The ‘Floor Area Ratio’ which underpins New York’s zoning legislation dictates buildings can’t exceed the floor area designated to that single lot, however as the diagram below shows, while the overall floor area doesn’t change developers can stack up their floor space to gain taller structures. Also referred to by the term ‘Transferable Development Rights’, air rights can be sold to neighbouring properties if they’re unused. In essence, a property owns all the invisible air space that is directly above their lot diameter – an asset that in a heavily populated ground level area is extremely valuable in the real estate market. Dating back to 1797, the idea of air rights is legally encoded in the Latin phrase: “Cuius est solum, eius usque ad caelum et ad inferos”, translating to mean “For whoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to heaven and down to hell”. It is along the southern border of Central Park, in the area dubbed Billionaires’ Row, that the hub of these New York pencil-thin skyscrapers are located.Ī pivotal concept to understand when analysing these super thin structures is something called ‘air rights’. While in Dubai and other more sparsely developed locations, these structures can be designed with wide bases and sprawling foundations, the already confined space of Midtown Manhattan has led to the genesis of a new obsession for developers: super slender skyscrapers. The epitome of this phenomenon has got to be the addition of entirely pointless masts and spires on skyscrapers incorporated solely to make them taller than their competitors. While they may look the part, these structures are no more than glass vanity projects for countries and cities to boost their image. Realistically, do we need the ridiculously tall and thin skyscrapers being constructed in places like New York, Dubai and East Asia? Absolutely not. In recent decades, the urban architectural landscape has seen a resurgence in the arms battle for who can build the tallest buildings. Understanding Billionaires’ Row and New York’s zoning laws Centred around 57 th Street, there has always been controversy linked to these ultra-expensive developments but it has been more recent events surrounding the supertall skyscraper, 432 Park Avenue, that have inspired today’s post. It’s worth noting that these units have been purchased, but due to a plethora of reasons, their uninhabited status for the majority of the year has created a billion dollar ghost town in the heart of Manhattan. Many of the super slender skyscrapers in this area were designed through the focus of a residential lens and yet like many elite real estate developments, a lot of the units remain empty. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez bought a 4,000-square-foot apartment there for $15.3 million in 2018, and sold about a year later.A product of New York City’s property boom in the recent years, the area along the southern end of Central Park dubbed ‘Billionaires’ Row’ is beginning to have its luxury and idyllic veneer removed. 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. The building, a slender tower that critics have likened to a middle finger because of its contentious height, is mostly sold out, with a projected value of $3.1 billion. The disputes at 432 Park also highlight a rarely seen view of New York’s so-called Billionaire’s Row, a stretch of supertall towers near Central Park that redefined the city skyline, and where the identities of virtually all the buyers were concealed by shell companies. Engineers privy to some of the disputes say many of the same issues are occurring quietly in other new towers. Less than a decade after a spate of record-breaking condo towers reached new heights in New York, the first reports of defects and complaints are beginning to emerge, raising concerns that some of the construction methods and materials used have not lived up to the engineering breakthroughs that only recently enabled 1,000-foot-high trophy apartments. 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.
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