Nordstrom to Be Tallest Residential Building on Earth

The new Nordstrom tower planned for the increasingly crowded Billionaire’s Row is slated to become the tallest in the world.  The giant building set to rise at 225 West 57th Street will rise to 1,479 feet above street level, New York YIMBY reports, with a bonus spire putting it at 1,775 feet—just one foot shorter than the World Trade Center.

Once again, the city will boast the tallest roof in the country, robbing Chicago of the honor with its 1,451-foot Willis Tower. When completed in 2018, it will rank second only to One World Trade Center, among the city's tallest buildings.

Extell Development is gearing up to build one of the tallest towers in the world, one that would offer sweeping views of Central Park a block to the north. The company is aiming high: a new 1,479-foot residential tower on the site just east of Broadway between 57th and 58th streets.

Plans for the building are moving forward quickly at a time that a new type of skyscraper is beginning to emerge on the Manhattan skyline.

The skyscraper at 225 West 57th Street is expected to rise 1,479 feet, as it glides to a pointed peak above the skyline. The 85-story building will be just up the street from One57, while construction has already risen above 1,000 feet on the 1420-foot condominium tower at 432 Park Avenue.

Plans for the building are moving forward quickly at a time that a new type of skyscraper is beginning to emerge on the Manhattan skyline.

The Nordstrom Tower has all the approvals necessary to begin construction, and once Extell Development amasses the required funds, the skyscraper will become the latest in a family of super-tall buildings in the area—111 West 57th Street, One57, 432 Park Avenue, 53 West 53rd Street, among others.

The tower's bottom seven floors will host a massive Nordstrom department store—the city's first.

For decades, office towers accounted for most of the towers built more than 600 feet high, while top residential apartments were generally found in Upper East Side cooperatives.

But now a handful of developers are building very tall, slender luxury residential towers, betting that the wealthy will pay for great views.

Extell, currently one of the city's most prolific developers, has been on the vanguard of this change.

A few blocks east of the Nordstrom tower site on 57th Street, the company is wrapping up work on One57, a 1,004-foot tower, where two buyers have agreed to pay more than $95 million each, for two penthouse apartments there, a record price.

As with all skyscrapers, it's the economics that makes them possible - and it is a strong market. Moreover, In Manhattan particularly, people are willing to pay a great deal—millions and tens of millions of dollars for apartments in the sky. There is a huge market for that.

Visit Our Sponsors

---

Page Views

Since October 1, 2011