The future of New York is one tall tale.
A rendering created for the Skyscraper Museum by intern Jose Hernandez shows Central Park South and Midtown Manhattan as seen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s roof garden.
Hernandez inserted residential and commercial buildings that are newly built or in the development pipeline into a photo first published by NY YIMBY.
(Go see the rendering as part of the museum’s “Skyline” exhibit, open to the public through April at 39 Battery Place.)
By 2022, the rendering shows, the view toward the south end of the park will be dominated by 13 towers — 11 currently in the works and two recently opened.
“This growth of the skyline represents the kind of new development we’ve seen in the 21st century,” says Carol Willis, founder of the Skyscraper Museum. She calls the new towers a distinctly “New York type” — meaning super slender and super expensive.
Here’s a look at the two complete and 11 under-construction towers.
The latter are “truly unique in the world,” as Willis puts it, promising some of New York’s most extravagant condominiums and office spaces upon their debuts over the next few years.
220 Central Park South
Making headlines is 220 Central Park South, a secretive 69-story condo tower developed by Vornado Realty Trust and designed by limestone-loving architect Robert A.M. Stern with SLCE Architects. Closings on the 116 condos began in October of last year, and the 1,000-foot-tall tower ended 2018 with some sky-high sales. Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, as well as billionaire Daniel Och, have reportedly bought pads. And it was confirmed on Wednesday that hedge fund Citadel’s founder Ken Griffin paid more than $238 million for a 24,000-square-foot apartment there. For that kind of cash, according to the Wall Street Journal, residents will get a private dining room, a gym, a juice bar, a library, a basketball court, a golf simulator and a children’s play area.
Central Park Tower
The 1,550-foot-tall Central Park Tower — rising on Billionaires’ Row at 217 W. 57th St. — will be the tallest residential building in the world when it’s complete. Sales of its 179 ultra-luxury units over 131 floors launched in October. Eighteen of them are priced over $60 million, Extell Development founder Gary Barnett told the Wall Street Journal last week, with a projected total sellout of $4 billion. If it achieves that goal, Extell’s vaunted project would be crowned the most expensive condominium in the country.
Amenities in the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture-designed building, which will have New York’s first Nordstrom store at its base, include indoor and outdoor pools, a basketball court and a private club 1,000 feet in the air. It’s expected to top out this year and welcome residents in 2020.
One57
The first tower to open along Billionaires’ Row back in 2014, One57 has set several records. The tower is home to the second-priciest apartment ever sold in NYC; Michael Dell paid $100.5 million for a six-bedroom penthouse over 10,923 square feet. The city’s third-most expensive pad ever sold? A $91.5 million unit by hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman. At 1,005 feet and 90 stories tall, the Christian de Portzamparc-designed tower has 92 units and a Park Hyatt. For-sale pads range from a $3.5 million one-bedroom to a $28.5 million five-bedroom.
425 Park Ave.
An office tower long in the works by developers David W. Levinson and Robert T. Lapidus, of L&L Holding Company, the 897-foot-tall development is the work of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster. The diagrid-covered structure topped out its 47 floors in December, promising to spruce up a bland stretch of Park Avenue in Midtown, and is expected to open to companies including its anchor tenant, hedge fund Citadel, in early 2020.
One Vanderbilt
Kohn Pedersen Fox and SL Green’s One Vanderbilt is already towering over neighboring Grand Central Terminal and swiftly rising toward its 1,401-foot peak. Most exciting is the 77-story building’s partnership with Daniel Boulud, who will oversee a restaurant. The office tower — which is more than 50 percent leased to tenants including TD Bank, asset management firm the Carlyle Group and law firm Greenberg Traurig — is expected to open in 2020 with an observation deck at the top.
53 West 53
French architect Jean Nouvel has given the 1,050-foot-tall condo next to the Museum of Modern Art — developed by Hines, Pontiac Land Group and Goldman Sachs — an angular topper. Since the 82-story structure topped out in December, residents of the 145 apartments can expect closings to begin this spring. Available units range from two-bedrooms asking $6.4 million and up to a four-bedroom penthouse priced at $63.8 million. The residences will open alongside a MoMA expansion that extends into their base.
One Manhattan West
Part of a six-building mixed-use complex surrounding a 2-acre landscaped plaza northeast of Hudson Yards, One Manhattan West is the only structure visible from the vantage point of the Met’s rooftop garden. The 67-story tower from Brookfield by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is slated to house offices for Ernst & Young, Skadden and Accenture when it’s complete in 2021.
50 and 30 Hudson Yards
Recognizable because of its rooftop observation deck, which juts out over the rest of the Hudson Yards megaproject, 30 Hudson Yards is expected to open this year as the city’s second-tallest office building after One World Trade Center. Designed by Kohn Pederson Fox, the 1,296-foot-tall, 73-story tower has lured tenants including KKR, Wells Fargo and WarnerMedia, parent company of CNN and HBO. Farther down the line, with a projected completion date of 2022, 50 Hudson Yards is the work of Foster + Partners. BlackRock is moving its headquarters to 15 floors of the 985-foot-tall, 58-floor structure of white stone and glass.
138 E. 50th St.
Located between Third and Lexington avenues, 138 E. 50th St. is the farthest east of the new residential towers on the rise. The 801-foot-tall, 71-story condo, developed by Ceruzzi Properties and designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects with interiors by Champalimaud Design, recently revealed its name: The Centrale. Sales on the 124 one- to five-bedroom residences will launch this spring.
520 Park Ave.
The Robert A.M. Stern-designedbuilding on 60th Street is one of the city’s buzziest. Zeckendorf Development has sold several of the 780-foot tower’s 34 condos at record-setting prices. In 2018, the two most expensive sales of the year were at 520 Park: Vacuum mogul Sir James Dyson sucked up a $73.8 million penthouse, while another penthouse unit sold for $67.92 million. Boasting amenities like a grand indoor swimming pool, the 5-story tower is expected to be ready for move-ins later this year. There are currently two public listings priced at $20.5 million and $31 million.
111 W. 57th St.
This one’s the slenderest of them all. Yet another luxe residential tower on 57th Street aka Billionaires’ Row, this one is developed by JDS Development Group, Property Markets Group and Spruce Capital Partners. The SHoP-designed tower’s steel crown, at a whopping 1,428 feet, will go up this spring, with the topping off by summer. Its 46 apartments over 82 floors, priced between $18 and $56 million, went on sale last fall and are expected to begin closing in 2020.
432 Park Ave.
Currently the tallest residential tower in the western hemisphere at 1,396 feet, 432 Park opened in 2015. Developed by Macklowe and designed by Rafael Vinoly, it has 96 stories full 125 super luxury condos and amenities including a residents-only dining room. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez recently listed the three-bedroom pad they bought for $15.32 million in February 2018 for $17.5 million. Last year, Caryl Englander, the wife of billionaire hedge funder Israel Englander, bought two 91st-floor penthouses for $60 million. Current listings range from $14 million to $41 million.