The Steinway Tower

111 West 57th Street, also known as Steinway Tower, is a supertall residential skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Developed by JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group, it is situated along Billionaires' Row on the north side of 57th Street near Sixth Avenue. The main portion of the building is an 84-story, tower designed by SHoP Architects and completed in 2021. Preserved at the base is the 16-story Steinway Building (also Steinway Hall), a former Steinway & Sons store designed by Warren and Wetmore and completed in 1925, which originally carried the address 111 West 57th Street.

111 West 57th Street contains 60 luxury condominiums: 14 in Steinway Hall and 46 in the tower. The residential tower has a glass facade with piers made of terracotta; its pinnacle contains setbacks on the southern side. The tower is the fourth-tallest building in the United States as of November 2022, as well as the thinnest skyscraper in the world with a width-to-height ratio of about 1:24. Steinway Hall, a New York City designated landmark, contains a facade made mostly of brick, limestone, and terracotta. 111 West 57th Street contains numerous resident amenities, housed mostly in the building's base, as well as a large rotunda within Steinway Hall that is also a designated city landmark.

The Steinway & Sons store at 111 West 57th Street was planned in 1916 but was not completed for nine years due to lawsuits and other delays. Steinway Hall served as a store, recital hall, and office building for almost nine decades, though it was unsuccessful as a speculative development. Plans for a residential skyscraper on the site date to 2005, and JDS acquired the lots for the skyscraper between 2012 and 2013. Despite the tower's size, it was technically constructed as an addition to Steinway Hall. Construction on the tower began in 2014, and Steinway Hall was restored as part of the residential project. The development faced several challenges, including financing difficulties, lawsuits, and controversies over employment. The tower's concrete form topped out during April 2019, and work was completed in 2021.

Site

111 West 57th Street is in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, just south of Central Park, between Sixth Avenue to the east and Seventh Avenue to the west. The building occupies the land lots at 105–113 West 57th Street and contains frontage along 57th Street to the south and 58th Street to the north. The rectangular site covers , with a frontage of on 57th and 58th Streets, and a depth of between the two streets.

111 West 57th Street occupies the same city block as the Calvary Baptist Church, One57, and Alwyn Court to the west, and abuts The Quin immediately to the east. 111 West 57th Street is also near Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Hall Tower, and Metropolitan Tower one block west; Parker New York, 130 West 57th Street, and 140 West 57th Street across 57th Street to the south; and Hampshire House and Trump Parc across 58th Street to the north. The building stands across from the 57th Street station of the New York City Subway's . 111 West 57th Street 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 four blocks southeast, 220 Central Park South one block northwest, Central Park Tower one block west, and the nearby One57.

111 West 57th Street's base contains Steinway Hall, a former store and recital hall for Steinway & Sons. Steinway Hall was completed in 1925 by Warren & Wetmore and is a New York City designated landmark. Steinway Hall was part of an artistic hub developed around the two blocks of West 57th Street from Sixth Avenue west to Broadway during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, following the opening of Carnegie Hall in 1891. The area contains several buildings constructed as residences for artists and musicians, such as 130 and 140 West 57th Street, the Rodin Studios, and the Osborne Apartments. In addition, the area contained the headquarters of organizations such as the American Fine Arts Society, the Lotos Club, and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Architecture

111 West 57th Street, also known as Steinway Tower, was developed by Michael Stern's JDS Development Group and Kevin P. Maloney's Property Markets Group (PMG). WSP USA was the structural engineer for the project, while Jaros, Baum & Bolles was the engineer in charge of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing.

The building has two components. Warren and Wetmore's original Steinway Hall, at the base of the development, is topped by a tower designed by SHoP Architects. According to documents filed by SHoP Architects principal Gregg Pasquarelli, the roof slab of the tower is above ground level while the pinnacle is above ground. The building contains 84 stories above ground level or 85 including the roof slab. The top story is numbered as floor 91, while floor numbers 5–7, 13, and 21–25 are skipped. The tallest habitable story of the tower is above ground level. There is also a sub-cellar and cellar, used primarily for utilities and storage.

Form

The 16-story, "L"-shaped Steinway Hall fills most of the base, with frontages of along 57th Street and on 58th Street. The concert hall has a setback above the 12th story on 57th Street, and setbacks above the 9th and 12th stories on 58th Street. The 16th story along 57th Street (marketed as floor 19) is also set back from all sides. The roof of Steinway Hall contains a campanile with a pyramidal copper roof and lantern, similar to the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. Christopher Gray of ''The New York Times'' described the campanile as having a "sculptural, even funerary, caste".

The residential tower atop Steinway Hall is one of the tallest buildings in the United States, as well as the thinnest skyscraper in the world with a width-to-height ratio of about 1:24. Due to its slenderness, the top stories sway several feet during high winds. The building has been characterized as part of a new breed of New York City " pencil towers". The tower's northern elevation rises directly up to the pinnacle, and the southern elevation contains several setbacks as the tower rises, thinning the tower's footprint on higher floors. The pinnacle's lighting pattern was commissioned by L'Observatoire International. Because of the shape of the tower's pinnacle, 111 West 57th Street is nicknamed "Stairway to Heaven".

Facade

Steinway Hall

On the first three stories of Steinway Hall's southern elevation, facing 57th Street, the facade is made of Indiana Limestone above a pink-granite water table. Two rectangular portals flank a large central arch there. The outer portals contain wooden pocket doors, which are surrounded by moldings and topped with entablatures. The central opening is a display window that contains an entablature supported by Ionic columns on either side, as well as a lunette above the entablature. The lunette has a cement sculptural group by Leo Lentelli, which contains a bas-relief of Apollo. Above the third story is a frieze with portraits of classical composers and pianists, as well as a central plaque with the name "Steinway".

The northern elevation on 58th Street is clad with brick, limestone, and terracotta. The lowest two floors contain rusticated limestone blocks; the first floor has loading docks on either end. One of the 58th Street loading docks led to a freight elevator for Steinway Hall's tenants, while the other led to a freight elevator used specifically by Steinway & Sons.

Steinway Hall's upper stories are clad with brick. On 57th Street, there are three pairs of windows on each of the 4th through 12th stories. On 58th Street, there are five windows on each of the 3rd through 12th stories; there is a balustrade at the third story and a cornice atop the 9th story. Above the 12th story, on both 57th and 58th Streets, is a parapet capped by urns. The western elevation is clad with plain brick and contains some window openings. The 13th through 15th stories of Steinway Hall have chamfered corners and Ionic colonnades, with a parapet above the 15th story. The 16th story has brick piers at each corner, shallow arches on each side, band courses at the bottom, and a cornice at the top.

Tower

The tower's facade was designed by BuroHappold. The portion of the tower's base at ground level, which is not occupied by Steinway Hall, contains doors with aluminum or bronze frames. This section serves as the retail entrance and was included only because zoning rules mandated it. The northern and southern elevations consist of large glass curtain walls. There are bronze mullions between the windows, which project slightly from the glass curtain wall. The top section of the northern elevation, above the highest habitable story, contains reflective glass panels in front of the pinnacle's reinforced concrete walls. There are glass parapets above each setback, and the roof terraces also contain guard rails made of aluminum, bronze, or steel.

The eastern and western elevations contain narrow windows between vertical piers of glazed terracotta. Six tones of white were used for the terracotta. The terracotta piers are made of extruded and glazed blocks arranged in a wave-like pattern. The piers are meant to be reminiscent of older terracotta designs in New York City, and the beige color complements the limestone facade of Steinway Hall. Each of the terracotta piers rises to the height of one of the setbacks on the pinnacle. There are also bronze mullions, which contain curving patterns resembling bird feathers, between the piers. The piers and mullions serve partially to stabilize the tower by creating wind turbulence.

Structural features

The existing Steinway Hall contains a structural steel frame atop a foundation with reinforced concrete and steel grillages. The foundations of the tower contain about 200 rock anchors that descend at most into the underlying bedrock. These deep foundations are necessitated by the tower's extreme slenderness. The building has two cellar levels. Steinway Hall originally had a cellar vault extending under the roadway at 57th Street, which was partially infilled and modified as part of the tower's construction.

The superstructure of 111 West 57th Street's tower is made mostly of concrete. The core structural system is formed by two large shear walls installed behind the eastern and western facades, maximizing usable floor area. The two shear walls range in thickness from on the lower stories to on the upper stories, and are recessed on upper floors to accommodate corner windows. The tower's floor plates are high-strength concrete slabs with a compressive strength of . They are reinforced with of rebar and welded plates. The floors are also supported by additional beams at three-story intervals, as well as four outrigger walls on the mechanical floors and beams on the southern side of each floor. Interior walls above the floor slabs also connect the shear walls. The top of the tower includes an tuned mass damper to provide stability against high winds or earthquakes. The damper consists of tuned steel plates.

Interior

111 West 57th Street's interior spaces were designed by Studio Sofield, though the interior of the original Steinway Hall was planned by Walter L. Hopkins. There are 60 apartments in total: 46 in the tower and 14 in Steinway Hall. According to the New York City Department of City Planning, the building has a gross floor area of .

The building has of amenity space across several floors. Spanning the cellar and floors 1, 3, and 4 is a "non-residential unit", which contains of commercial space. Several stories in the tower and base contain mechanical equipment. Additionally, floors 51, 71, and 86 contain windbreaks and are not occupied. 111 West 57th Street contains fourteen elevators: five in Steinway Hall and nine in the tower. Seven of the tower elevators are within individual suites, while the remaining seven elevators are shared by all residents. Steinway Hall had initially contained six elevators, one of which was upgraded as part of the residential project.

Ground floor

The original western and eastern entrance vestibules on 57th Street have pink-granite floors and coffered domed ceilings. The eastern vestibule leads to a rectangular foyer with a vaulted ceiling, which in turn connects to the main rotunda and the original floor 2. The western vestibule leads north to a marble corridor that connects to Steinway Hall's original elevator lobby. The original elevator lobby had Botticino marble walls and black-and-white terrazzo flooring. A stone porte-cochère for residents is on 58th Street. There is a passenger and freight elevator connecting the cellar and ground-level loading dock.

Steinway Hall's octagonal rotunda features a domed ceiling reaching and measuring across. The sides of the rotunda consist of four white marble arches, green marble pilasters with coffered pendentives, and a continuous marble cornice just below the dome. A large chandelier hangs from the dome. Four paintings by Paul Arndt, depicting "the influence of music on human relations", are hung on the wall. The paintings are surrounded by grotesques and images painted by Cooper and Gentiluomo. The rotunda's southern wall contains the arched display window facing 57th Street. Behind the northern wall are three green-marble archways on floor 1 and a balcony on floor 2. The central arch on the north wall led to piano showrooms in the rear of floor 1, while the right arch led to the basement. The rotunda sat up to 300 guests and a small symphony orchestra. When used by Steinway & Sons, the rotunda contained ornate furniture and paintings evocative of an upper-class home.

Steinway Hall's showrooms were clustered around a corridor that led from the rotunda. The corridor from the rotunda to these showrooms had dull red and old rose furniture, as well as green wall surfaces. The showrooms were covered with wood panels for better acoustics. The first showroom past the rotunda and foyers was the Pine Room, which had pine-paneled walls, draped windows, illumination from chandeliers and ceiling bulbs, and an ivory-white plaster ceiling in low relief. Dimmers were provided so the light could be intensified for instrument examination. Two other showrooms had cream-colored, paneled walls and low-relief ceilings; one of these rooms had decorative paintings and medallions on the ceiling. Another showroom, known as the skylight room, had black-and-white wallpaper decorations depicting scenes in the French Empire style, as well as a skylight over more than half the room. The rear of the ground floor contained the Walnut Room, with walnut-paneled walls, windows facing 58th Street, and a beamed ceiling with pastel-color designs. Antique pieces throughout all the display rooms were arranged to complement the piano displays.

Following the construction of the residential tower, the rotunda was converted to a retail space with entrances from the residential lobby and the street. The residential lobby contains gold and silver-leaf murals with ebony and elephant motifs, a reference to the materials used in pianos. Also in the lobby is a mailroom, concierge area, shared toilet, and lounge. The elevator lobby contains custom bronze doors by Nancy Lorenz.

Amenities and Steinway Hall units

Floor 2 contained four display rooms, which generally were larger than the ground-floor showrooms. They generally had cream-colored walls and ceilings and were connected by a corridor with pea-green walls. The floor surfaces were laid in California redwood planks thick, which could withstand the weight of the pianos. Floor 3 was initially Steinway Hall's executive offices while floors 4 and 8 (originally the fourth and fifth floors, respectively) were composed of soundproof music studios. The original musical salon on floor 3 could fit 250 people and was designed with blue-gray plaster walls, a cream-colored low-relief ceiling, a gold-leaf cornice, an oak parquet floor, and a lighting system with a dimmer. Following the residential conversion, floor 8 has contained a residents' rehearsal room and offices; the room's design references the building's historical use. The non-residential areas between the cellar and floor 4 are served by a single elevator.

Floors 10 and 10M constitute the building's common amenity area. There is an indoor pool with a limestone deck and cabanas, as well as sauna, steam, and treatment rooms adjacent to the pool. Floors 10 and 10M also contain a private dining room, fitness center, and study. The amenity areas on floors 10 and 10M are connected by their own elevator.

The remaining stories of Steinway Hall were originally rented as office space. The floors up to the 15th story (now floor 18) typically measured , with more space facing 58th Street than 57th Street. The 16th story (now floor 19) was much smaller and was intended as a studio apartment. After the residential conversion, the space above the amenity area was converted to 14 units, which range between . They consist of ten 3-bedroom units, three 1-bedroom units, and one studio apartment. Floor 11 has one 3-bedroom unit as well as the studio and 1-bedroom units, while floors 12, 14, 16, and 17 each have two 3-bedroom units. The largest unit, a three-bedroom duplex penthouse on floors 19 and 20, contains a stone entrance foyer, private terraces, an office, a den, a kitchen, and a living room with ceilings. These units are all connected to ground level and floor 10 by a pair of elevators.

Tower units

The 46 condominiums in the building's tower range from . The apartments start above the 17th story, numbered as floor 20, because the views of Central Park from the lower floors are obstructed by neighboring buildings. The units are mostly three-bedroom apartments each occupying one full floor, except for seven duplex units on floors 60–61 and 72–83, which each have between two and four bedrooms. Many of the stories are open in plan and have ceilings. , prices ranged from $16 million for a studio apartment to over $66 million for the triplex penthouse.

P. E. Guerin Hardware designed bronze doorknobs on the living-room doors, which are shaped like the tower itself. The kitchens typically have quartzite counters as well as built-in appliances such as dishwashers, ovens, refrigerators, and freezers. The units also contain dark wood and onyx floors, an acknowledgment of the design of Steinway Hall. A typical unit, such as the residence on floor 43, has a living room facing north toward Central Park and master and guest bedrooms facing south, as well as walk-in closets and custom bathroom appliances. Some tower units have been customized, such as a unit on floor 34, designed by Kelly Behun with a musically-influenced theme. A pair of elevators connect each of the tower stories to the ground level and floor 10. One is a double-deck elevator with a service cab on the lower deck, which also descends to the cellar, while the other is a single-deck elevator. In addition, each of the duplex units have private elevators connecting both floors in the unit.

History

Steinway Hall

Since 1864, Steinway & Sons had operated a piano showroom and performance auditorium at 14th Street in Lower Manhattan, where the piano industry was concentrated. When Carnegie Hall opened in 1891, the piano industry moved uptown to 57th Street, prompting Steinway & Sons to look for new sites in that area.

Construction and opening

By July 1916, the company had identified a site at 109–113 West 57th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, with a parcel extending back to 58th Street. William K. Benedict and Marvin & Davis designed a 10-story building for the site. Work was delayed because the 1916 Zoning Resolution prohibited non-residential buildings on that section of 58th Street; additionally, neighborhood residents had filed lawsuits against Steinway & Sons, which were settled by July 1920. Steinway & Sons acquired eight lots on 57th and 58th Streets from 1920 to 1924, and Warren and Wetmore designed a 16-story building, for which plans were filed in July 1923. The new Steinway Hall was built from June 1924 to April 1925. Many of the studios had already been rented by late 1924.

The hall at 111 West 57th Street officially opened on October 27, 1925, with a performance by Willem Mengelberg and 35 musicians from the New York Philharmonic, broadcast over radio. The building had cost $3 million, representing about a quarter of Steinway & Sons' total assets at the time. Steinway & Sons used the five lowest floors and rented out the upper floors. The basement housed storage, shipping, and a grand-piano testing area; the first story, a reception room and salesroom; the second story, salesrooms; the third floor, executive offices; and the fourth and fifth stories, music studios. Steinway & Sons used only the rear of the fourth story, where it had a large workroom. The "piano bank" in the basement had over 300 pianos, valued at over $15 million.

Usage

According to a ''New Yorker'' article in 2001, "almost every twentieth-century virtuoso has passed through" the first-floor reception room while headed to the Concert and Artists Department in the basement. Among the notable performances at the 57th Street building was the 1928 duo piano recital by Vladimir Horowitz and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The 57th Street building was also intended as a speculative development for Steinway & Sons; it was not particularly successful in that respect, with a rate of return of only 2 percent. Even so, by 1940, all studios in the Steinway Building had been leased. Throughout the years, the building's tenants also included publications such as ''Musical America'', ''Architectural Forum'', and ''The Economist'', as well as CBS broadcasting studios.

Steinway Hall received an $850,000 first mortgage from Hubbard, Westervelt & Mottelay Inc. in 1939. The onset of World War II forced the closure of the building's recital hall. In March 1957, the Manhattan Life Insurance Company leased some space on the third floor for its tabulating and accounting departments. Steinway Hall and its land were sold to Manhattan Life the following year, with the insurance company planning to occupy the building as its home office. At that time, ''Musical Forum'', Columbia Artists Management, and the Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York were among Steinway Hall's tenants. 111 West 57th Street was thus renamed the Manhattan Life Insurance Company Building. Steinway & Sons continued to lease space there, including the ground-floor showroom. Steinway Hall was acquired by 111 West 57th Street Associates in 1980. Bernard H. Mendik had acquired the leasehold for $8.65 million in that transaction.

In 1990, the Apollo sculpture above the main entrance was restored, and the plaque above the entrance was replaced, after ''The Economist'' became a tenant at 111 West 57th Street. In 1997, Jeffrey Biegel performed the first classical music recital transmitted live over the internet, with audio and video, at Steinway Hall. Steinway bought back the building in May 1999 for approximately $62 million; the firm leased the land for 99 years from the building's former owner, who chose to retain ownership of the land. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated Steinway Hall as a New York City landmark in November 2001. Manhattan Life moved out of the building that year, and an XM Satellite Radio studio opened there.

Residential tower planning

Early plans

In May 2005, Investcorp and Ceebraid-Signal purchased the one-story Ritz Fur Shop building at 107 West 57th Street, adjacent to Steinway Hall, for $23 million, along with $8.75 million for neighboring air rights. According to '' The Real Deal'', the sale was finalized in 2006 for $52 million. The companies planned a 35-story tower on the site with 37 residential units, three lower floors of office space, and ground floor and basement retail space.

In October 2006, Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital Group purchased the site at 105–107 West 57th Street for $52 million with a $30 million loan from Eurohypo. Demolition of the site was underway the same year. Before the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Starwood Capital reportedly planned to construct a new hotel tower for sister company Starwood as part of a new "Hotel Crillon" luxury brand based on Paris's Hôtel de Crillon. In early 2012, Starwood sold a majority interest in the assemblage to JDS Development Group for $40 million and stayed on as a joint venture partner. That March, the first plans for the site at 105–107 West 57th Street were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings for a 51-story tower rising and containing 27 condominiums. Renderings of the planned development were revealed that September, showing a sloping tower by CetraRuddy, covered with balconies facing Central Park. At the time, construction was expected to take place from early 2013 to late 2014.

JDS and PMG control

At the end of 2012, Steinway & Sons announced that it would sell Steinway Hall, adjacent to the planned development at 107 West 57th Street, for $46 million. At the time, Steinway & Sons was losing $5 million a year from continuing to own Steinway Hall. In March 2013, a joint venture of JDS Development, PMG, and Arthur P. Becker officially purchased Steinway Hall. Becker allegedly purchased his stake with the help of a $21 million loan from Russian oligarchs Serguei Adoniev and Albert Avdolyan

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