435 meters high: The narrowest skyscraper in the world
A new luxury skyscraper has been under construction in New York since 2017.
Now the new high-rise named “111 West 57th Street” is complete and part of the world-famous skyline that can be seen from Central Park in the direction of downtown Manhattan.
When traveling to New York City, a trip to Central Park, the city’s “green lung”, is part of a successful vacation for most people. If you look from Central Park in the direction of downtown Manhattan, you will see numerous imposing skyscrapers. The first line of gigantic towers directly in front of Central Park is called “Billionairs Row”, i.e. the row of the billionaires – simply because nobody can actually afford an apartment there. For example, in one of the buildings, singer Jennifer Lopez bought a 400-square-foot apartment for a whopping $15 million.
Nevertheless, or perhaps because of the luxury image, interest in living space is extremely high there. The result: Since 2014, more and more super high-rise buildings have been built. However, since space is limited, the skyscrapers only keep growing in height, but not in width. A series of so-called “Slender skyscrapers” are being built, i.e. very narrow and tall buildings. The current highlight: the “111 West 57th Street”.
What defines 111 West 57th Street
111 West 57th Street was completed last week and is now ready for residents to move into. The tower, designed by SHoP Architects, reached its current height of 435 meters four years ago. With the current completion and the now unchangeable height-width ratio of 24:1, the building is now the narrowest skyscraper in the world according to the architecture magazine “Dezeen”. There are only 60 apartments on 85 floors, a maximum of one per floor – however, many of the apartments extend over several floors.
Depending on the size of the apartment and the height of the building, the prices in the new luxury skyscraper are tiered. The currently cheapest, still available apartment with 239 square meters is 7.7 million US dollars. With 662 square meters on 3 floors, the most expensive apartment that can currently be bought is significantly larger, but at 66 million US dollars it is also much more expensive.
By the way: Anyone who, as a mere mortal, dreams of entering the record-breaking skyscraper will be disappointed. Because the building is purely a residential tower. Visitors are only left with amazement from afar – and the question of whether another giant tower for the world’s billionaires was really needed right next to Central Park.
