Reading on, you learn that the wind sway sometimes shuts down elevator shafts. Other complaints: there were a number of floods (damages in the millions!!)! Caused, sources told the Times, because the building's architects had made the mechanical floors in the building implausibly tall to skirt building codes and make the whole thing taller. “That’s how I went up to my hoity-toity apartment before closing.” “They put me in a freight elevator surrounded by steel plates and plywood, with a hard-hat operator,” she said. The people who are actually dumb enough to live in these monstrosities, well, they're not having a good time.Ī quote from the wife of a Russian oil baron: The 96th floor penthouse at the top of the building sold in 2016 for nearly $88 million to a company representing the Saudi retail magnate Fawaz Alhokair.Īlso, JLo and ARod briefly lived there. As the article, and many other pieces of reporting over the past few years explain, Manhattan's skyline has been rudely pierced by several residential megatowers in the past decade, almost all of which exist to basically give foreign oil billionaires a property to dump cash into as a tax shelter and not even live in. For those becoming concerned that this will become a New York City-specific thing, it is and it isn't. YES!!! The rest of the piece does not disappoint. The claims include: millions of dollars of water damage from plumbing and mechanical issues frequent elevator malfunctions and walls that creak like the galley of a ship - all of which may be connected to the building’s main selling point: its immense height, according to homeowners, engineers and documents obtained by The New York Times. Six years later, residents of the exclusive tower are now at odds with the developers, and each other, making clear that even multimillion-dollar price tags do not guarantee problem-free living. The nearly 1,400-foot tower at 432 Park Avenue, briefly the tallest residential building in the world, was the pinnacle of New York’s luxury condo boom half a decade ago, fueled largely by foreign buyers seeking discretion and big returns. We have a reference to the obscenely tall buildings in midtown that look like shit and nobody likes. We've got the implication that rich people are having a tough time. Here is the headline: The Down Side to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks. Which leads us to today, and this monumental feat of journalism from NYT real estate reporter Stefanos Chen. ![]() For the New York Times, these stories often deal with real estate, or occasionally appear in the lesser-known "Vows" wedding section. Each publication has its own brand of these: New York magazine publishes a lengthy, completely unbelievable "roommate from hell" feature at least once every couple of years, GQ or one of the glossy mags will sneak in a truly deranged celebrity profile, et cetera. ( Photo: Flickr/ Doc Searles )Įvery once in a while one of the major outlets publishes a story that fuels you for a whole day, or even several days. 432 Park, the tower in question, is the stupid-looking Tetris block poking up on the right-hand side. (That sound at the edge of your hearing is the world’s smallest Stradivarius.New York's skyline looking north from One World Trade. It’s hardly what residents thought they’d be getting for their $20 million-plus investments. Right before Labor Day, the entire building had to clear out for about two days during extensive repairs to the building’s electrical systems. Elevators have been shut down in high wind because their cables were shaking too much to be safe. ![]() At 432 Park, chandeliers often sway with the building, and creaking sounds can be heard on gusty nights. ![]() “If you saw the facade, you’d have not one, but two heart attacks, because the thing does move,” Viñoly said during a lecture while the skyscraper was under construction. He simply knew that his ultraluxury apartment building, the unofficial team captain of Midtown Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row, was going to sway like crazy in the wind. ![]() Viñoly didn’t have any outsize concern for those with a particular fear of heights. The 1,396-foot-high, 85-story supertower was designed that way, according to its architect, Rafael Viñoly, because anyone capable of looking directly groundward would be terrified. in New York City has a phenomenal view, but there’s one direction none of its residents can look: straight down.
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