Known for its record-breaking height and sophisticated Art Deco style, the Empire State Building is one of New York City’s, if not the world’s, most recognized landmarks. While the building is often used in popular culture as light-natured fodder—such as the opening backdrop to your favorite cookie-cutter rom-com or the romantic meeting spot for star-crossed lovers—the building’s past is far more ominous than many of us realize. From failed suicide attempts to accidental plane crashes, its history casts a vibrant lineup of plot-lines and characters spanning the past 90 years.
Architecture
Cool Listings, New Jersey, Starchitecture
Photo credit: Compass
His first commission in private practice, architect Richard Meier designed this modernist home in New Jersey for his parents in 1965. The home is set on three-quarters of an acre overlooking the Essex Fells Country Club and because of this natural setting, the architect introduced large glass walls to blur the boundaries between inside and outside. His parents requested a one-story home that offered privacy unlike most suburban homes, so Meier incorporated an interior courtyard, as well as a roof garden. The home has only had one other owner since the Meiers, and they’ve now listed it for $1,750,000.
Architecture, Chelsea, condos, Interiors, New Developments
A four-bedroom penthouse at Lantern House is on the market for $12.975 million. Credit: Related Companies
Thomas Heatherwick’s unique condo project on the High Line is showing off its collection of penthouses ahead of the building’s impending completion this year. Lantern House, located at 515 West 18th Street in Chelsea, consists of two towers that rise on either side of the High Line, one at 10 stories and the other at 22. Last October we got a peek inside the bubbled residences, and now new images have been released of a four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath penthouse with a large outdoor terrace, currently listed for $12.975 million.
Architecture, Major Developments, Midtown East, Urban Design
42nd Street looking west. Copyright Miysis SPRL / Courtesy of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
In another small way, the city is saying goodbye to Donald Trump. Renderings have been released for a massive tower replacing Midtown’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, Trump’s first major Manhattan development. The proposed mixed-use project at 175 Park Avenue would rise up to 83 stories and 1,646 feet tall, which would make it the second-tallest building in New York City, behind 1,776-foot One World Trade Center. The design, which is made possible thanks to the Midtown East Rezoning, comes from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and also includes hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure upgrades to Grand Central Terminal and the subway station, as well as three elevated public outdoor spaces that wrap around the building.
Cool Listings, Hamptons, Starchitecture
Listing photos courtesy of The Corcoran Group
Norman Jaffe opened his first architecture practice in Bridgehampton in 1973, soon becoming famous for the many contempory residences he designed in the Hamptons. Throughout his 35-year career, he designed more than 600 projects, many of them notable for their sculptural forms, early inclusion of passive solar design, and glass and wood construction. This home in Old Westbury, which he designed early on in 1977, checks all three of those boxes, and is currently on the market for $3,595,000. It sits on more than two acres, with several decks and patios and a salt water pool, and is nearly 7,000 square feet with six bedrooms, a home movie theater, and even a spa.
Architecture, Midtown, New Developments
All renderings credit Brookfield Properties
The office tower formerly known as 666 Fifth Avenue has shed both its superstitious address and its controversial connection to the Kushners. Brookfield Asset Management bought the 99-year ground lease for the 41-story Midtown office building between 52nd and 53rd Streets in 2018 from Kushner Cos., announcing the following year a $400 million overhaul designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Brookfield has now released new renderings of the 660 Fifth Avenue project, which will have a new glass facade and floor-to-ceiling windows, a new lobby and retail spaces, and new outdoor terraces when it’s completed in 2022.
Architecture, Construction Update, hudson yards
The Spiral as of October 2020, © CityRealty
Bjarke Ingels’ new office tower with twisting terraces officially topped out at Hudson Yards this week. Aptly named The Spiral, the 66-story skyscraper reached its 1,031-foot pinnacle, developer Tishman Speyer announced on Tuesday. Upon its completion in 2022, the tower at 66 Hudson Boulevard will stretch a full block between West 34th and 35th Streets and contain 2.8 million square feet of office space and ground-floor retail.
Architecture, Financial District
All renderings by Hayri Atak Architectural Design
Turkish firm Hayri Atak Architectural Design has proposed something extremely unique for the downtown skyline. Called the Sarcostyle Tower, the shining structure is a large rectangle with sinuous, carved-out sides. Conceptually placed amidst the historic landmarks and mid-century office towers of lower Manhattan, the 689-foot building was inspired by human anatomy and cells. An actual sarcostyle is a muscle fiber, so it makes sense that the firm decided upon this name for theior biologically inspired project.
Midtown East, New Developments, Starchitecture
Trading floor rendering courtesy of L&L Holding
It’s been more than five years since L&L Holding Company broke ground on the 47-story Norman Foster-designed office tower at 425 Park Avenue, but it’s finally nearing the finish line. The 897-foot building is notable for its triple-height diagrid floors and the set of three ornamental fins at the crown that will be illuminated at night. It will be the first full-block tower along this stretch of Park Avenue in half a century, joining the likes of the Seagram Building and Lever House.
Architecture, Long Island City, Urban Design
All renderings by CAZA
First spotted by CityRealty, this mixed-use proposal for the Long Island City waterfront is part futuristic, part industrial, and part sustainable. The architects at Brooklyn-based studio CAZA conceptualized a plan for a swath of land just north of the site that was almost home to Amazon. Called Long Island City Oyster, their development would include an office tower, residential tower, and low-scale residential village. More distinctly, it would also include year-round indoor and amenities such as a waterfront ice skating rink that converts into a pool, a restored oyster-bed wetland, a sandy beach, and a ferry landing.