This is one of the tallest residential skyscrapers in the world.
In this post, you’ll discover our top 8 list of interesting facts about 432 Park Avenue, a famous supertall skyscraper in New York City!
1. The tower is located on Billionaires’ Row in Manhattan
432 Park Avenue is a supertall residential skyscraper located on the so-called Billionaires’ Row in Midtown Manhattan, New York. It’s located on Park Avenue and 57th Street and overlooks Central Park.
The area in Midtown Manhattan is called this way because there are several ultra-exclusive and luxurious residential skyscrapers located here.
Some other notable towers are the Central Park Tower, a the moment the second-tallest skyscraper in New York after One World Trade Center, and the Steinway Tower or 111 West 57th Street, which is the thinnest skyscraper in the world.
2. It’s still the third-tallest residential skyscraper in the world
The construction of the tower started in early 2012 and it was finally completed on December 23, 2015. At this time, 432 Park Avenue was the tallest residential skyscraper in the world and the third-tallest skyscraper in New York City!
It has an architectural height of 1,396 feet (425.5 meters) and the top floor is located at a height of 1,286 feet (392.1 meters). It features 10 elevators that can move residents between the 85 floors, excluding the 3 floors below ground.
The tower has been surpassed by a couple of other supertall skyscrapers by now (2021) and remains the third-tallest residential skyscraper in the world at the time of writing and the fifth-tallest skyscraper in New York City.
3. There are 2-story windbreaks every 12 floors to reduce wind load
One of the most amazing facts about 432 Park Avenue is that it features a special engineering strategy to reduce the wind load on the tower.
There are 5 two-story sections every 12 floors which are integrated into the tower just for this purpose and which aren’t occupied by residents.
The tower, which received mixed reviews for its appearance, was designed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, a renowned architect who has designed numerous buildings all around the world.
4. The windbreak floors are illuminated at night
Because these sections of 2 floors don’t serve any other purpose than to reduce the wind load on the tower, they have been utilized to serve as a special design element.
These floors are illuminated at night, something that started in November 2016. This gives the tower a fascinating appearance at night and makes it a nice addition to the New York skyline as well!
5. It was built on the site of a hotel that was built in 1926
There isn’t much space left on Billionaires’ Row, one of the most exclusive sections in Manhattan. That’s why the only way to construct a new tower is to buy a deteriorated building and demolish it to make way for the new project.
That’s exactly what the developers did as they paid about $418 million USD for the Drake Hotel, a 21-story hotel with 495 rooms that was built in the year 1926 at the height of the Roaring Twenties!
6. A lot of precautions were taken to increase the tower’s stability
The core of the structure is a reinforced concrete square that goes all the way to the top and which contains the elevators as well. The walls of this core are about 30 inches (76 centimeters) thick and the space between the core and the exterior is only 27 feet (8.2 meters) on all sides.
The entire structure rests on rock anchors between 60 to 70 feet (18 and 21 meters) long which go all the way into the bedrock below. This gives the tower additional stability.
The final element which protects the tower from swaying is two tuned mass dampers located at the top of the tower. These seriously reduce the strength of vibrations which further prevents the tower from swaying too much.
7. There are only 147 apartments in the building
Because the tower is relatively thin compared to other huge skyscrapers and it features a square core, the usable floor area on each floor is just 8,255 square feet (766.9 square meters).
This means that there aren’t a huge number of available apartments at 432 Park Avenue, making them even more exclusive. The total floor area of the tower is just 412,637 square feet (38,335 square meters).
There are a total of 147 apartments in the tower which are divided in:
- 122 luxury condominium units.
- 25 Studio Units.
The sizes of these units range between 351 square feet (32.6 square meters) for a small 1-bedroom studio and 8,255 square feet (766.9 square meters) for a large 6-bedroom penthouse.
8. Nearly $1.5 billion was paid by tenants by 2016
By the year 2016, the year after the tower was officially completed, 84 of these units had been sold which makes the concept of focusing on exclusive (and expensive) units pretty successful.
If you’re not a superstar or somebody who happens to earn millions of dollars every year, then you probably won’t be able to live in the tower, though.
The average price of the units was $18.4 million USD with the penthouse on the top floor being listed at a whopping $95 million USD!
This phenomenon has been described as being similar to the very rich collecting valuable art. The exclusiveness of these units is what gives them value, just as the uniqueness of a painting created by a famous artist.
Perhaps the opportunity of being the neighbor of Jennifer Lopez (who owns one of the units in the tower) has something to do with it too, who knows!
