Construction update: Extell’s Central Park Tower gets its fluted glass curtain wall

When it reaches its projected 1,550-foot height, Extell Development’s Central Park Tower will have the highest roof-line of any residential building in the Western Hemisphere, besting the current record holder 432 Park. Though the $2.98 billion project won’t be complete until 2019, construction is moving ahead along Billionaires’ Row, reports CityRealty. The 58th Street side, which will hold a 285,000-square-foot, seven-story Nordstrom store, is currently receiving its fluted-glass skin, a “Waveforms Facade.”

Adrian Smith Gordon Gill Architecture designed the tower, and James Carpenter Design Associates (JCDA) is responsible for the retail base’s fluted-glass skin. Through the transparent, large panels, natural light will brighten the department store without the need for vertical mullions. JCDA said, “The glass is specially treated to articulate a powerful expression of the sky framed by the towers of 57th Street. The passerby experiences the façade’s mutable presence as they approach from a distance – unfolding layered views of the sky, the store’s displays and activity, visually inviting them to envisage the store as a simultaneously accessible and urbane public space.”

Central Park Tower beginning to take its place between One57 and 220 Central Park South. View from Cat Rock in Central Park captured March 2017; CityRealty

A recently-retracted offering plan for the building’s condos pegged the average asking price at $6,500 per square foot and the total sellout (both residential and commercial) at $4.4 billion, which would make it the most expensive building ever sold.

[Via CityRealty]

RELATED: 

• New Renderings of Extell’s Central Park Tower Emphasize Design and Record Height
• Revealed: Central Park Tower Shows Off Its Retail Base
• Extell Shoots for a $4.4B Sellout with the Nordstrom Tower, the Most Expensive Ever

Renderings courtesy of JCDA/AS+GG/Extell; Construction shots via CityRealty