Eliot Brown reports for The Wall Street Journal.
[Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture]
For years, luxury builder Extell Development Co. has been planning a soaring tower on 57th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Now we get to see what it looks like.
Last month, the developer included renderings of the tower as part of a presentation to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, showing a glassy skyscraper that reaches up to 1,423 feet. That would be about 40% taller than Extell’s One57, a super-luxury tower opening in coming months a block to the east. The new tower would be the tallest residential building in the country.
A spokesman for Extell, George Arzt, said the renderings showed a “work in progress,” and the building is “not a finished product.”
Still, the renderings give a sense of the general look of the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture-designed tower, and show what could be next on the so-called “billionaires’ row” emerging on 57th Street. The street has seen a surge of plans for skinny towers aimed at the ultra-rich. In addition to One57, the 1,396-foot 432 Park Avenue tower is under way, where a buyer has agreed to pay $95 million for a penthouse, according to the developers. Another even-skinnier tower reaching about 1,350 feet is planned for the strip.
The new Extell building—which hasn’t yet secured financing—is slated to have a Nordstrom’s department store at its base, topped by a hotel. The bulk of the height would be a slim tower just for apartments, according to the presentation to the commission.
One unusual feature: the building would cantilever 28 feet to the east over a landmark property, the Art Students League of New York building. This is in part due to a deal recently struck with Vornado Realty Trust, which is seeking to build a condo tower of its own one block to the north, according to people familiar with the matter.
For years, Extell had been holding up the Vornado tower, which would have obstructed views from Extell’s tower. But under a deal reached last month, Vornado is moving its tower to the west, and Extell moved its to the east, in part by creating the cantilever, so both can have views of the park, the people said.
