, saying he would keep the height at 1,775 feet "out of respect" to One World Trade Center. At the time, spokespeople for Extell would not confirm a final height and said leaked designs for the tower were "wrong".

By mid-2015, Extell sought to earn $4.4 billion from condominium sales; this figure included Nordstrom's $400 million retail condo. This figure would make the Nordstrom Tower the highest-grossing condominium building ever developed, beating out the $2 billion sellout price of 15 Central Park West, which had once been the highest-grossing condominium building in the U.S. At least twenty of the Nordstrom Tower's units were planned to cost $40 million or more. The tower crane was installed in July 2015, and the structure reached street level by the end of September. New permits filed that month showed the building without a spire but increased the parapet height to 1,550 feet (470 m). At the same time, the building's official name of "Central Park Tower" was unveiled and the completion date was pushed back to 2019. Work on the above-ground structure began in late 2015. The structural steel for Nordstrom's retail base was complete by the middle of 2016.

Meanwhile, Extell attempted to secure additional funding, and Barnett returned to Tel Aviv to look for more financing from Israeli investors, He had to raise $1.1 billion, but banks were increasingly reluctant to give loans to luxury developments. In June 2016, Extell announced it was seeking to raise $190 million in financing for the tower from foreign investors through the EB-5 visa program. Extell raised that amount mainly from Chinese investors, who each paid $500,000 in exchange for a green card that allowed them to become U.S. lawful permanent residents. Extell also brought in the Shanghai Municipal Investment Group (SMI) as an additional equity investor for roughly $300 million. Though the Blackstone loan had faced maturity in August 2016, Extell used the extra cash to repay $50 million of the loan and extend the maturity on the remainder, to December 9, 2016.

Completion and opening

While some media sources reported that Central Park Tower was completed by the end of 2020, finishes were still being applied through 2021, and an official completion had not been announced. Barnett also sought further loans due to lagging apartment sales. In January 2021, the project received a $380 million mezzanine loan from Sail Harbor Capital and Baupost Group, which was to mature at the end of 2021. The first buyers finalized the purchases of their apartments in February 2021, and the crown began lighting up at night that May. The new tower also hosted events such as the 100th-birthday celebration of the fashion designer Iris Apfel that September. Concurrent with the slowdown in the luxury residential market, several units at Central Park Tower sold well below their asking prices in late 2021. By October, thirty-three units had been sold at an average discount rate of 25%; in some cases, units were discounted by as much as 50%.

The building was finished by December 2021. Among the first condominium owners were several members of NASCAR racing's France family, Meta Platforms executive Nicola Mendelsohn, and businessman Matt Kaulig. By mid-2022, Extell had sold more than $1 billion worth of units at Central Park Tower. The company predicted that it would be unable to reach a $4 billion sellout because so many units were being sold at discounted prices, and Barnett said he would not be able to recover some of the equity he had spent on the project. Due to slightly increased construction costs and the COVID-induced slowdown in the luxury market, Extell had revised its predicted profits from the Central Park Tower downward. Whereas Extell had originally predicted a net profit of over $2 billion in 2018, the company was predicting an $845 million profit in 2021. The penthouse on floors 127/128, originally listed at $250 million, was marketed for $195 million by mid-2023; the only other penthouse with an asking price of more than $100 million was the duplex on floors 107/108.

Extell received a $500 million inventory loan from JPMorgan Chase in March 2023, which covered 87 unsold apartments, and Extell refinanced the building that July with a $500 million loan from JPMorgan Chase and the Reuben brothers. Apartment sales continued; for instance, the unit on floors 107/108 was sold for $115 million in 2024, making it New York City's fourth-most-expensive residence ever at the time. Extell refinanced 18 of the unsold apartments in early 2025 with a $270 million loan, and it continued to reduce apartment prices. By mid-2025, three of the original condo owners had resold their apartments: two for nearly the same price that the original owner had paid, and one at a significant loss.

Reception

Central Park Tower received mixed reviews during its development. In 2013, Justin Davidson described the development of Central Park Tower and One57 as part of the "plutocratization of the midtown skyline". In 2015, a neighborhood group protested the fact that the Nordstrom Tower and other Billionaires' Row towers would cast long shadows over Central Park. Martin Filler of the New York Review of Books wrote that year that the cantilever over the Art Students League building was an example of what the historian Carol Willis called "skyscraper Monopoly", in reference to the popular board game. Michael Kimmelman, in The New York Times, said that the cantilever was akin to "a giant with one foot raised, poised to squash a poodle". Writers also called Central Park Tower a symbol of wealth inequality within New York City.

When the building topped out during 2019, Elizabeth Kim wrote for the Gothamist that Central Park Tower was "a mixed-use but indisputably high-end building" but that its height record was "almost a ho-hum occurrence in New York City". A writer for CNBC said at the time: "Central Park Tower is not just a new building—it's a statement." Architectural writer Carter Horsley described the curved facade of the base as "very alluring" and the cantilever as a "significant broadening for the bulk of the building's prodigious height". Upon the tower's completion, Architectural Digest wrote: "But for such a grandiose statement, the design team decided on a minimal aesthetic for the exterior—it's a kind of modern classic, inspired by luxury." Davidson said the building "expresses the primacy of engineering over elegance". Carter Horsley called the facade's curves "very alluring". New York Times Magazine writer Nancy Hass called it "one of the most hair-raising new cantilevered buildings in New York".