The Race to the Top: Will It Ever Stop?

Oct. 8, 2015 — It's always been about a race to top in New York, hasn't it? When the Chrysler Building was being constructed, William Van Alen — the architect who designed it — was in a race against H. Craig Severance's building at 40 Wall Street. After Severance increased the height of his building and gave it the title of the world's tallest building, Van Alen got the green light for the Chrysler's telltale 125-foot-long spire. It beat 40 Wall Street as the tallest building in the world (not to mention the Eiffel Tower as the tallest structure). But the first man-made structure to stand taller than 1,000 feet would hold the title for only 11 months, because then rose the Empire State Building, and then… You get the picture. Fast-forward to the present, and not surprisingly, it's still a race to the top. Who will dominate New York City's iconic skyline? Lately, it's the residential giants — the luxury condo towers, such as the ones on Billionaires Row. The Real Deal sized up the "supertalls" recently: "At 1,396 feet high, 432 Park overtook Extell Development's 1,004-foot-tall One57 earlier this year. But Extell is now on track to reclaim the title. Extell's latest "supertall" building, dubbed Central Park Tower, is scheduled to top out at 1,550 feet in 2019. What's more, the tower will reportedly have a record $4.4 billion sellout." But, asks TRD, can that race really continue? Is it feasible (or wise) for these tall, skinny towers to keep rising all over the city? Maybe there will be a slowdown, but as long as there's a way, we bet developers will keep trying to reach higher.

"Chrysler Building at night" by David Shankbone. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons