Closings are well underway for Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill‘s 1,550-foot-tall, 131-story Central Park Tower at 217 West 57th Street. Located on Midtown‘s coveted Billionaires’ Row, this marks a major step in the final stages of the world’s tallest residential building, which is also the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere by roof height. Extell is developing the project with an expected $4 billion sellout on the 179 units marketed by Corcoran Sunshine and Extell Marketing Group.
“Now that closings have commenced, residents will be able to experience the outstanding quality and unique lifestyle that is offered at Central Park Tower,” said Gary Barnett, founder and chairman of Extell Development Company. “With first-class product and exceptional pricing that speaks to today’s market, Central Park Tower is the very best you can buy on Central Park. There is truly no other building like it.”
Meanwhile, the exterior hoist is steadily being dismantled on the northern elevation, leaving a strip of exposed reinforced concrete floors that will soon be filled in.
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Photographs show mechanical hoist disassembled down to the penultimate setback of the slender supertall. A sliver of the crown above the final eastern setback where the building’s highest penthouse and New York City’s highest outdoor terrace is located also has yet to wrap up. With the hoist removed from the upper levels, we can finally see true dimensions of Central Park Tower’s profile when looking east and west from Fifth Avenue and Columbus Circle, or from across the Hudson River. Also nearing the final stages is the removal of the protective blue film, with most of it remaining on the lower half of the structure’s eastern elevation and parts of the western side of the edifice.
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Residents will enter the building either through a dedicated private residential lobby on West 57th Street, or through a secondary and more discreet access point along West 58th Street that comes with a gated valet entrance. Near the pinnacle on the 100th floor will be the Central Park Club, the highest private residential club in the world, and is part of the building’s 50,000 square feet of amenities that are also spread out on the 14th and 16th floor. There will be an expansive outdoor terrace with a swimming pool and cabanas for entertaining, a private screening room, a residents’ lounge, a tween game lounge on the 14th floor, a full-floor fitness and wellness center with a gym, a training room, a squash/basketball court, and spa treatment rooms on the 16th floor. The collection of two- to eight-bedroom homes begin on the 32nd floor and range in size between 1,435 square feet to over 17,500 square feet. Resident-only services also include in-residence and in-club dining experiences, beauty and spa services, clinical skin care, personal stylists for wardrobes in the home and a variety of in-store perks, including advance access to new brands and collections, and priority access to invite-only events.
YIMBY expects the hoist to be fully dismantled sometime between late spring and summer. The sidewalk scaffolding along West 57th Street that bears the Nordstrom name will also be removed once work on the tower above is totally completed.
Central Park Tower is expected to finish construction later this year.
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NYC SKYLINE IS UNMATCH IN THE WHOLE WORLD AND NIGHT it is amazing when the rest of the coming towers are completed what a sight that will be.
you should travel a bit more. New York is becoming a backwater. Fast.
And these days… a ghost prison camp.
How utterly unremarkable.
How true. Except in unnecessary and unwarranted height
Does it really have 131 floors? The design is like an overstretched speculative office building from Hudson Yards.
It’s shame the spire was deleted. Was it just for cost reasons?
That spire REALLY would’ve been cool…
Still time for a ‘last minute’ spire, a la the Chrysler Building.
But I’m not feeling it.
It ain’t gonna happen.
I always thought the spire should make it 2,001 feet, to commemorate the year we all lost our Freedom.
It is disappointing to see this website quote the marketing floor count of 131 instead of the actual floor count of 98. While the higher figure may allow a resident to impress with their triple-digit floor number, the real count is more luxurious in that it denotes higher ceiling heights and that the designers didn’t try to cram the maximum number of units into the building.
More empty apartments for global Oligarchs.
Yep. They get to pay taxes on the apartment while never visiting. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Oligarchs = money laundering = blood money.
I might agree with you if the city ever properly calculated taxes on ultra luxury condos. They are compared to neighborhood rental buildings in assessment process, leading to absurdly low effective tax rates, on the order of 10 bps of market value. And that’s assuming building didn’t get any tax breaks. Have trouble keeping Barnett’s buildings straight in that regard.
I’m much more curious about sales rate to date (not the official spin) than the architecture or construction progress. Hope some of the educated readers of this blog will chime in. That $4 billion sellout has been quoted for years, possibly even as far back as the initial planning stages.
Some property taxes but no income taxes and very limited contribution to the economy through local spending. It’s good for the developer, assuming the apartments sell, the contractors, and their workers, but these buildings don’t have the economic impact of apartment buildings that will be occupied by people who live here, work here, pay income taxes here, and spend money here year round.
gives me the blahs
Future generations will call this a colossal waste of resources for so few in a planet that needed to become carbon neutral. They will say never again.
Never again? There are several more in the pipeline right now that will be even taller and more decadent.
Currently yes but hopefully in the future the environmental consequences of these structures will be taken into account.
Would you rather they spend that money on a mansion on several acres? The carbon footprint here per capita is just a fraction of that. I actually can’t think of a way to spend $50 million that would have a smaller environmental impact than one of these apartments.
They should think about future generations and skip the mansion and the the private jet. Science is more important than greed and these structures are the symbol of excess in the worst way.
You can relax. The planet doesn’t need to become “carbon neutral” because it’s all a gigantic lie.
This is going to be a tough sell.
Rich people are going to go somewhere. I would rather have them spending their money on apartments in this thing on 57th street than combining/demolishing or otherwise reducing the affordability of apartments in neighborhoods I would actually want to live in.
Righteous indignation aside, is anyone really upset that this tower is ruining their neighborhood? It’s midtown; who cares. Let them pay ungodly amount of taxes to live on 57th street.
Agree. Who the hell cares. Better yet if they visit their apartments infrequently. To whatever extent the City is receiving real property taxes, the better.
Also agree.
Is there going to be free Dramamine for the folk on the floors that will sway in the breeze?
Looking forward to seeing how CPT looks without the blue film and even more so, at night when the crown is illuminated.
I agree.
The parts without the blue film look good.
Maybe not “good” but at least “better”.
I for one cannot wait to see this tower finished. I agree that it is to bad that they dropped the spire at the top.
No matter how much this building is critisized, I still believe Central Park Tower is one of greatest modern New York skyscrapers there is.
Though the nearby 220 Central Park South and 111 West 57th Street are definitely more beautiful than it, CPT still has an unmistakably recognizable design that has very elegant components too, such as the crown or even the cantilever. Central Park Tower is essentially the more modern version of its neighbors, yet it still has a wonderful look to it.
One of my favorite parts about the tower is all the different viewpoints you can have of the building. One of my favorites is Times Square, or even just the view of it from Central Park. Even better is the silhouette of the building from afar, paired up with the other Billionaire’s Row skyscrapers.
But overall, I wish that Central Park Tower was appreciated just a little bit more. Though it is maybe eirritating that there are so many luxury condos out there, that still doesn’t undeny that it is a truly extraordinary building on the exterior.
All of these new pencil-thin supertalls are growing on me, but I appreciate the bulk of One Vanderbilt and the proposed 175 Park.
As an alumnus of SOM I respectfully disagree with your comment regarding the proposed 175 Park Bldg. I think SOM could have and should have done a lot better with the design of this project. My opinion – way too big and way too bulky for the site.
More great photos from Michael Young. We are so fortunate to have this brilliant & energetic photographer here in NYC.
Something no one has bothered mentioning about this tower until now is it’s immediate neighbor to the East – The Arts Student League of New York. I find it more than just a bit ironic that a small group of super-rich individuals who will eventually occupy this building are directly next door to a group of artist who generally speaking earn almost nothing compared to their billionaire neighbors. Only in New York!
The League building is a NY City landmark and will most likely be there for a very long long time. Fortunately as someone already pointed out the super-rich apartment dwellers won’t be their very offen so they don’t have to rub shoulders or even see the less fortunate folks on the surrounding sidewalks!
Are you kidding me? STUNNING. That first pic. Shimmering. What is that dried turd in front?
If you consider the stagnant skylines of almost every other US city, I feel it is exciting just to be here to live it.
When will Occupancy begun and the cost of apt
How much wasted time spent for an upper floor resident to exit and enter a building such as this ?
All I can think about, is that it’s a long walk down the staircase from the penthouse,
if there’s an emergency!
Probably, why I live on the 2nd floor of my building… can either hang out the window and jump or a “handsome fireman with strong arms” can carry me to safety! ??
it’s time to found a completely new city for high rise buildings with proper transportation and streets .New York city was established in the time of horses and buggy’s and there isn’t enough place on the sidewalks for this high concentration of street traffic or the available public transportation today .just servicing those apartment dwellers will create a huge problem .
It’s called The Line and it is being built in Saudi Arabia.
If the photos are indeed all current, then the tower crane is still erected on the Steinway Tower. The structure has ostensibly been finished for months and what work that might remain on the exterior, if any, can be completed off cradles. The crane is a very expensive piece of plant and the months are ticking by. There could be a logical and innocuous explanation but given the project’s checkered and challenged history, an interested but uninvolved observer couldn’t be blamed for surmising that a problem exists that’s not being publicly disclosed.
Gorgeous. The tallest residential tower in the world.
This is the end of the central park sunshine, beauty, and well being of nature. We should not allow this anymore in NYC. Our NYC official only care about their bonuses after each one of these project is filed approved and inspected by the building department. NYC is now worse than a drug dealer who can not stop selling drugs to the rich to get richer themselves.
I look at all these glass needles going up and all I can think about is how incredibly vulnerable they look.. just as well they will be mostly empty.
The end of Central Park sunshine? Are you kidding? These buildings are pencil thin. Yes, these towers will house the very wealthy-so what? It’s the architecture that counts. In that respect New York is being spoiled by a superior skyline (compared to other cities in the US). Jealousy can be so ugly…and ubiquitous.