World's Skinniest Skyscraper to Soon Rise on W 57th

The New York City skyline is the most famous in the world, and if you look closely, there’s a new shape that’s starting to stand out. That shape? Slender. JDS Development has a project that takes that idea to a new level.  A 60-foot wide lot at 111 West 57th Street will soon be the home of the skinniest skyscraper in the world.  In addition, the building will soar to an incredible height – over 1300 feet– taller than the rooftop of the Empire State Building. Steinway Tower will have 3 high-speed elevators, and each floor will be its own ultra-luxury 5,000 square foot apartment. Construction is expected to begin early next year.

“Land is very scarce, especially in the most desirable parts in the city. That’s why you seeing this trend of taller buildings being built on smaller parcels of land,” says developer Michael Stern.

His firm, JDS Development Group, has a project that takes the idea of slender to a new level. It will even top the High Cliff in Hong Kong, currently the most slender skyscraper in the world.

If all goes according to plan, a lot located at 111 West 57th Street in midtown Manhattan, will be the future home of the skinniest skyscraper in the world.

The building will sit on a lot just 60 feet wide, and will be 200 feet taller than neighboring One57, which is on the verge of completion, and even slimmer than nearby 432 Park Avenue.

The model-thin skyscraper will incorporate the historical base of the old Steinway Hall, with construction of 111 West 57th Street expected to begin in 2014. The building will offer a total of 100 units, spread between 74 floors.

Steinway Tower will become the most slender building in the world because of its very narrow floor plate. It will be entirely unprecedented in its dimensions which are 58 feet wide, while rising around 1300 feet tall.  That will give the building a slenderness ratio of about 1:23 when it is completed in 2016, while the ratio for most buildings is well under 1 to 20.

These new, slender skyscrapers are cropping up thanks to advances in building science coupled with eye-popping real estate prices. “The price that people are willing to pay for the unobstructed Central Park view is really the only reason these buildings can be economically feasible.”

The Details

The bottom six floors of the 74-story building will be retail, while floors 7-16 will each hold two residential units. The remainder of the tower will house full-floor apartments with 15-foot ceilings and unobstructed views of Central Park across to Long Island City, and out to Long Island. The penthouse will sit over twelve hundred feet in the air.

And the views from this extraordinary perch in the sky? They’re likely amongst the best in Manhattan. “There’s just going to be nothing like it across the entire city,” says Stern.

“You really get this floor-through experience that you’re floating in the city. It’s going to be truly spectacular.”

But building such a slender apartment tower is not always so easy.

Engineers on the project have to deal with a variety of issues ranging from dampening the impact of wind on such a slender structure, to making it feel not so slender. A huge steel weight will be suspended within the top of the building to stop it from swaying in the wind.

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