Good lord that project is gigantic and ridiculously complicated from a developer's perspective.  Makes Mercer Commons in Cincinnati look like a doll house. 

I love that term "real estate family".  Yeah, when you inherit 2,000 paid-for apartment units from your dad like Donald Trump did you can get the loans to build casinos when you're 29. 

here is a funky retro futuristic one called the tribeca royale by ismael leyva.

its going up right across the street from the 99 church tower.

 

 

 

robert a.m. stern's 99 church 1000fter is definitely underway

 

 

heres another one -- they are really working almost night and day busting out 432 park ave, vinolys new tallest residential, its at 600' already:

 

 

 

battered around by nimbys and the misguided amanda burden in their pocket, 200ft shorter than planned and long delayed, but now potentially the most outstanding tower in town is back in play thanks to singapore loot -- moma's tower verre is to break ground early 2014:

 

http://mobile.hines.com/press/releases/10-30-13.aspx

 

renders are lacking, here is one

 

 

 

tower verre and others going up in the neighborhood

 

 

So do any of these supertall residentials have balconies?  Where do these people grill?

Central Park.  Duh!

Everybody knows that nobody cooks in NYC. Butcher your own meat, yes. Cook it? Heaven forfend.

plenty o' grillz

 

 

 

 

 

something unusual thats now u/c - the durst pyramid bldg:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

something pretty cool that caught my eye going up on the les:

 

 

^ That's a photo and not a rendering, right?

 

(It's getting harder to tell the difference)

^ yeah i know some renders are getting scary real looking!

 

i think its still a construction site, but its on the way.

its called 100 norfolk st

http://m.ny.curbed.com/tags/100-norfolk-street

 

something pretty cool that caught my eye going up on the les:

 

 

 

I'm willing to bet that that photo was taken with a Canon 17mm TS-E.  Interesting how in the rendering they match the blowout of the sunny side so perfectly with actual blown out highlights in the photograph. 

 

432 park ave yesterday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bobby stern's 920' cps apt bldg revealed:

 

 

 

 

http://m.ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/01/15/robert_am_sterns_220_central_park_south_tower_revealed.php

 

cornell is building a tech college campus on roosevelt island.

thom mayne is on it.

*note the residential towers in the renders are placeholders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

something else a little different -- $92M pier 42 conversion to parkland gets approved:

 

 

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/01/09/92_million_pier_42_plan_gets_go_ahead_from_city.php?skip_mobile_check=true

The first residential tower of atlantic yards, called B2 is going up next to the arena. it will be the largest modular tower at 32 floors/322'. the prefab apt units are being put together at the brooklyn navy yard nearby and trucked over to be stacked up, lego-like:

 

http://m.ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/12/12/atlantic_yards_tower_b2_starts_stacking_gets_its_first_mod.php

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine if the market in Cleveland were able to support such a project. Scranton peninsula could be a city within a city. Although, if we were at the point where we could support that, we would be paying 25 bucks for a corned beef sandwich....

 

FYI, much (most?) of Scranton Peninsula is owned by Scranton Averell Inc., an aggregates company.

 

Back to Brooklyn.

which is an entity that is more than likely just a front for, well, they don't say, but one guess.

432 park ave just reached 800'

600' more to go

 

 

It's an interesting design.  It appears that each condo is an entire floor (75~x75~ feet), with the exception of a few multi-floor units.  This design idea dates back at least to the Trump World Tower, which was built 1999-2000.  But I like the way the windows form an element which the rest of the interior can be designed around in a much more pronounced way than most of these buildings.  The website doesn't have a floor plan so we're not able to see what space the utilities/elevators/stairs take up in the middle. 

 

 

i'll keep an eye out for floor plans - i think they did release renders of apts tho. not sure.

stern's tower next to the woolworth is moving along

 

 

today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i dk what is going on between the new tower and the woolworth

 

 

coming in 2021 - rebuilt 1/3 larger laguardia terminal - designed by neoscape:

 

http://nypost.com/2014/03/19/new-renderings-show-redesigned-laguardia-airport/

 

 

 

 

at long last, the thunderbolt coaster is returning to its coney island site.

there was a groundbreaking ceremony recently.  :clap:

 

Well, not the actual original but an interesting new carni-type coaster with the old Thunderbolt name slapped on it.  But whatever, it'll be successful.

well yeaaah, the other one had the hollywood version of woody allens old house under it and was overgrown with weeds and trees for the longest until they tore it down lol (because it was an eyesore next to the new cyclones ballpark so they said)! anyway its the exact same site at least.

i saw a lift at 99 church

 

I know tall buildings are kind of NYC's thing and all, but I have a really hard time getting behind projects like 432 Park.  A super tall, absolutely featureless box that will lord over the park, and divert attention away from ESB, Chrystler, and some of the other classic New York buildings just doesn't seem to contribute positively to the city.  I'm torn, because I know that high rise growth is what has allowed New York to become New York, and San Francisco's aversion to height seems to be causing a massive housing shortage, so in that sense these type of developments are probably good in the long run.  But part of me still just does not like these towers.

While I can understand that sort of opinion of 432 Park since it is of a very particular style, I think the height is good. Classic New York skyline was a series of peaks and valleys which has since mostly been lost in Midtown. A 600-700 foot plateau exists with only a handful of buildings breaking above but not enough to make much of a difference. These 57th Street supertalls are so much taller than everything else though that they're bringing an essence of that old style skyline back since they definitely do tower over everything around them. But if 432 Park isn't your cup of tea there will definitely be a handful of supertalls that scream NYC. 111 W57th is probably the most so along with Tower Verre and 220 CPS. The detailing and stylistic cues of these buildings seems to be a lot more on par with what you're talking about and though they will still dethrone the ESB and Chrysler a bit, I think it's time for that. The Chrysler is already mostly lost in a sea of nearly-as-tall- buildings and isn't really visible from a lot of places. The ESB obviously still dominates its surroundings but it can still do that with these huge buildings going up 20+ blocks north. I think in the long run it'll really improve the city's skyline and their presence within Manhattan will be a positive one.

I still think 432 Park is a bad-ass building.

I'm in the same boat. I think the open mechanical levels which will glow at night, pure white concrete, and simplicity of its use of structure as design is great. But I can also understand how someone wouldn't like it. When I was in NYC in December the building already looked great and it was, I believe, just about to pass the halfway point. It's tall now and making an impact and still has 600 feet to go. It's going to be something to behold when finished and occupied.

yeah lots of people dont seem to like 432 park.

i can understand, its a very stark, modernist design.

 

no worries about central park, its nearby, but not on the park or anything.

the top 1/3 apts will have central park views.

its really skinny too, so its not blocking anyones views either.

 

 

 

i found a few interior renders/floorplans

 

 

 

 

 

typical floor plan i think

 

 

a $95M penthouse

 

 

 

 

Thanks.  Looks like the penthouses take up the full floor, the merely really, really nice units take up a half floor, and I'm guessing the lower floors are divided into 4 units.  Look more closely at the elevator arrangement...maybe two of those elevators only go to the full-floor units at the top, then the half-floor units are served by the other two.  That means there are other elevators that serve the lowest half of the building, so those floor plans are actually a big smaller. 

 

What my main complaint about many places in cities is that you're only getting light from one side of the building and maybe two if you're really lucky.  You need to have the big money to get good sunlight from multiple directions into your apartment or your condo or else you end up with "cave" rooms.  Unfortunately in Cincinnati several of the new 4-story apartments/condos are built around central parking garages, meaning several rooms, even on corner units, have walls that back up to the parking garage meaning there is no sunlight. 

 

Also it should be added that from what I understand, hi-end units in New York are actually a bargain compared to cities like Monaco and Dubai, which is hard to imagine, although is in part explained by their tax haven status drawing people from around the world who will actually live there whereas international buyers might be buying these hi-end NYC condos as more of a speculative investment. 

^ correct - many of these apts will sit empty. its just another place for the rootless ultra rich to hold their money.

I actually heard (though from the developer at some point, so take with a grain of salt) that unlike neighboring One-57, 432 Park was actually seeing a lot more locals buying as a new primary residence where competing towers were seeing a lot more foreign buyers looking for a NYC crash-pad for when they're there one month of the year. It'll be curious to see if this actually turns out to be true since I think it would be a shame for these buildings to sit dark and unoccupied when owners are not in town.

So...where do you grill?

^ the hamptons

^^ I rented a place in Astoria that had an immaculate oasis of a back yard, and was a 5 minute walk from the N train, which is just a short 10-15 minute ride from Midtown.  I’m pretty sure most of my friends were only my friends because of the weekly grill outs, but at least they brought booze.

One of my personal issues with hi-rise living is the lack of balconies in many buildings, and that those buildings with the cantilevered balconies are spaces that you don't really want to be on.  There are a lot of balconies out there that pretty much get zero use because there's no sense of privacy. 

That's definitely my problem with most modern highrise apartment buildings. You get charged for "outdoor space" but it's basically awful space. My cousin and her boyfriend live in Manhattan at 60th and Amsterdam and their $7,900/month rent includes "outdoor space" in the form of two balconies, one off of the master bedroom and one off of the living room. These are both about 10 feet wide and 4 feet deep. Being 500 feet up these spaces were terrifying to occupy and were super uncomfortable. I can't imagine ever using them and it was obvious they didn't either. There was no furniture on either. If those had just been inset instead of cantilevered they'd be incredible assets. But as they are they're just a marketing ploy to get more money out of the units in the building.

I think also when you have a balcony where somebody else's windows are too close and looking at your balcony, you always feel like someone's going to spy on you.  Maybe there's a science to it but it seems sort of random when somebody has a rooftop space or balcony that is really outstanding. 

 

You see a lot of old brick 2-families or 4-families in Ohio's cities that had sturdy brick pillars and presumably concrete floors.  People are out on those all the time because there's that solid feel and a little bit of privacy. 

balconies have long been phased out of most newer manhattan apt bldg construction for just those reasons. they're usually useless. larger shared outdoor space, like roofdecks, took their place.

a cool view of 7 bryant park construction on 6th avenue.

 

 

432 park ave had a core jump yesterday up to apparent level 57 or 883' 6''

they are busting it out quick

 

and here is a graphic of all the big tower projects

(midtown only, so no hudson spire or hudson yards)

 

 

 

Damn. 

Their $7,900/month rent...

 

It's a different world there. This makes me feel like I live in a log cabin or something.