Work is wrapping up on Central Park Tower, a 1,550-foot residential supertall in Midtown and number two on our year-end countdown. Addressed as 217 West 57th Street, the 131-story tower is designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill and developed by Extell and stands as the tallest residential building in the world and the tallest structure in New York by roof height. The property yields 179 condominiums marketed by Corcoran Sunshine above a Nordstrom retail podium bound by West 57th and West 58th Streets and Broadway and Seventh Avenue.
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
The tower continues to dominate the Midtown skyline. Running down the height of the main massing is a chamfered corner that catches the golden hour lighting all the way up to the mechanical crown, which stretches beyond the final setback that’s home to New York City’s highest private outdoor terrace.
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. and Billionaire’s Row Photo by Michael Young
Photos of the building from the East River provide a perspective of its scale and presence among its supertall neighbors.
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Photos from around Central Park, Midtown, and the Upper West Side further detail the shape and design of the curtain wall. The easternmost portion of the reinforced concrete edifice has thin horizontal bands breaking up the floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall, whereas the rest of the superstructure has a uniform glass envelope with a series of thin reflective mullions that also easily catch the sunlight.
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
The removal of the exterior hoist from the entire supertall reveals the true skinny profile of Central Park Tower when looking from the east and west.
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
The crown features several narrow slits in the curtain wall for mechanical ventilation.
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young
111 West 57th Street (left). Photo by Michael Young
The units on the upper floors of the tower are among the last remaining to be built and finished above a model unit on the 92nd floor. The multi-story Nordstrom flagship department store continues to operate in the base of Central Park Tower and the bottom floors of the adjacent buildings that line Broadway between West 57th and West 58th Streets. The stretched-out sidewalk scaffolding on the southern side along West 57th Street was removed not too long ago and we can now see the permanent Nordstrom letters displayed above the front doors to the store.
The Nordstrom retail frontage along Broadway. 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
Subscribe to YIMBY’s daily e-mail
Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates
Like YIMBY on Facebook
Follow YIMBY’s Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews
I could taste the supertall in the air, as I knew the whole design on your photos. Very beautiful and prominent into silence sky, getting more and more height: Thanks to Michael Young.
Differentiating the cantilever from the rest of the building contributes significantly to the incoherence of the design. Grand scale, distinctly un-grand aesthetics.
A disappointing structure, much like WTC 1 and other generic glass towers.
Exactly. If it continues like this the city architecture went down big time
It just sold out and all the buyers agreed not to occupy their apartments but to treat it as an investment museum piece .
In 20 years we went from an impressive skyline dominated by two incredibly beautiful buildings to a hodgepodge of generic meh.
Right on. These tall, thin glass monstrosities are hideous. And the buyers? How much laundered money is going into them?
CPT Has 131 floors..
No, it doesn’t.
You can blab on all you want about the rich, ugliness, height, or whatever. But, I think Central Park Tower is a great building and it’s very close to my heart.
Along with 111 West 57th Street, this building really inspired my interest in architecture and development. Watching this building’s LONG construction provided me with so much enjoyment and curiosity.
I love the design of this building. Yes, 111 West 57th is definitely a much more beautiful building, but CPT still has a very solid look in its own right. From its flowing base to the sleek and elegant crown, the tower has a friendly yet bold stance. I also don’t mind the cantilever at all. In fact, it’s probably the most well done cantilever in the City. It’s proportional to the building and it doesn’t look out of place.
I know it’s likely you probably want to type away in disagreement. But to me, Central Park Tower is a fantastic skyscraper that I’ll always enjoy looking up at.
Agreed!
The preservationists won’t agree with me, but I see this as a missed opportunity. This enormous building has very little presence at street level. I wish they could have built from scratch along the Broadway frontage instead of ripping the innards out of those three buildings to make the Nordstrom store work.
They curved Nordstrom windows are simply an eyesore…worse!
Well, the design isn’t as “grand” as the building. Cantilevered part is ugly, the rest insignificant and this tall building has nothing claiming New York, USA. It could had been built anywhere, so ugly to be chinese wasteland. The only virtue? Taller than others
typical to see opinions presented as of they’re a fact.
having strong opinions about the aesthetics but presenting them as a fact?
literally all but one comment is aware of this.
do better with your communications especially when it’s literally just your opinion and we’re in NYC – so, no one cares about your opinion especially when you say it that way.
Will add to my must see list on next NYC visit. Saw under construction on first visit in
2017, so anxious to see completed tower (along with Robert Stern tower on CPS)!
Only thing I’d hate is that
LONG walk down the stairs if I lived on the 95th floor, and the power went out! 🤔🤣😂🤣
It most likely has a back up power supply for the elevators. I live in a much smaller / older building and we have a reserve power supply for our elevators incase the power goes out.
100th floor will be The Central Park Club..Penthouse is 126th Floor..
CPT turned out much nicer than I thought it would… there is an elegant simplicity to it.
I’d live near the top of it any day!!!
Absolutely beautiful.
I hideous building and colossal missed opportunity. It’s an eyesore in the sky for all the world to see.
Just wondering how such super-tall residential buildings handle lightning strikes, as they obviously must do.
We often see photos of the Empire State building’s sturdy antenna struck many times a year.
But a tall antenna atop building is not someone’s home.
I wonder what a penthouse apartment resident in such a building experiences when a powerful lightning bold strikes mere feet above one’s head, and how damage to the building’s glass exterior is avoided.
Is the incredible noise, light, power, and destructiveness of the bolt so easily dissipated or diverted or dampened —without disrupting the quality of life of the building’s upper-story residents?
Just wondering….
The water pressure must be lousy.
If you invite someone, and they’re very impressed until they find you’re only on the second floor.
The impact of these ill-conceived and badly-scaled buildings cranked out by commercial men does violence to the experience of the classic landmark views from Central Park southward. Whereas previously only ‘New York’ (for the ignorant: buildings rooted in a natural landscape) skyscrapers loomed poetically over the Park’s trees, now an outré non-sequitor ‘buck Rogers’ cacophony screams to drown-out the experience of the Park as intended since it’s design by Olmsted and Vaux. Lamentable how ignorance is allowed, not only to roll, but to rule the day.
Michael Young’s photography is magnificent!
Wonderful photos. Thankyou!
Weirdly I was in NYC about 6 weeks back and stayed nearby but I remember some of the other pencil towers more. I think it seemed to lack guts up close…
But I like it in these pics and much more distant pics…