New skyscrapers in New York. Lower Manhattan

There are just skyscrapers, and there are those that become legendary even before construction is completed. The new 60-story New York residential skyscraper “56 Leonard Street” is just one of these. The building was designed by the famous Swiss architectural bureau Herzog and de Meuron, which developed projects for museums, exhibition halls, libraries and even stadiums, but never designed skyscrapers. “56 Leonard Street” skyscraper became the first in the almost 40-year history of the company.

From the outside, the 250-meter high-tech building looks a bit like a tower from the board game Jenga, or something built by a teenager in the computer game Minecraft, the world of which consists only of cubes. The architects called their project a “stack of houses in the sky.” The skyscraper is completely different from modern faceless towers made of glass and concrete and has already become the object of increased attention from tourists and photographers.

I was able to go inside and see what one of the $4.6 million apartments looks like. While others admire renderings and promotional photos, you have a rare opportunity to see what it's really like.

The skyscraper has a total of 145 apartments ranging from 131 to 595 sq.m. Each has its own balcony or large terrace. All apartments have a unique layout, and the upper floors are slightly shifted in different directions relative to the vertical axis of the building, which gives the skyscraper a very unusual broken look.

The building has five key areas: the lobby, apartments on the lower floors (their architects called them “townhouses”), infrastructure facilities (swimming pool, cinema hall, gym, etc.), apartments on the upper floors (they are called “tower apartments”) and penthouses. There is no access to the roof, unlike many similar high-rise projects in Manhattan. There are containers with water and various equipment. In case of power outages, a powerful backup generator is installed on the ninth floor. The experience of Hurricane Sandy, when several areas of Manhattan were left without electricity, was taken into account in full.

1. I went to look at it back in early September, so in many photographs the skyscraper is visible with a freight elevator attached to the side. It has now been dismantled.

2. View from the streets. If you don't raise your head, then nothing special.

3. The building is designed so that you will have only one neighbor on the site. The architects saw 56 Leonard Street not as a standard apartment building, but as a building consisting of many private houses, as if stacked on top of each other. Hence this approach to space design. Everything is done to ensure that you have minimal overlap with the residents living next door and feel not in an apartment, but in your own home.

4. In the lower part of the building there are apartments with a number of bedrooms from 2 to 5. The ceiling height there is 3.6 meters.

5. Penthouses are located on the top floors. Once upon a time, this was only the name for apartments located on the roof or the highest floors, when all the other neighbors were below you, and only the sky and stars above. But today the concept of a penthouse has lost its former exclusivity and they often begin to refer to all apartments with a non-standard layout on the upper floors. There are nine penthouses in this house: seven occupy an entire floor, and two occupy half a floor. Their area ranges from 480 to 590 sq.m., not including large terraces. Ceiling heights are from 4.3 to 5.8 m.

6. The house begins with a spacious lobby, where a doorman and concierge are on duty 24 hours a day. I could not evaluate the interior, since at the time of our visit it was not yet completed. This, of course, can only happen in New York, when an apartment costs millions of dollars, but at the same time the lobby is covered in scaffolding and the elevators have bare iron walls. You take one of seven elevators to your apartment, which eliminates the long wait. To people who have not lived in high-rise buildings, this number may seem normal, but usually in buildings with a much larger number of apartments there are half as many elevators. In case of any failures, a collapse occurs and queues for boarding arise. It gets especially hot on the first floor. In one of the residential buildings in Manhattan, I once waited 45 minutes just to get into the elevator, and then went up another 10 minutes.

7. Construction was interrupted several times due to problems with financing, but fortunately money was found and the project was completed. Despite all the shortcomings, at the time of our visit, the house was officially commissioned and the first residents had moved in. This is what the entrance looked like at that moment.

8. Against the backdrop of old Manhattan buildings, 56 Leonard Street looks like an alien object, or a house from Luc Besson's The Fifth Element.

9. It is interesting that problems with delivery deadlines did not in any way affect the sales of apartments, which began in the fall of 2013. In the first 10 weeks, the developer sold 70% of the apartments. One, worth $6 million, was purchased by a French citizen. He bought it over the phone without seeing either the house or even the models in the sales office. The buyers had only renderings of the future home at their disposal. By the summer, 80% of the apartments had been sold, and the total proceeds amounted to $900 million. Now all the apartments have long been sold and you can find resale advertisements online.

10. Thanks to the numerous balconies, even after dismantling the freight elevator, the building, it seems to me, will look unfinished.

11. We were in an apartment on the twenty-no matter what floor. Not a high floor, frankly speaking, by Manhattan standards. But it’s already higher than the surrounding houses, and that’s the main thing.

12. I'll start with the views from the windows. Here you can look at the surrounding landscape for a long time and find more and more new details.

13. Children's playground on the roof of the house.

14. And here someone has their own swimming pool.

15. It’s lively on this roof.

16. The roofs are so lived-in that you even have to put fences on them to hide from your neighbors.

17. Penthouse on the house next door.

18. The view from the apartment is not breathtaking. Not enough height.

19. This is the view in the other direction. Here the builders' freight elevator designs are still getting in the way.

20. Behind them you can see the Chrysler Building.

21. Old houses.

22. Houses in the distance. On the left is a tiny roof, but even that has been improved.

24. Western Union Building built in 1930. Served as the company's headquarters until 1973. Today it houses a telecommunications center, and the building is one of the most important Internet hubs in the world.

25. View of the second balcony. There were two of them in the apartment we were in.

26. People already live below, apparently.

27. This is the AT&T Long Lines Building, built in 1974. It is now called 33 Thomas Street. This is a 29-story, 167.5-meter skyscraper built in the brutalist style and has virtually no windows. Equipment for telephone and digital communications is located inside. It is an automatic telephone exchange and the world's largest center for processing international calls. The black squares on the building's façade are ventilation holes.

28. It is suspected that inside, in addition to telecommunications equipment, there is a secret facility TITANPOINTE, owned by the US National Security Agency and engaged in surveillance and wiretapping.

29. But let's return to Leonard 56 and the apartment where we visited. Its total area is 155 square meters. The apartment costs 4.6 million dollars. To the costs you must add a monthly fee of $1,695 and tax, which is $9,720 per year ($810 per month). The photo shows a living room with a kitchen in the corner, which is very typical for New York apartments. The interior design was also developed by the Herzog and de Meuron bureau.

30. The living room is not that huge, but quite spacious. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide plenty of light. There is also an exit to one of the balconies.

31. The cabinet in the kitchen opens from above, which is not very convenient, in my opinion.

33. Corridor. Everywhere there are white walls, painted and parquet. Also very typical of New York.

34. All doors reach to the ceiling.

35. Great view from the master bathroom.

36. This is a view in the opposite direction. Shower and toilet. The doors are mirrored, but sitting or standing inside you will see through them everything that happens outside.

37. View of one of the main bedrooms. The rooms are small, but not cramped.

38. Second bedroom. Here, a load-bearing column eats up a lot of space. This is a minus, but there is a balcony. And that's a plus.

39. There is exactly the same column in the living room. But there is a lot of space here, and it does not create discomfort.

40. The apartment has a washer and dryer. The equipment could be better at this price for the apartment, it seems to me.

41. The apartment exhibits traditional New York distress with minor imperfections. A couple of doors wouldn't open at all. Somewhere something was almost finished painting, somewhere something came off. It’s not critical, but at this price you expect some kind of ideal, but it’s not there.

42. The most expensive penthouse on the top floor was sold for $47 million. According to the project there was supposed to be a swimming pool, but the buyer refused it and the cost was reduced by $3 million.

43. I found a figure somewhere that the total cost of construction was 650 million dollars. I can't say how true it is. There is almost no data on the financial side of construction. The photo shows a view from Hoboken, New Jersey.

44. 70% of apartment buyers are local residents and live in the same area of ​​Manhattan. Another 10% are from other areas of the United States. Many are from California. The remaining 20% ​​of buyers are citizens of various European countries. Many already live in New York and own other real estate here.

The skyscraper surprised us with another thing - the price of storage rooms in the basement. The developer offered them at prices ranging from $72,000 for a storage room with an area of ​​4 sq.m. to $214,000 for 11 sq.m. One of the buyers took several and combined them into one. As a result, the 20 square meter storage room was sold for $300,000. That's $15,000 per square foot, and that's more than the average cost of a home in America. And this is not even a separate room with walls, but simply a space fenced with bars. The buyer was the owner of a three-bedroom apartment on the upper floors. These cost from 5 to 9.25 million dollars. In principle, compared to the overall cost, the pantry is not that expensive and turns out to be expensive

45. What do you think, does an apartment in such a building cost $4,600,000, or is this all New York madness? Would you like to live in such a place?

The Flatiron Building is one of the most famous historical landmarks in New York City. The iconic 21-story building is known for its triangular shape as one of the very first high-rise buildings that defined the future of Manhattan. The Flatiron was built between 1901 and 1903 at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue - at the time one of the most prominent locations in New York City. The structure is located near Madison Square at the end of the Woman's Mile, one of the most important shopping areas in Manhattan in the late nineteenth century.

The Flatiron Building was designed by Daniel Burnham Chicago as a steel frame skyscraper clad in white terracotta. The 21-story building, 93 meters high, was one of the tallest in New York at the time of construction. However, it is a mistake to believe that it was the tallest in the world, or even the tallest in New York. However, the Flatiron's exceptional shape and prominent location quickly made it one of New York City's most famous landmarks.


The structure appeared on more postcards than any other building of the time. An entire neighborhood was even named in his honor. The skyscraper originally had an observation deck on the top floor, but taller buildings have deprived it of any views.


The skyscraper, built as the main office of a construction company, was planned to be called the Faller Building. But local residents quickly nicknamed it “Iron” because of its unusual triangular shape. This name stuck with the building and soon became the official name. In 1929, the construction company built a new, much taller skyscraper at 57th Street and Madison Avenue, where it moved its offices.

The Flatiron Building had another nickname: Burnham's Folly. Many people at the time thought Daniel Burnham's triangular design was crazy. Along with the building's exceptional height, it seemed as if the Flatiron would not be able to withstand New York's strong winds. Some even speculated how far the building's ruins would spread after the fall. But Burnham was an experienced architect and knew his job, and his skyscraper stood the test of time.


The wind did have an effect on the area around the building. The so-called downdraft effect causes the wind to accelerate at the foot of the Iron. At the time, the building became known as a place where gusts of wind would often lift women's skirts, exposing their ankles, much to the admiration of young men.

New York is a city that many call the capital of the world. The main feature of modern New York is skyscrapers. The city has more than 500 buildings with a height of more than 100 meters, and according to this indicator, the super-metropolis “New York” loses only to Hong Kong. To get to know the city of New York, people have to lift their heads up. To appreciate the beauty of this city, you need to look at it from a bird's eye view.

The city of New York was founded by Dutch colonists in the 17th century and was called New Amsterdam. In 1664, the British captured the city without resistance and renamed it New York in honor of the brother of the English King, Duke of York, who came up with the idea of ​​capturing the city.

New York City is divided into several boroughs, the most populous of which is Manhattan, located on an island 21 km long. Dutch explorer Peter Minuiton bought Manhattan from a tribe of Indians in 1626 for $24. The island is now valued at approximately $50 billion.

The main part of the city is built on a rectangular plan. 16 main streets were named "Avenues" and 155 cross streets were numbered and named "Streets". There is also Broadway, which crosses the entire Manhattan.

Skyscrapers are the basis of modern architecture in New York. For 200 years since its founding, the city has followed European architecture. Many of the old buildings burned down in the great fire of 1776, the rest were demolished in the early 19th century. After the mastery of cast iron casting, urban architecture developed its own style. Today, not a single building from the Dutch period remains in Manhattan.

The enclosed area and the high cost of land contributed to the development of high-rise construction. The life of skyscrapers began with the construction of the first New York World Building, more than 85 meters high, in 1890, which was destroyed in 1955. The high-rise construction boom began in 1910 and continues today.

The Statue of Liberty is the most famous sculpture in the USA and one of the most famous in the world, has several names: “symbol of New York and the USA”, “Lady Liberty” and “symbol of freedom and democracy”. The statue was donated by France for the 100th anniversary of the American Revolution in 1886. The Statue of Liberty is located on a separate island 3 kilometers from Manhattan.

In her right hand, the Goddess of Freedom holds a torch, and in her left hand, a tablet. The height of the statue from the ground to the tip of the torch is 93 meters, and the clear height of the statue itself is 46 meters.

Ellis Island was once the largest immigrant reception center in the United States. Between 1892 and 1954, approximately 12 million immigrants passed through the crossing.

Battery Park is the oldest recreation area in New York, located in lower Manhattan. The park received its name from the Dutch cannon battery, which was located here and protected the approaches to the city from the ocean.

The oldest part of New York, the life of the city began here.

The National September 11 Memorial commemorates those killed in 2001. Nearby is the new 1 World Trade Center.

Now this is a national memorial, but previously there were the Twin Towers. These are the largest man-made waterfalls in the USA. The names of 2,983 victims are engraved on bronze panels. Below the waterfalls, at a depth of 21 meters, is the September 11 Museum.

The height of the new shopping center is 541 meters. The building ranks 3rd in height in the world.

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges, 1825 meters long, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn. At the end of construction in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world.

The Manhattan Bridge was built in 1909. Passenger cars travel along the upper part of the bridge, and the New York Subway travels along the lower part (this is the largest subway in the world, has 468 stations and transports 8 million people per day).

The financial district of New York, where the largest banks and stock exchanges are located. The area has a very high population density, especially during the daytime.

Wall Street is the historical center of the financial district. The main attraction of the street is the New York Stock Exchange.

The Federal Reserve Bank is located on Wall Street and houses 25% of the world's gold reserves.

Woolworth Building - neo-Gothic style, built in 1913. The Woolworth Building was the tallest building in the world for 17 years. The height of the skyscraper is 241 meters (57 floors), 100 years later it is included in the list of the 50 tallest buildings in the United States. The construction of the Woolworth Company retail headquarters cost $13 million, which Woolworth paid in cash.

Woolworth Building

New York Civic Center.

In 1909, construction began on the Manhattan Municipal Building, which was completed in 3 years. The 40-story skyscraper, 177 meters high, was the first building to house a metro station. The building is a prototype of Stalin's skyscrapers, the Moscow State University building is especially similar.

Union Square is the most popular place for various demonstrations and protests. Among the most popular, rallies for the release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky or the return of the Dalai Lama to China took place at Union Square.

Madison Square is a park where, from 1876 to 1882, the large hand of the Statue of Liberty stood, which carried out a government mission; it was necessary to raise money to build a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty itself. There is a monument to William Henry Seward in the park, who was Secretary of State in the United States and did everything to ensure that America bought Alaska from Russia. After some time, gold, oil and copper were found in Alaska.

The most unusual skyscraper in New York is the Flatiron Building. The building, 82 meters high, was built in 1902. The name of the skyscraper “Flatiron” translates as “iron”, and it really does look like an iron.

Local New Yorkers doubted its stability and made bets on how far debris would fly if the wind toppled the iron-shaped Flatiron Building.

MetLife Tower is the most beautiful building in New York in the Gothic style. The tower was built in 1909 and has 50 floors. All sides of the tower are decorated with a large clock with minute hands weighing 500 kilograms.
Behind the tower is the Metropolitan Life North Building. The original design of the Metropolitan Life North Building skyscraper was 100 floors, but the stock market crisis in 1929 and the Great Depression prevented the implementation of such a large-scale project. In 1933, construction stopped on the 29th floor.

Washington Square Park used to be a cemetery for slaves and jaundice victims. About 20 thousand people are buried under the park. Today, Washington Square Park is a very popular vacation spot. There is a memorial arch to the first US President George Washington in the park.

USA, New York – Midtown (USA, New York – Midtown).

The Empire State Building is the most famous skyscraper in New York. From 1931 to 1970, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world. The first building in the world with more than 100 floors and a height of 381 meters. In the 50s, a television antenna was built; the height with the antenna is 443 meters.

The 102 floors of the Empire State Building were built in a modest 13 months. In 1930, construction began on the most popular skyscraper. Every week the builders erected 4 floors, and at the peak moment they built 14 floors in 10 days. The official opening was entrusted to US President Herbert Hoover, who pressed a button in Washington and the lights in the building came on.

On the 86th floor of the famous Empire State Building skyscraper there is an observation deck, which is visited by more than 3 million people a year.

In 1945, a twin-engine US Air Force B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building on the 79th floor due to thick fog, causing minimal damage, limited to fire and damage to the exterior walls. Then 14 people died, and the elevator operator fell from the 79th floor and remained alive; this fact is included in the Guinness Book of Records.

The Empire State Building observation deck is the most popular observation deck in the world, visited by about 110 million people.

New York - Bryant Park.

One of the largest libraries in the world is the New York Public Library. The New York Public Library has about 20 million books.

The Radiator Building is a skyscraper built in 1924. Before laying, each brick was dipped in manganese to give the façade a dark color. It is now the Bryant Park Hotel.

Bank of America skyscraper - the building is in the top 3 in height and is second only to the Empire State Building and the Freedom Tower and in the top 5 in height in the United States, the height of the building is 366 meters.

Metlife Building - the building was bought by Metropolitan Life, the platforms of the Central Station are located under it, this is the largest station "Grand Central Terminal" with 67 tracks and 44 platforms.

MetLife Building (Metlife Building).

Night view of New York City, Grand Central Terminal.

Chrysler Building - many recognize this famous skyscraper, one of the coolest in New York. The building has 77 floors and an unusual construction history.

(Chrysler Building) The Chrysler Building began construction in 1930, the construction speed was 4 floors per week (this is very fast). At the same time, the second famous skyscraper, the Trump Building, was being built in lower Manhattan. Architects competed for the title: creators of the tallest building in the world. Because of this race, changes were made in construction on the fly.

The corners of the Chrysler Building are decorated with eagles, which were depicted on Chrysler cars in 1929.
In 2007, the New York City Commission of Architects recognized the skyscraper as the most beautiful skyscraper in Manhattan.

Downtown Manhattan glows bright white.

Times Square is a very popular place in New York. Times Square got its name in 1903, when the popular New York Times newspaper moved its headquarters here to the newly built Times Building.

Times Square is visited by 300 thousand people daily and about 39 million tourists annually.

Madison Square Garden is a multi-sport arena and home to NBA and NHL teams. The arena will accommodate about 20 thousand people, depending on the event. Beneath the Madison Square Garden stadium is the world's busiest train station, Penn Station.

The New Yorker Hotel was the most fashionable hotel in the 1940s and 1950s. Many famous people stayed here. Nikola Tesla spent the last 10 years in seclusion in luxury room 3327, where he died. In the last years of his life, Tesla fed pigeons and met famous people.

Rockefeller Center - the building was built in the 1930s with money from the influential Rockefeller family. The building houses the headquarters of the largest corporations. In 1989, the Mitsubishi Corporation bought the Rockefeller Center from the Rockefeller family.

Rockefeller Center (Rockefeller Center).

It is in the Rockefeller Center that the Lower Plaza site is located, where New York's main Christmas tree is installed every year at Christmas.

The General Electric Building is a 70-story skyscraper that houses the headquarters of NBC, where the most popular TV series and American talk shows are filmed.

On the roof of the skyscraper there is an observation deck “Top of the Rock”. It offers the best panoramic view of New York, although it is inferior in height to the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

St. Patrick's Cathedral is the largest Catholic Church built in the neo-Gothic style in the United States.

Citigroup Center is an interesting fact from the history of this skyscraper, under the building there is a Lutheran church, the architects designed and built the building on huge stands, something like legs. There is a small church on the ground, and above it is the giant skyscraper Citigroup Center.

Lipstick Building - a 34-story building that looks a lot like a lipstick, which is why it was nicknamed the Lipstick Building.

The Waldorf Astoria Hotel is a skyscraper built in 1931, 47 floors high and with a capacity of 1,400 people.

432 Park Avenue is the tallest residential skyscraper in the world (the building is still under construction). The building has 96 floors, a height of 426 meters, and the complex will have 104 apartments. The cost of apartments is from 7 to 95 million dollars.

One 57 is a residential skyscraper with 75 floors.

Viewing the city from above, the 432 Park Avenue residential complex stands out from all the buildings.

Great Army Square. On the right you can see one of the most famous and cool hotels, this is the five-star Plaza Hotel.

Night New York.

Columbus Circle is an area on the corner of Central Park. There is a monument to Columbus in the center of the park. The monument was erected in 1892 specifically for the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America.

Central Park is a green island between densely built-up areas.
Central Park is 4 kilometers long and 800 meters wide. Central Park is 2 times larger in area than the state of Monaco.

The park is visited by about 25 million people a year, and Central Park is the most visited park in the United States.

Frederick Olmsted - landscape architect who created the central park and commissioned it to the city in 1873.

Several artificial lakes, alleys, and lawns were created in the park; all landscape work was done by hand.

Reservoir named after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Dakota is a premium residential complex built in 1880-1884. The Dakota House gained particular fame when fan Mark Chapman shot and killed iconic musician John Lennon in the arch of the residential complex. It is almost impossible to buy an apartment in The Dakota; you need to get the approval of the residents' committee. Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith were denied the purchase of apartments.

The most expensive housing in New York is on the streets along Central Park. An apartment here costs 20-30 million dollars. In such houses there is also a council of residents of the house; they may not prohibit you from approving the purchase of an apartment and they will not sell it to you.

San Remo - many celebrities lived in the house - Tiger Woods, Dustin Hoffman, Demi Moore, Steven Spielberg and Bruce Willis. In one of the towers in 1982 - 2003 there were Steve Jobs' apartments. Jobs sold the apartment for $15 million to the lead singer of U2.

UN headquarters - the building houses the international United Nations Organization, created to maintain security and peace on earth. The UN unites 193 states.

USA, New York City.

The aircraft carrier "Intrepid" from the Second World War. Since 1982, the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid has been a naval museum moored at Pier 86. The museum is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year.

(Chelsea Piers) Chelsea Piers, the world-famous Titanic ship, was supposed to approach pier 59 in 1912. On April 18, Carpathia approached pier 59 with rescued passengers from the Titanic.

Photos of New York from a bird's eye view in high quality HD.

When you start planning a report about New York, you involuntarily get lost, because there is too much going on in this city. The monumentality of the capital of the world captivates you so much that you are left with two options - either remain modestly silent and give everyone a chance to look at the city with an impartial gaze, or follow your purely personal preferences. Once upon a time I already wrote about Greenwich Village - essentially my main reason for the trip. Today I would like to talk about something without which it is impossible to imagine New York, and America in general - about skyscrapers.

In fact, anyone who thinks that all of America is completely built up with skyscrapers is deeply mistaken. Even in New York, giant houses are strictly the prerogative of Manhattan. In all other areas - the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and even Brooklyn, the background is dominated by absolutely ordinary (at least in size) houses. The tallest building outside of Manhattan in New York is the Brooklyner, 156 meters high.

My first skyscraper seen in Manhattan.

The weather during the first days of my stay in New York clearly left much to be desired)

Naturally, the first thing I did was look for the legendary Flatiron. I think there is no need to talk about it - it was built in 1902, one of the most famous monuments in America. By the way, in the USA alone there are more than twenty “Iron Buildings”, and Manhattan is by no means the oldest (but at least the most popular). There are several more "Irons" in Canada, as well as throughout Europe. I recently saw a similar building in Belfast - .

It’s probably worth noting here that in those actually not so distant times, I didn’t yet have a Canon or a passion for photography, so all the photos were taken with an ordinary point-and-shoot camera, and I strictly refuse to be responsible for the quality, so don’t blame me) Moreover, there was snowfall, my hands, pampered by the Israeli weather, without gloves, froze in a couple of seconds - well, in general, you understand. I like the photo above only because on it you can also see a sign no less legendary than the Fifth Avenue Iron. And my photos of Iron later turned out a little better.

Then I went to look for an even more legendary building than the Iron - the Empire State Building ( Empire State Building). And then the first funny thing happened to me, which, however, happens to me in almost every country I visit. By that time, the snowstorm was already in full swing, I was a little surprised by such unfriendliness of the city, depressed by the grandeur of the skyscrapers and confused by their number. All this led to the fact that I could not find the tallest skyscraper in New York. For twenty minutes I walked back and forth in the terrible frost, and kept telling myself: he must be here somewhere. Finally, in despair, I asked one of the locals where this building was. The man looked at me strangely. “Raise your head, you’re standing right at its foot. Here’s the entrance,” he said, and pointed to the door a meter away from me. I admit, I was ashamed. However, the same thing happened to me later in Oslo, in Dublin, and many other places.

New York is an absolutely chaotic city. As my cousin said, when Manhattan was built, no one planned the construction or thought about how these skyscrapers would look next to each other. Therefore, in the city you can find any combination of buildings, styles, and so on. For example, a church and a skyscraper.

Gradually the weather cleared and evening came. The illuminated skyscrapers of Manhattan at night look absolutely stunning - I simply have no other word for it.

Met Life Tower ( Met Life Tower) - the tallest building in the world from 1909 to 1913 (right). At 213 meters, it currently ranks 37th on the list of New York skyscrapers.

It’s the same during the day (far right)

In 1913, the Woolworth Building was built ( Woolworth Building), which exceeded the Met-Life Tower by 33 meters, and became the tallest building in the world.

Naturally 246 meters tall, the Woolworth, similar to European Gothic castles, held the position of the tallest building in the world for 17 years - from 1913 to 1930.

Well, then another famous skyscraper was built - the Chrysler Building ( Chrysler Building).

In theory, the tallest skyscraper in 1930 should have been the Trump Building ( The Trump Building), also known as Wall Street 40 ( 40 Wall Street), but Chrysler builders secretly changed the project and made their skyscraper the tallest in the world - 319 meters.

Chrysler is also my favorite skyscraper. There is something magical about it. What do you think?

However, the music did not play for long, and already in 1933, the laurels of the tallest building in the world were taken away from Chrysler by the already mentioned ill-fated Empire State.

This was the end of the fight for the fire. The Empire rose to a height of 443 meters, and was the tallest building in New York until this year - May 2013. At one time it was surpassed by the infamous Twin Towers. Well, now the Empire’s palm has been taken away by the Freedom Tower built in their place ( Freedom Tower). I don’t have a photo of her, so here’s another photo of Empire.

Brrrrr... Somehow she reminded me of the Ministry of Truth and Love from Orwell's "1984". There was another building that reminded me of Moscow and its Stalin buildings.

However, when there is sunshine, Trump Tower is less scary

In general, when the weather is normal and not a snowstorm, skyscrapers look much nicer and more colorful

Lower Manhattan's Main Financial Building

There are also some very interesting specimens

Manhattan's narrowest skyscraper

View of skyscrapers from Brooklyn. To the side, Frank Gary himself, also known to all Jews as Frank Goldberg, is building a tall building. These days this wavy building is called Beekman Tower ( Beekman Tower or 8 Spruce Street. Very beautiful - another reason to return to New York.

Gary is one of today's leading architects. His projects include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Dancing House in Prague, the incomprehensible Fish in Kobe, the MIT building in Boston, and much more. In my opinion, less of a pest than Calatrava, although he tried to plan something for us here in Jerusalem (wasn’t it the Museum of Tolerance?). Well, we move on. Another one of my favorite buildings is Carnegie Hall Tower ( Carnegie Hall Tower ).

Since we're talking about colorful skyscrapers

The building that I, for obvious reasons, I think, could not help but capture is the New York Times Building ( The New York Times Building). By the way the third tallest building in New York (and 7th in the USA)

I once dreamed of working in this building. Now I probably wouldn’t refuse either, but my enthusiasm has subsided a little over the years)

Bank of America Tower ( Bank of America Tower). A sort of airy building, which, despite its height (366 meters - the second tallest in New York), hides between other skyscrapers. Obviously so that no one would guess that this is the main bank and the heart of America)

Well, now about the best part - I spent a long time looking for a skyscraper to climb to check out all this beauty from above, but they didn’t let me go anywhere. Of course, I could climb Empire or Rockefeller, but it’s somehow expensive, too touristy and not comme il faut at all. And so my uncle told me a secret place where you can climb up into a revolving restaurant and look out over all the main skyscrapers of New York)) Here is the same bank, seen from above (or rather from the side).

Overall the secret place is wonderful. I sat there until it started to get dark, and I didn’t regret it. The sunsets from there are quite satisfying.

To be continued

An excellent infographic from National Geographic clearly showing what the new Manhattan skyline will be like. I couldn’t resist and decided to supplement it with photographs of the houses themselves with comments. There are too many interesting projects that have appeared, which are almost never talked about. I’ve been wanting to systematize this information for myself for a long time, and now I finally have the opportunity. To complete the picture, I asked Dima aka newyorkrealty , as the main expert on the New York real estate market, add your professional comments. When I started writing, I thought that it would be a very short excursion into the history of modern skyscrapers in New York. Having started searching for information and, in the end, sitting at the post for three days, I realized that it was quite a voluminous overview of all high-rise construction in Manhattan. Today the first part is dedicated to the lower part of the island.

Today, New Yorkers are witnessing another round of the race for the sky, which once began in this city. After the events of September 11 and a series of economic crises, it began to seem that New York had forever dropped out of the list of cities where skyscrapers are actively being built, and the palm had forever gone to the Arabs and Chinese. Fortunately, the situation has changed. Economic growth, cheap loans, a large flow of investments and, as a result, high real estate prices have made the construction of skyscrapers a very profitable business. Developers are trying to build and sell real estate, and primarily these are expensive apartments, during the period of highest prices. This may seem like another bubble, but so far demand is stable, and more and more new offers are constantly appearing on the market. Today, more houses over 300 meters high are being built in New York than in any other metropolis in the world.

For orientation, I signed famous architectural objects that were the tallest in their time:
A- 40 Wall Street. The building that in 1930 claimed the title of tallest in the world, but lost the race to the Chrysler Building. The highest it was was only 11 months.
B- The Brooklyn Bridge. Tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere when built in 1883.
WITH- Woolworth Building. Tallest building from 1913 to 1930.

Photo of this part of Manhattan for clarity. It is also in resolution 7488×2233.

1. - 50 West street. 63-story residential building with panoramic views of Upper New York Bay. Height 239 meters. The author of the project is the German-American architect Helmut Jahn. The interior design is handled by Thomas Juyul-Hansen. The project is scheduled for completion in 2016. In August, construction of the last floor with an observation deck on the roof was completed. The views from there will be truly magnificent (https://player.vimeo.com/video/128303748). Now the sale of apartments is in full swing.

Prices start at $1.4 million for a one-bedroom apartment. The price for a 3-bedroom penthouse is $22.5 million. To date, the house is 75% sold out, all cheap apartments with prices up to $2.4 million have been sold. The house has a separate floor dedicated to offices, which are offered for sale to future residents of this house. If it’s difficult to work in an apartment, you can take the elevator down to your own office. The commute time (or as they say in New York, “commute”) to work will be less than a minute. By the way, the developer has owned this plot of land since 1983, patiently waiting for the right moment to build a house and sell apartments.

2. - 42 Trinity street. The project is on the site of the former SYMS clothing chain store (I even remember the times when I bought something there). A dark, windowless space frequented by Brooklyn Jews in kippahs and tourists from emerging economies. In 2011, the company went bankrupt and the store (like all others operating under this brand) closed. Since then, the gloomy 6-story building with bricked up windows, which could not be called a “pearl of downtown,” has remained closed and not used in any way. Now they are going to demolish it, and build another high-rise residential building on the vacant site.

The building will be at least 80 floors high. To build such a tall building, the owners have been buying air from neighboring buildings for the past 10 years (I think that the purchase of air will have to be discussed separately). Some of the air was purchased from nearby Trinity Church. According to the initial plans, shops will be located on the lower two floors, the next three floors will be occupied by an educational institution, from the 7th to 38th floors there will be a hotel and everything above will be residential apartments.

3. - 80 South Street. A project that has a long and interesting history. In 2005, it was planned to build a skyscraper on this site with the working title Tower o" Penthouses (penthouse tower) designed by Santiago Calatrava. Even New Yorkers who are far from architecture are familiar with this name from the project of a very controversial and insanely expensive ($4 billion) transfer station The WTC Transportation Hub, which has been under construction for 10 years now and still cannot be built, the 80 South Street project, as always happens in the case of this Spanish architect, would be long, expensive, but very cool. Well, if not cool, then certainly. very, very unusual. Just look at the render. Each of the cubes was put up for sale at a price of 29 to 50 million dollars.

I don’t know how such a structure would look in real life, but this building would definitely stand out against the background of the surrounding faceless boxes. Unfortunately, or fortunately (here points of view differ), this project was not destined to come to fruition. An architectural project was developed, all necessary permits were obtained, but the developer was unable to sell a single apartment in the building. There were simply no people willing to live in such a building. It is not surprising that Calatrava’s brainchild died without being born, and the site was sold to another developer.

In 2012, there were attempts to revive the project and build a building based on Calatrava. This time, Anthony Morali was responsible for the architecture, who reworked the concept and proposed making a super-eco-friendly skyscraper with green facades. Not in the sense of color, but in the sense of plantings. He even went to Mexico to learn from his experience, but something went wrong again and the project died out. In 2014, the developer changed again and the site became the property of Howard Hughes Corp. (yes, this is the same Howard Hughes), who paid 100 million dollars for it. They issued another press release announcing further plans to build a skyscraper on this site. Less than a year later, the plot was sold again. This time the buyer was the Chinese investment company China Oceanwide Holdings from Beijing, which paid $390 million for it. Now we have to wait for either the next press release, or the next sale, or, finally, the long-awaited tower. As you understand, there is no project yet. There is only a very approximate picture.

4. - 125 Greenwich Street. A 77-story residential skyscraper by the Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, the author of the sensational New York skyscraper 432 Park Avenue, popularly nicknamed the “middle finger” (more on that later). With a stated height of 422 meters, it will be the fourth tallest building in New York and the second tallest in downtown Manhattan. It will be 32 meters higher than the Empire State Building. It’s amazing, but despite the fact that construction of the skyscraper has already begun (it should be completed in 2018), its architectural appearance is still a big mystery to everyone. There are a couple of renderings online and no one is sure that they depict what will happen in the end.

The 836 square meter development site was purchased for $185 million. Partial financing of the project is provided under the EB-5 program: investments in exchange for a residence permit. Foreign investors invest money (from $500 thousand) in exchange for green cards. The building is being built by a consortium of New York real estate heavyweights including Michael Schwo, who made New York history this year with his record $1.8 billion deal (one of the largest in the city's history) to buy the old Crown Building on the corner 57th Street and Fifth Avenue. He made this purchase in partnership with Russian billionaire Vladislav Doronin.

5. - 4WTC. A 74-story office building with a height of 298 meters, built in 2013. The author of the project is Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki. About 40% of the skyscraper's premises are still empty. The building's largest tenant is The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which occupies approximately 30 floors of the building. This is the authority that oversees many of the infrastructure in the Port Area of ​​New York and New Jersey. It also owns the World Trade Center.

The skyscraper is equipped with 12 PureCell Model 400 heat generators based on phosphate fuel cells, which produce part of the electricity consumed by the building. Fuel cells convert natural gas, with an efficiency of about 50%, into electricity, producing high-temperature exhaust gases that are used to power the building's heating and air conditioning systems. This is one of the largest fuel cell projects in the world.

6. - 3WTC. An 80-story office building, construction of which began in 2010, but due to problems finding future tenants, stopped at the height of the seventh floor. Construction resumed only in 2013 after the developer found an anchor tenant, GroupM Corporation, one of the world's largest advertising companies, which will rent 20% of the building's office space. In November 2015, the building reached a height of 55 floors. It is planned to be completed in early 2018. The author of the project is the London architectural bureau Rogers Stirk Harbor + Partners.

7. - 2WTC. An 81-story office building with a height of 410 meters. It will be the second tallest skyscraper in the new World Trade Center after the 1WTC tower. The original design was by English architect Norman Foster.

In June 2015, information appeared that 2WTC would completely change its architectural design. Foster's design was replaced with a project developed by the Danish architectural bureau Bjarke Ingels Group (they also made a very interesting project for the West 57 residential building, which is now being built on the banks of the Hudson). In recent years, Downtown Manhattan has ceased to be a mecca for large financial companies, which have begun to actively move to other areas of the island and to the other side of the Hudson, which could not but affect the number of potential tenants of the World Trade Center. The developer had to adapt to new realities, which resulted in a change in the project.

The new design made it possible to attract two major tenants, who signed an agreement to lease a significant part of the future skyscraper. These are the giants of the American media market: 21st Century Fox and News Corp, which are currently renting premises in Rockefeller Center. The complete reworking of the project was caused by Rupert Murdoch's desire to obtain premises more suitable for media companies than for financial market players, for whom Foster's project was made. We needed something in the spirit of Google. Fewer offices, more open spaces, more air and light, and dedicated news studio space on the upper floors with good New York views.

The architects had to connect the seemingly incompatible: a cozy campus from Silicon Valley and the business center of New York. Bjarke Ingels Group in their project made a building consisting of seven separate buildings stacked on top of each other, which made it possible to accommodate large tenants, giving each of them their own space.

The result should be the third tallest skyscraper in New York with quite interesting architecture. Construction should be completed in 2020. The estimated cost will be $4 billion, making 2WTC the most expensive building in the world.

A good video with a presentation of the project.

8. - 1WTC. A 104-story (actually 94 floors) office skyscraper with a height of 541.3 meters with an observation deck on the top floor. The tallest building in the USA and, accordingly, in New York, if measured by the height of the structure (with antenna). If we count by the height of the top floor, the record holder will be the residential skyscraper 432 Park Avenue. The building is officially called One World Trade Center. The original name "Freedom Tower" is no longer used. The author of the project is David Childs from the architectural bureau Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which designed such famous skyscrapers as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Willis Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.

The building was built with money from Larry Silverstein (whose company manages the World Trade Center property) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (which owns the World Trade Center). The construction cost of the skyscraper was $3.8 billion, making it the most expensive building ever built in the world. As a result of the costs incurred, the Port Authority decided to increase the cost of tolls on bridges and tunnels by 56%. Those. All New Yorkers had to pay.

Even though the building opened more than a year ago, many of its floors are still empty. According to some reports, up to 40% of the space is still vacant. Office rental prices are quite reasonable - $69-$75 per sq. m. foot per year ($750-$800 per sq. meter) on middle floors and about $100 per sq. ft. per year ($1,050 per sq. meter) on the upper floors of the building. These prices are for premises measuring hundreds of square meters and with contracts for many years. If you need a small office for several people, you can rent it on the 85th floor of the building. But the prices there will be from $7-$10 thousand per month per room. The first tenant to sign the contract was the Chinese company Vantone Industrial Co. engaged in commercial real estate, which decided to open something like a center for Chinese culture and business in a skyscraper. To do this, she rented the 64-69 floors of the building for a period of 21 years. 1WTC's largest tenant is The Conde Nast Publications, which occupies floors 20-44 of the building. The total cost of the transaction was about $2 billion. The lease agreement was signed for 25 years.

9. - New York by Gehry(8 Spruce Street off NG). A 76-story residential skyscraper 265 meters high, designed in the deconstructivist style. The façade is lined with stainless steel. The author of the project was the famous architect Frank Gehry. When completed in 2011, it was the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere. In my opinion, this is one of the most interesting skyscrapers built in recent years.

photo Vladimir Badikov

All apartments in the building are for rent. Property cannot be purchased. The cheapest studio on the 26th floor is now listed for $2,991 a month, a penthouse on the 76th floor with three bedrooms is rented for $20,000. During Hurricane Sandy, when electricity went out downtown for several days, residents of this skyscraper had a hard time. Due to non-functioning elevators, they had to climb several dozen floors on foot.

10. - 7WTC. 52-storey office building with a height of 226 meters. Construction was completed in 2006. The cost was 700 million dollars. The first building of the new World Trade Center to be built. The author of the project is David Childs. I was in this building and even... Interesting fact: the first 10 floors are occupied by an electrical substation that serves this part of Manhattan. Offices start only from the 42nd floor.

11. - 30 Park Place. The 82-story residential skyscraper is 286 meters high and the tallest building in lower Manhattan. The author of the project is Robert Stern. The developer is Larry Silverstein, the same one who is building the World Trade Center. Completion of construction is scheduled for 2016. The building was designed in the spirit of skyscrapers of the 20s and 30s, but, it seems to me, the idea was not a success. Yes, it has a strict elongated silhouette and a stone cladding of the facade, which is rare for modern high-rise buildings, but it turned out to be too boring. Clearly some touches are missing. In addition, it has a big sin - it completely killed the view of the Woolworth Building. And Woolworth is one of the most beautiful skyscrapers in New York and the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1929 (it is indicated by the letter C on the information chart). I can’t forgive this with this architecture.

The lower floors of 30 Park Place will house a 185-room Four Season hotel, with 157 apartments on the upper floors. Prices start at $3 million for a one-bedroom apartment. The house is already 85% sold. The most expensive penthouse, priced at $29.5 million, is still looking for its owner.

12. - 200 West Street(Goldman Sachs at NG). The building is shrouded in secrecy. If you don’t know who it belongs to, it’s impossible to guess. The name of the company whose headquarters is located inside is not on the façade, nor in the lobby, nor even on the badges of the security staff. Meanwhile, the building belongs to one of the largest investment banks in the world - The Goldman Sachs Group. The architecture of the building fully corresponds to the contents. It does not stand out in any way in the surrounding space. It is neither attractive nor repulsive. An ordinary glass box, of which there are hundreds in New York. It is simply modern and at the same time absolutely nothing. The only thing that catches your eye is that it is clearly an expensive thing. The high cost of construction ($2.1 billion) is visible in the finishing materials, exterior lighting and even the color of the glass.

It’s interesting that the interior design was done by different companies: the cafeteria was Office dA from Boston, the conference room was done by New York SHoP, the fitness center was done by Architecture Research Office, the interiors of the two upper floors were designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg from Toronto, etc. The building has a rather unusual cooling system: in the basement there are 92 large containers of water, which are frozen overnight. By morning, the containers contain 770 tons of ice, the cold air from which cools the offices throughout the day. This is done to save money. At night, the cost of electricity is lower and this system saves $50,000 per month. This is the largest cooling system of its kind in the United States. The building has a huge 5,000 m2 employee fitness center that is open from 5:45 a.m. to 7:50 p.m.

13. - 111 Murray Street. A 66-story residential skyscraper with a height of 285 meters. The exact height is not known, because... The data differs everywhere, and this project does not have an official website. I indicated the height that was given in the building permit issued by the city authorities. The skyscraper is being built on the site of one of the buildings of the University of St. John. The developer purchased the building and land for $223 million and has already begun work. The construction cost will be $820 million and should be completed in 2018. The project was designed by the architectural bureau Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, the largest architectural firm in New York. Wall Street Magazine wrote that in addition to the usual services offered to residents of such buildings, residents of 111 Murray Street will be able to order a private jet directly from the building's concierge. It will cost them $125,000 per day to rent a Hawker 400XP type aircraft. The developer believes that this service will be in demand.

Sales of apartments began several months ago. Prices start at $2 million for a one-bedroom apartment. Apartments on the upper floors range from 15 to 19 million dollars. Prices for penthouses are not yet known. $175 million was received from private Chinese investors under the EB-5 program - investments in exchange for green cards. An additional $229 million was invested into the project by a Chinese investment company.

14. - One Manhattan Square. An 80-story residential skyscraper directly across from the Manhattan Bridge. The author of the project is the architectural bureau Adamson Associates Architects. There is no data on the height of the future building yet, just as there are no normal renderings of the project. Despite this, work on arranging the foundation is already in full swing. The skyscraper is being built on the site of the bankrupt PathMark supermarket, the building of which, along with the land plot, was purchased by the developer for $103.5 million. Just five years ago it was impossible to imagine that such housing would be built in this area - the place could not be called successful. On one side there is a large residential complex of social housing (prajects), on the other, subway trains rumble along the Manhattan Bridge around the clock. The bustling Chinatown is just steps away. But it was precisely the last fact that became decisive.

The developer is going to actively promote apartment sales in Asian markets. Before sales open in New York, the developer plans to hold sales presentations in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. It is possible that in this way they are going to attract investments under the EB-5 program. The future building will have more than 800 apartments, making it one of the largest residential projects in Manhattan in the last couple of years. The bulk of the apartments will be in an affordable price range from 1 to 3 million dollars. In addition to the standard set of amenities for residents of the house, such as a swimming pool, gym, etc., the house will have a separate tea pavilion.

15. - 56 Leonard street. The latest and probably the most interesting project from lower Manhattan. This is a 60-story residential skyscraper from the Swiss architectural bureau Herzog & de Meuron with a height of 250 meters. The design of this unusual skyscraper was first presented 8 years ago and it literally broke the concept of high-rise buildings in New York. The usual strict towers are a thing of the past. The new skyscraper looked as if someone had stacked a bunch of single-story, flat-roofed buildings on top of each other without much care for the balance of the structure.

Construction was interrupted several times due to problems with financing, but fortunately money was found and the project will be completed next year.

Interestingly, the delay in delivery did not affect sales, which began three years ago. In the first week, with only floor plans and a rendering of the house in hand, the developer sold 16 apartments. To date, all apartments have been sold out. I think that all this is due to the unusual architecture of the building. Prices started at $3 million for a one-bedroom apartment and went up to $47 million for a four-bedroom penthouse. The interior layout is also quite unusual. The building has seven elevators and everything is designed so that each will have only one neighbor on the landing. They plan to install a backup generator on the ninth floor in case of power outages. The building will rest on one of Anish Kapoor's sculptures. His work, called Cloud Gate, is well known to Chicago residents and visitors.

To be continued... Next time it will be about midtown Manhattan. Everything is much more interesting there.

newyorkrealty Thank you very much for your help in preparing this post. If you have any questions regarding the real estate market in New York, do not hesitate to write them in the comments. Dima will be happy to answer them.

Thank you for your attention :) In case you don’t know, I do individual excursions around New York and specialize in all sorts of non-tourist places and routes. Write to [email protected] if you are suddenly going to New York and you are interested in looking at it from different sides, and not just from the one described in all the guidebooks. I won’t show you Times Square, Wall Street and the Statue of Liberty, but I will show you a lot of other equally interesting things.