One57
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

One57, formerly known as Carnegie 57, is a 75-story,
supertall skyscraper A supertall building is an occupied "supertall" structure higher than and beneath . A form of skyscraper, it falls midway between a common minimum definition of "skyscraper" (a building taller ) and a " megatall" building (taller than ). Diff ...
at 157 West 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in the Midtown neighborhood of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The building has 92 condominium units on top of a new Park Hyatt Hotel with 210 rooms, the flagship
Hyatt Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and va ...
property. The tower was developed by
Extell Development Company Extell Development Company is an American real estate developer of residential, commercial, retail, hospitality, and mixed-use properties. Founded in 1989 by Gary Barnett, the company’s portfolio exceeds 20 million square feet. The company has ...
and designed by
Christian de Portzamparc Christian de Portzamparc (; born 5 May 1944) is a French architect and urbanist. He graduated from the École Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1970 and has since been noted for his bold designs and artistic touch; his projects reflect a ...
. It was the first ultra-luxury condominium tower along a stretch of 57th Street called Billionaires' Row. One57 contains a facade made of panels in various shades of blue. The building has a curved roof and, on the side facing 57th Street, contains several setbacks that resemble waterfalls. One57's structural features include concrete floor slabs and two basement levels. The residential interiors contain furniture and materials by Thomas Juul-Hansen. The tower's design, particularly its facade and shape, was negatively critiqued upon its completion. Extell CEO
Gary Barnett Gary Lee Barnett (born May 23, 1946) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Fort Lewis College (1982–1983), Northwestern University (1992–1998), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999–2005), ...
started acquiring One57's site in 1998, although building plans were not filed until 2009. Construction started in 2010, and work reached the top floor by mid-2012. Toward the end of construction, there were two major incidents: a collapsed construction crane requiring the evacuation of nearby buildings, as well as a fire. Upon completion in 2014, it was the tallest residential building in the city for a few months until the completion of
432 Park Avenue 432 Park Avenue is a residential skyscraper at 57th Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, overlooking Central Park. The tower was developed by CIM Group and Harry B. Macklowe and designed by Rafael Viñoly. A part o ...
. The building set the records for the city's most and second-most expensive residences, selling respectively for $100.5 million and $91.5 million. However, sale prices started dropping in the late 2010s due to a general decline in the luxury condominium market in New York City.


Site

One57 is in the
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...
neighborhood of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, just south of
Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
, between
Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
to the east and Seventh Avenue to the west. The building contains
frontage Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...
along 57th Street to the south and 58th Street to the north. The irregular site covers , with the 57th and 58th Streets sides being slightly offset. The 57th Street frontage is wide, while the lot has a depth of between the two streets. The building is along
6½ Avenue __NOTOC__ 6½ Avenue is a north-south pedestrian passageway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, running from West 51st to West 57th Streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The pedestrian-only avenue is a corridor of privately owned ...
, a pedestrian walkway running parallel to Sixth and Seventh Avenues. It is aligned roughly with the center axis of Central Park. One57 is on the same
city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...
as Alwyn Court, The Briarcliffe, and
165 West 57th Street 165 West 57th Street, originally the Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing headquarters, is a building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is along the northern sidewalk of 57th Street between Sixth Avenue and Seven ...
to the west, as well as the Nippon Club,
Calvary Baptist Church Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early medi ...
, 111 West 57th Street, and
The Quin ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
to the east. One57 is also near
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...
and
Carnegie Hall Tower Carnegie Hall Tower is a skyscraper at 152 West 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Completed in 1990 and designed by César Pelli, the building measures tall with 60 stories. Due to the presence of Carnegie H ...
to the southwest; the
Russian Tea Room The Russian Tea Room is an Art Deco Russo-Continental restaurant, located at 150 West 57th Street (between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue), between Carnegie Hall Tower and Metropolitan Tower, in the New York City borough of Manhatta ...
and Metropolitan Tower to the south; 130 West 57th Street and 140 West 57th Street to the southeast; and JW Marriott Essex House and Hampshire House to the north. One57 is one of several major developments around 57th Street and Central Park that are collectively dubbed Billionaires' Row by the media. Other buildings along Billionaires' Row include
432 Park Avenue 432 Park Avenue is a residential skyscraper at 57th Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, overlooking Central Park. The tower was developed by CIM Group and Harry B. Macklowe and designed by Rafael Viñoly. A part o ...
four blocks southeast,
220 Central Park South 220 Central Park South is a residential skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, situated along Billionaires' Row on the south side of Central Park South between Broadway and Seventh Avenue. 220 Central Park South was designed by ...
one block northwest,
Central Park Tower Central Park Tower is a residential supertall skyscraper at 225 West 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, along Billionaires' Row. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the building rises with ...
one block west, and the nearby 111 West 57th Street.


Architecture

One57 was developed by
Extell Development Company Extell Development Company is an American real estate developer of residential, commercial, retail, hospitality, and mixed-use properties. Founded in 1989 by Gary Barnett, the company’s portfolio exceeds 20 million square feet. The company has ...
, which in turn was led by
Gary Barnett Gary Lee Barnett (born May 23, 1946) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Fort Lewis College (1982–1983), Northwestern University (1992–1998), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999–2005), ...
. The building was designed by architect
Christian de Portzamparc Christian de Portzamparc (; born 5 May 1944) is a French architect and urbanist. He graduated from the École Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1970 and has since been noted for his bold designs and artistic touch; his projects reflect a ...
, while the interior design was by New York-based designer Thomas Juul-Hansen. According to Juul-Hansen, the overall design was redone "three or four times" before the final design was created. The building has a roof height of and its top floor at . The
certificate of occupancy Certificate may refer to: * Birth certificate * Marriage certificate * Death certificate * Gift certificate * Certificate of authenticity, a document or seal certifying the authenticity of something * Certificate of deposit, or CD, a financial p ...
issued by the
New York City Department of Buildings The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is the department of the New York City government that enforces the city's building codes and zoning regulations, issues building permits, licenses, registers and disciplines certain construction ...
lists the building as having 73 stories above ground level, with a height of . The top story is numbered as floor 90.


Form and facade

The dark and light glass on the building’s exterior was intended to create vertical stripes, absorb sunlight in various ways, and maximizes views. The base of the building on 57th Street has undulating vertical glass strips around and above the entrances, which are also meant to symbolize a waterfall. The eastern and western facades are designed with a color effect that de Portzamparc described as being similar to the work of
Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's pr ...
, the Austrian painter. A separate residential entrance also exists on the north facade at 58th Street. At ground level, One57 has an "L"-shaped floor plan extending both north to 58th Street and east along 57th Street. The building's
massing Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building. Massing in architectural theory Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
, or shape, contains curved setbacks, which were meant to resemble a waterfall. The tower has rippled canopies and numerous setbacks on the 57th Street side. By contrast, the facade along 58th Street, facing Central Park, has a flatter profile without setbacks. The curved roof of the building conceals a cooling tower. At its pinnacle, One57 is only wide. According to facade contractor Permasteelisa, the facade is made of 8,200 pieces in over 2,200 distinct shapes, covering . A slightly different figure of 8,400 figures is cited by television network PBS. Among the shapes that are used in the facade are curved panels, at the setbacks; curved corner panels, at the extreme ends of the setbacks; "peel-outs", consisting of adjacent curved and flat panels; and the undulating "teardrop" panels around the entrances. Most shapes are used infrequently, with the most common shape being used about 300 times. A window cleaning rig, measuring long and weighing , was constructed for the building. The window cleaning deck hangs from a retractable crane arm that is installed on the roof.


Structural features

One57's structural features include concrete shear walls and columns with a strength of over . This was meant to accommodate the interior uses, which include both a hotel on the lower floors and residential condominiums on the upper floors. The 12,000 psi strength concrete is used from the ground level to floor 26. The residential units are designed with a minimum ceiling height of or and a maximum height of . Structurally, the superstructure is made of concrete flat plates, with floor slabs between thick and columns up to apart at their centers. The building also contains two subterranean stories, as well as a
foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
composed of spread footings on the Manhattan bedrock. To stiffen the building, shear walls are placed around the utility core containing the elevators and stairs, and wing shear walls are also installed. In addition, there are three mechanical levels spread out across the building, surrounded by one-story concrete walls, which in turn are designed to resist lateral forces. Where the setbacks on the facade are present, there are girders to transfer the loads between columns. An additional set of girders to transfer loads is installed above the residential amenity area on floor 20. The top of the building is stabilized by four liquid
tuned mass dampers A tuned mass damper (TMD), also known as a harmonic absorber or seismic damper, is a device mounted in structures to reduce mechanical vibrations, consisting of a mass mounted on one or more damped springs. Its oscillation frequency is tuned ...
. The dampers are meant to provide stability against high winds or
earthquakes An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fro ...
.


Interior

The interiors of One57 were made of material from around the world. Roy Kim, the senior vice president of design at Extell, traveled to
Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence. Its mot ...
in Italy to approve every piece of white marble used for the apartments' bathrooms. The marble collectively cost several million dollars; a single slab costing $130,000 was enough to create two benches and two bathtubs. The wooden furniture was from the English county of
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, where a company was contracted to hand-make 3,500 wooden cabinet doors as well as 135 kitchens in 18 layouts. The lobby contains steel panels, which collectively cost $800,000; they had to be carried into the building through a narrow gap without being damaged.


Hotel

The lowest section of One57 contains the Park Hyatt New York, a 210-room hotel that serves as the flagship
Hyatt Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and va ...
property. The hotel occupies the lowest 18 physical stories of the tower, but publications cite the hotel as having 25 numbered floors. There are 12 rooms each on the fourth and fifth stories, 16 each on the sixth through eleventh stories, 14 each on the twelfth through sixteenth stories, and 10 each on the seventeenth and eighteenth stories. When the Park Hyatt opened in 2014, the rooms were listed for at least $855 per night.
Yabu Pushelberg Yabu Pushelberg is an international design studio with offices in Toronto and New York. Founded in 1980 by Canadian designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, the studio has evolved from a traditional interior design firm into creative directors ...
was hired to design the hotel's interiors. The design includes 350 contemporary artworks spread across the hotel, as well as furnishings and fabrics, many of which were designed specifically for the Park Hyatt. The suites cover at least and have sitting areas with glass partitions. The hotel's "deluxe" suites contain at least of space. The hotel also gave guests
iPads The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
to request room service. The Hyatt was designed with a ballroom, spa, swimming pool, fitness room, and conference rooms. The ballroom and meeting rooms are on the second story. The hotel's pool, on the 20th story (labeled as floor 25), contains underwater speakers that play classical music from Carnegie Hall. The hotel's Spa Nalai, covering on the same floor, contains several treatment suites, some of which have balconies. The spa's name was derived from the word for "serenity" in the
Munsee language Munsee (also known as Munsee Delaware, Delaware, Ontario Delaware, del, Huluníixsuwaakan, Monsii èlixsuwakàn) is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic la ...
, originally spoken by the
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
Native American population of Manhattan. The hotel also originally included an American grill called the Back Room, which was led by chef Sebastien Archambault when it opened in August 2014. Also included is a bar called The Living Room. The Onyx Room, the hotel's event space, has backlit slabs of white onyx on the walls.


Condominiums

Above the hotel are 92 condominium units, of which 52 face Central Park directly. The condominiums are served by a bank of three elevators that travel and can run between the ground floor and the top story in 40 seconds. Extell had deemed the residential floor plans to be so crucial that the floor plans were created before de Portzamparc was officially hired as architect and before the exterior was designed. The apartment corridors contain silk coverings on the walls, which contain asymmetrical doorways to each unit. The apartments were designed with relatively few bedrooms so the spaces could remain large. There are mechanical rooms on the physical 19th, 47th, and 73rd stories. There are slightly different floor plans throughout the building. The 22nd and 23rd stories have five units each, plus a duplex split between the two stories, while the 24th through 30th stories have six units each. The 31st and 32nd stories have three units each, plus a duplex split between the two stories, while the 33rd through 41st stories have three units each. There are two apartments each on the 42nd through 44th stories and three apartments each on the 45th and 46th stories. The 48th through 57th stories (with the exception of the 54th story) each have two apartments, while the 60th through 70th stories each have one unit occupying an entire floor. The 58th and 59th stories have a single duplex unit, as do the 71st and 72nd stories. Typical of the full-story units is the apartment on the 62nd story (labeled as floor 82), designed with a salon overlooking Central Park, as well as a breakfast room, kitchen, private foyer, reception gallery, and ceilings. The penthouse on the two top floors contains six bedrooms and six bathrooms and covers . The apartments were furnished with Italian marble, rosewood flooring, specialized lighting and hardware, and kitchen appliances made by Smallbone of Devizes. Some of the kitchen appliances, such as dishwashers and refrigerators, were built into the apartments. A typical apartment, such as the three-bedroom unit on floor 58, was decorated with a toilet room with white-onyx floors; and baths with different types of marbles. The bathrooms have bidets and toilets manufactured by
Duravit Duravit AG, founded in 1817 and headquartered in Hornberg, Germany, is primarily a manufacturer of porcelain bathroom fittings. Duravit is notable for having employed prominent designers such as Philippe Starck, sieger design, EOOS, Phoenix D ...
, as well as in-room televisions. Some units have two juxtaposed toilet rooms within their master bedrooms. Some residents further customized their units with decorative elements. One condominium unit on floor 67 was purchased in 2015, underwent a renovation, and was placed for sale in 2017. Among the features of that unit were marble-slab floors, white-gold leaf walls, a white-oak paneled living room, and a vaulted dining-room ceiling. Another unit, 61B, was decorated with $2.5 million of furnishings designed by Jeffrey Beers. Some of the units also contain private swimming pools. According to the bylaws of One57's condominium board, residents could have up to two "orderly domestic" pets, of which residents were required to send photos to the board. Certain pets, such as pigs, hens, rabbits, and gerbils, are banned. Guests could not bring pets. In addition, window decorations are banned, and the board has to approve window curtains and blinds. The building was initially maintained by a staff of eighteen, which was relatively small in comparison to other residential developments in New York City. This took into account the fact that many residents were not expected to live at One57 year-round and, as such, a larger staff was not needed. The resident manager has their own two-bedroom apartment on the southwest corner of floor 34. Matthew Shaer of ''
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
'' magazine compared the apartments to an "investment, a collectible item, a safe-deposit box" for the ultra-wealthy.


Amenities

One57 was constructed with several amenities for residents. Entry to the building is overseen by a 24-hour concierge and doorman service. An amenities floor, occupying , is included above the hotel. The residents' amenities floor is on the 21st story, directly above the hotel amenities on the 20th story. The building also has resident parking, a library, a kitchen, an arts-and-crafts space, a fitness room, a yoga room, and a pet washroom. There are also rooms for screening and performance, with leather seats for 24 people. Also included is a triple-height swimming pool and a Jacuzzi. The swimming pool room has a ceiling high, and the pool itself measures long and overlooks Central Park. A ''New York Times'' reporter, writing on the amenities in 2018, wrote that the building's "lifestyle attaché" Sascha Torres had also created events such as a wine-tasting, jazz concert, and
Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observan ...
trick-or-treating for the residents. Residents could also use the amenity spaces at the Hyatt hotel
a la carte A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes' ...
. Initially, the developer provided 17 storage bins, each high, as a resident amenity. The bins were marketed for up to $200,000 in 2011, which at the time was a higher price per square foot than most Manhattan apartments and, according to ''The Wall Street Journal'', more than a single-family home in
Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central U ...
. The least expensive bins cost $110,000 and contained . By 2014, Extell had filed for an amendment with the
Attorney General of New York The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government ...
to include 21 storage bins. A larger bin measuring had an asking price of $216,000, or about , a square-foot price comparable to a condominium unit at the
Puck Building __FORCETOC__ The Puck Building is a historic building located in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It occupies the block bounded by Lafayette, Houston, Mulberry and Jersey Streets. An example of the German Rundbogenstil style ...
in
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
.


History


Planning

Extell Development Company’s founder and president,
Gary Barnett Gary Lee Barnett (born May 23, 1946) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Fort Lewis College (1982–1983), Northwestern University (1992–1998), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999–2005), ...
, acquired the property and air rights over fifteen years, buying the first property on One57's present site in 1998. At first, Barnett said he wanted to build a 40-story, building for $300 million. However, plans for views of
Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
took shape as the assemblage got larger and markets started rising. By 2002, Barnett had acquired a small building at 161 West 57th Street, as well as the air rights over 165 West 57th Street. The area at the time contained several brownstone townhouses, as well as a parking garage and the Park Savoy hotel. Even though Barnett was able to acquire the garage and townhouses, he did not buy the Park Savoy because the building's owners asked $80 million, almost eight times what Barnett was willing to pay. Around 2007, Barnett was introduced to Khadem al-Qubaisi, head of Emirati investment funds Aabar Investments and Tasameem Real Estate Company, who agreed to fund the project. The structures at 151 through 161 West 57th Street were being demolished by May 2007, when Barnett announced that a residential and hotel building with at least 50 stories would be built on the site. Demolition was completed that November. No further progress had been made by the following August when the ''New York Post'' reported that Extell had not yet filed plans with the
New York City Department of Buildings The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is the department of the New York City government that enforces the city's building codes and zoning regulations, issues building permits, licenses, registers and disciplines certain construction ...
. Plans for excavation were filed in November 2008. The following month, the media reported that the website of project contractor Aegis Security Design indicated that the site would include a Park Hyatt hotel, along with stores and luxury condominiums. At the time, Extell was consulting with city agencies to purchase air rights from neighboring sites, including the Alwyn Court and 165 West 57th Street. An early plan to erect a tower was changed after the
financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of ...
, as well as the inability to acquire a neighboring site. Seven buildings on the site were demolished. Plans for a tower at 157 West 57th Street were filed in March 2009.
SLCE Architects SLCE Architects is an American architecture firm which provides architectural services in both the public and private sector. Between 2010 and 2015, the firm received the most commissions for residential developments in New York City. The firm is ...
was listed as the architect of record, with input from Frank Williams and
Costas Kondylis Costas Kondylis (1940 – August 18, 2018) was an American architect. He designed over 85 buildings in New York City, many of them for real-estate developer and later U.S. president Donald Trump, through his eponymous architectural firm. Kondylis ...
, although de Portzamparc was also rumored to be involved. The plans called for a 73-story, tower with 210 hotel rooms on the lowest twenty floors, amenity rooms on the 21st story, a mechanical space on the 46th story, and 136 residences on the other stories between floors 22 and 72. The air rights transfers from nearby buildings allowed the developer to construct a tower of up to . De Portzamparc's involvement was confirmed in a September 2009 article in French newspaper ''
Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...
''. That November, Aabar announced it had paid Extell for a majority stake in the construction of 157 West 57th Street. The development was to be the first major project in New York City after the late-2000s financial crisis. At the time, the city's unemployment rate was a relatively high 10 percent, and many major projects had been either canceled or delayed.


Construction


Early work

Partial work permits for 157 West 57th Street were issued in September 2009. Foundation work started in 2009 and took over a year, because of the difficulty of digging two basement levels and the building's supports. Aside from the foundation work, details on the construction process remained scarce. Revised plans were submitted to the Department of Buildings in March 2010. The changes included adding two floors, combining some of the units into duplex apartments, and enclosing some of the setback terraces that had been included in the original design. Two months later, the media announced that the development would be called Carnegie 57. Upon its expected completion in 2013, Carnegie 57 was to surpass the
Trump World Tower Trump World Tower is a residential condominium building in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The tower is located at 845 United Nations Plaza, on First Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets. It was developed ...
as the city's tallest residential building, with a height of just over . The main contractor,
Lendlease Lendlease is a globally integrated real estate company that creates and invests in communities, workplaces, retail, and infrastructure projects, headquartered in Barangaroo, New South Wales, Australia. History Founding The company was estab ...
, started constructing the skyscraper's reinforced columns in August 2010. At the time, Barnett said Extell was negotiating with a potential lender for a $1.3 billion loan. In May 2011, the project was officially renamed One57, a reference to its
house number House numbering is the system of giving a unique number to each building in a street or area, with the intention of making it easier to locate a particular building. The house number is often part of a postal address. The term describes the numb ...
of 157 and to the fact that the building would be located on 57th Street. This rebranding was made in advance of the expected launch of sales for the building. By that July, construction had reached the 22nd floor. Extell received a $700 million construction loan for the project in October 2011 from a syndicate led by the
Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...
, which included
Banco Santander Banco Santander, S.A., doing business as Santander Group (, , Spanish: ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Santander in Spain. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in all global financial centr ...
, Abu Dhabi International Bank, and
Capital One Capital One Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company specializing in credit cards, auto loans, banking, and savings accounts, headquartered in McLean, Virginia with operations primarily in the United States. It is on the li ...
. Of this loan, $375 million was to be paid off by the expected opening of the Park Hyatt hotel.


Completion and incidents

Sales at the project officially launched in December 2011. The smallest units (starting at $3.5 million) and the two-bedroom units (starting at $6.5 million) both sold quickly. At the end of that month,
Sotheby's International Realty Sotheby’s International Realty is a luxury real estate brand founded in 1976 by Sotheby's fine art dealers. Sotheby's International Realty operates as a franchise focusing on brokering and marketing of residential real estate. As of 2018, th ...
broker Elizabeth Sample said that many millionaires and billionaires had expressed interest in the building's sales showroom. Facade installation was underway by January 2012. The next month, the ''New York Daily News'' reported that brokers had already earned a combined $3 million from commissions for selling apartments at One57. At the time, the clients were quoted as being "Russian billionaires, Asian investors and prime ministers". By the next May, Extell announced that One57 was 50 percent sold with $1 billion in transactions. One of these was a duplex penthouse on the 89th and 90th floors, which sold for $90 million, then a citywide record. Framework for the top floor was completed by October 2012. On October 29, 2012, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the construction crane on the building partially collapsed, requiring a six-day evacuation for thousands of neighborhood residents. In response to the crane collapse, area dentists filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that the evacuation caused a lack of income. The
New York City Department of Buildings The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is the department of the New York City government that enforces the city's building codes and zoning regulations, issues building permits, licenses, registers and disciplines certain construction ...
(DOB) also stated they had received multiple complaints about the worksite. However, the crane was inspected a week earlier and considered in good shape, leading city officials to call the boom's failure a freakish occurrence. The accident did not affect sales and, in May 2013, Extell announced it would hoist a new crane after the DOB had approved it. Residents of the neighboring Alwyn Court and Briarcliff apartment buildings were forced to evacuate and received up to $1,500 each. The coop board at the Alwyn Court attempted to block the forced evacuation, but the crane was hoisted as planned after Extell and the Alwyn signed an undisclosed agreement. By October 2013, the facade was largely completed and the replacement crane was being disassembled. That month, the crane experienced another mechanical failure that caused a closure of the surrounding block of 57th Street. The crane was removed by the next month. In March 2014, a fire broke out in the loading dock of One57, spreading into the courtyard behind the building and then onto the adjacent property at 152 West 58th Street. Some work on One57's facade continued through 2015, during which there were three incidents in which glass fell from the facade. After the third incident, when a slab of plexiglass fell from the 22nd floor in March 2015, a stop-work order temporarily halted construction on the building. The stop-work order was rescinded two days later.


Occupancy

When One57 was nearly completed, the cheapest units were the staff's studio apartments, which were marketed for $1.59 million each. Each of the units on the top eleven floors was listed at no less than $50 million, and the penthouse was marketed at $110 million. The building's units were collectively marketed for a combined $2 billion. Monthly charges for individual units varied; a three-bedroom unit on floor 41 had a monthly fee of about $4,600 while a penthouse on floor 87 had a monthly fee of $13,000. The first contracts at One57 were finalized in December 2013, and 27 owners had moved into their homes in the first six months. By May 2014, three-fourths of the residential units had been sold, with sales on thirteen units having been closed and sixty more in contract. The first resale at One57 occurred that October, when a unit was resold for $34 million, a $3.45 million increase from the initial sale price five months prior. By then, competition from other developments on Billionaires' Row had caused sales to stall at just above 75 percent. One57 became the city's most expensive building per square foot by 2015, with residences selling for an average of that year. The developer had received a
421-a tax exemption The 421-a tax exemption is a property tax exemption in the U.S. state of New York that is given to real-estate developers for building new multifamily residential housing buildings in New York City. As currently written, the program also focuse ...
for One57, which permitted a 94 percent tax abatement in exchange for Extell building
affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on af ...
elsewhere. Several politicians opposed the exemption, including city comptroller John Liu, who described it as billionaires' subsidy. In May 2015, as part of the program, Extell was renting out 38 apartments on the seven stories immediately above the hotel. The rentals, which consisted of one- to four-bedroom units measuring , were marketed at between $12,000 and $50,000 per month. The rental units were still extremely expensive compared to other developments in the city; ''The Wall Street Journal'' estimated that potential renter would need a minimum annual income of $534,000 to rent a one-bedroom unit and $2 million for a three-bedroom unit. By that November, Extell was seeking to sell the rental portion of the building for $250 million. With a general decline in the rate of luxury rental agreements, Extell changed its plans in April 2016 and instead marketed the rental units as condominiums. Ultimately, Extell only created 66 affordable units in
the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...
using the tax abatement for One57, which normally could have been used to create 370 affordable units. Media outlets reported in 2016 that the
International Petroleum Investment Company Mubadala Investment Company PJSC ( ar, شركة مبادلة للاستثمار), or simply Mubadala, is an Emirati state-owned holding company that acts as a sovereign wealth fund. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala De ...
—the parent company of the building's main financier, Aabar—was linked to the
1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal The 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, often referred to as the 1MDB scandal or just 1MDB, describes a corruption, bribery and money laundering conspiracy in which the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was ...
. Because Aabar's head, al-Qubaisi, had been implicated in the scandal, the financing of One57 was investigated as well. The next year, Nigerian businessman
Kola Aluko Kola Aluko (born 20 October 1969, in Lagos, Nigeria) is a Nigerian energy business magnate with interests in African infrastructure development and aviation. Based in Nigeria, Aluko is the Co-Chief Officer and an Executive Director of Atlantic E ...
was investigated for money laundering; the suspected laundering included his purchase of a penthouse apartment at One57. That May saw the first foreclosure in the building, for another apartment. Aluko's $51 million apartment was also foreclosed upon shortly thereafter; it was ultimately sold for $36 million in September 2017, the largest foreclosure auction in city history. The two foreclosures, amid a slowing luxury real estate market, raised public scrutiny about the viability of Billionaires' Row, where more luxury residential towers were being erected at the time. By late 2018, the luxury real estate market in New York City had stalled. To lure tenants, Extell unveiled new buyer's incentives, offering to waive between three and five years of common charges and pay 50% of broker's commissions. One57 was affected by this downturn, as the average price of units declined from in 2014 to in 2020. The downturn was worsened by a general decrease in real estate activity in 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...
. One57 contained the most expensive residence sold in the city that June: an 88th-story apartment that sold for $28 million, forty-one percent lower than its original price. The COVID-19 pandemic also forced the Park Hyatt hotel to close from March 21, 2020, to April 1, 2021. One unit sold in January 2021 for half its original listing price, and ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported the same June that some owners had seen "percentage losses in the double digits" during the past couple of years. Despite this, by early 2021, only five units remained unsold.


Notable residents

When sales of One57 were launched, Barnett initially did not identify buyers. Nine billionaires including Lawrence Stroll and
Silas Chou Silas K. F. Chou (; born 1946) is a Hong Kong billionaire, active in the fashion sector. Early life Chou's father was Chao Kuang-piu. His father founded South Ocean Knitters, one of the Hong Kong's "largest knitwear manufacturers and exporters", ...
had purchased full-floor units at One57 by September 2012. The Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, had also agreed to purchase a penthouse unit for $100 million. Many buyers had moved to One57 from other luxury developments such as
15 Central Park West 15 Central Park West (also known as 15 CPW) is a luxury residential condominium along Central Park West, between 61st and 62nd Streets adjacent to Central Park, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 2005 t ...
. By late 2013, One57 management characterized more than half the buyers as foreign buyers, with fifteen percent being from China. After One57 was completed, Robin Finn of ''The New York Times'' wrote so many headlines about high-profile sales in the tower that ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' said, "It would be difficult for even the most creative writer to make sale after sale at the same new-construction building sound fresh." Barnett also occupied a one-bedroom unit at One57 so he could manage his work in New York City even as his family lived in
Monsey, New York Monsey (, yi, מאנסי, translit=Monsi) is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of Airmont, east of Viola, south of New Hempstead, and west of Spring Valley. The ...
. The building set the record for the city's second-most expensive residence in 2015, when hedge fund manager Bill Ackman bought a 75th floor duplex for $91.5 million. The building also had the city's most expensive residence at the time: the penthouse, which sold for $100.5 million in 2014. The buyer's identity was initially kept secret, but the media subsequently announced that the buyer had been Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies. Other notable buyers included apparel-firm billionaires
Silas Chou Silas K. F. Chou (; born 1946) is a Hong Kong billionaire, active in the fashion sector. Early life Chou's father was Chao Kuang-piu. His father founded South Ocean Knitters, one of the Hong Kong's "largest knitwear manufacturers and exporters", ...
and Lawrence Stroll, businessman Liu Yiqian, and businessman
Robert Herjavec Robert Herjavec (; ; born September 14, 1962) is a Croatian-Canadian businessman, investor, and television personality. Herjavec founded BRAK Systems, a Canadian integrator of Internet security software, and sold it to AT&T Canada (now Allstr ...
. The youngest buyer on record was a two-year-old Chinese girl, whose mother paid $6.5 million for a unit in 2013 so her daughter could use it when she attended college in fifteen years. Several prospective residents had their contracts canceled. Barnett refused to sell to British developer Nick Candy and another buyer after they both separately indicated their intentions to renovate their apartments. Candy had wanted to resell his apartment immediately after he had renovated it, while the anonymous buyer was unwilling to cooperate with Extell to minimize disruption for neighboring units. Entrepreneur Michael Hirtenstein's purchase was canceled after he hired a worker to film his unit, in spite of Barnett's request that buyers not see their units before purchase.


Critical reception

Many reviewers of One57 initially perceived the design negatively. One57 was named "Worst Building of the Year" in 2014 by ''
Curbed ''Curbed'' is an American real estate and urban design website founded as a blog by Lockhart Steele in 2006. The full website, founded in 2010, featured sub-pages dedicated to specific real estate markets and metropolitan areas across the Uni ...
'', which said, "Pretty much everyone (or at least most archicritics) agrees that its wavy blue facade is ugly." According to ''New York'' magazine's architecture critic Justin Davidson, One57 was "so clumsily gaudy that a fellow architect surmised hat de Portzamparcmust be a socialist pranking the plutocrats". Davidson continued to regard One57 as "repulsive" in 2021, several years after its completion. Another architecture critic, James Russell, characterized the facade as "endless acres of cheap-looking frameless glass in cartoonish stripes and blotches of silver and pewter".
Michael Kimmelman Michael Kimmelman (born May 8, 1958) is the architecture critic for '' The New York Times'' and has written about public housing, public space, landscape architecture, community development and equity, infrastructure and urban design. He has repo ...
, in ''The New York Times'', contrasted One57's "pox of tinted panes" against de Portzamparc's earlier, "jewel-like"
LVMH Tower The LVMH Tower is a 24-story skyscraper on 57th Street, near Madison Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Designed by Christian de Portzamparc, the building opened in 1999 as the overseas headquarters of Paris-based LVMH Moët Hennessy ...
nearby. Robbie Whelan said that the design "tries to draw too much attention to itself", even on 57th Street, which had buildings of many architectural styles. By contrast, Carter Horsley wrote that the facade was not necessarily "random" but rather "impart an added sense of motion". One57 was also criticized for its shape. Matthew Shaer wrote that the building resembled a "gleaming, tumescent phallus" that stood out from its surroundings, while the ''Times'' Kimmelman characterized the building's form as "cascade of clunky curves". Robin Finn of the ''Times'' wrote that the building was "a spike of bluish glass that does not scrape the Midtown sky as much as puncture it". Of One57's presence in general, Rick Hampson of ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' wrote: "One57 exemplifies a new type of skyscraper—very tall, improbably slender, ostentatiously opulent—that is reshaping a famous skyline composed mostly of bulky office buildings." Ralph Gardner wrote for ''The Wall Street Journal'' that the 57th Street facade "shows some potential" and the north facade could help the building blend with the skyline, but the massing "appears an undisguised attempt to maximize air rights and monopolize park views for plutocrats". Elizabeth Goldstein, the president of the
Municipal Art Society The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) is a non-profit membership organization for preservation in New York City, which aims to encourage thoughtful planning and urban design and inclusive neighborhoods across the city. The organization was ...
, said the construction of One57 had precipitated the development of other supertall skyscrapers in New York City, many of which used
zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...
loopholes to rise higher than would normally be allowed. For this reason,
Paul Goldberger Paul Goldberger (born in 1950) is an American author, architecture critic and lecturer. He is known for his "Sky Line" column in ''The New Yorker''. Biography Shortly after starting as a reporter at ''The New York Times'' in 1972, he was assign ...
called One57 "the first and the worst" of the city's supertall skyscrapers, but he said it was not possible to "freeze the city" in terms of development. According to Ralph Gardner, One57's construction had "obliterated" the views of the "claustrophobic thicket of towers in the Carnegie Hall vicinity", including Metropolitan Tower, Carnegie Hall Tower, and CitySpire. In 2014, PBS described One57 in a fifty-five-minute clip entitled "The Billionaire Building", the second part of a four-part documentary entitled ''Super Skyscrapers''. The tower became less popular several years after its opening, being overtaken by other supertall towers on Billionaires' Row. The 2017 book ''Life at the Top: New York’s Most Exceptional Apartment Buildings'', published three years after One57's completion, did not mention the building even as it mentioned 432 Park Avenue.


See also

*
List of tallest buildings in New York City New York City, the most populous city in the United States, is home to over 7,000 completed high-rise buildings of at least , of which at least 95 are taller than . The tallest building in New York is One World Trade Center, which ris ...
*
List of tallest buildings in the United States The world's first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1885. Since then, the United States has been home to some of the world's tallest skyscrapers. New York City, specifically the borough of Manhattan, notably has the tallest skyline in the cou ...
*
List of tallest residential buildings The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) defines a residential building as one where 85 percent or more of its total floor area is dedicated to residential usage. The tallest residential building in the world is Central Park Tow ...


References


Notes


Citations


External links

*
One57 listing on skyscrapercenter.com
{{Hotels in New York City 2014 establishments in New York City Hotel buildings completed in 2014 Midtown Manhattan Pencil towers in New York City Residential buildings completed in 2014 Residential condominiums in New York City Residential skyscrapers in Manhattan Skyscraper hotels in Manhattan Skyscrapers on 57th Street (Manhattan) 2010s in Manhattan