NEW YORK (AP) – One skyscraper stands out from the rest on the Manhattan skyline. It’s not the tallest, but it’s the thinnest, the thinnest in the world, in fact.
The 84-story residential Steinway Tower, designed by New York architecture firm SHoP Architects, holds the title of “world’s slimmest skyscraper” thanks to its logic-defying width-to-height ratio: 23 1/ 2 to 1.
“Any time it is 1 to 10 or more what is considered a slender building; 1 to 15 or more is considered exotic and really hard to do,” said SHoP Architects founding director Gregg Pasquarelli. “The most slender buildings in the world are mostly in Hong Kong, and they’re about 17 or 18 in 1”.
The tower’s 60 apartments are priced from $18 million to $66 million per unit and offer 360-degree views of the city. It is located just south of Central Park, along a stretch of Manhattan’s 57th Street known as “Billionaires Row”.
At 1,428 feet (435 meters), the building is the second tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere, after the nearby Central Park Tower at 1,550 feet (470 meters). By comparison, the tallest tower in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is 828 meters (2,717 feet).
The Steinway Tower is so beautiful at the top that every time the wind picks up, the luxury homes on the upper floors sway a few feet.
“All skyscrapers have to move,” Pasquarelli said. “If it’s too stiff, it’s actually more dangerous; it has to be flexible.”
To prevent the tower from swaying too far, the architects created a counterweight with tapered steel plates. And while the exterior has the de rigueur reflective glass, it also includes a textured terracotta and bronze facade that creates wind turbulence to slow the building’s acceleration, Pasquarelli said. About 200 rock anchors go down a maximum of 100 feet (30 meters) into the underlying bedrock to provide a deep foundation.
The Steinway Tower has a long history as the former location of Steinway Hall, built in 1924. JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group purchased the building in 2013, and are now looking to the future.
“What I hope is that in 50 years, you’ll only know New York from 111 West 57th St.,” Pasquarelli said. “I hope it holds a special place in the hearts of all future New Yorkers.” ___
AP Contributor Aron Ranen contributed to this report.