Poor little billionaires: The design challenges of high-rise buildings

The rich are just like you and me, except more so…

432 Park Avenue, the center point of the super tall failures

Articles simply dripping in schadenfreude are popping up trashing the supertall apartments in midtown NYC; turns out they are a bit of a disaster (poor little billionaires). Schadenfreude (though it is admittedly fun) tends to obscure nuance, and while this (very minor) disaster is really about the art of building vs. the science of building, the subtext is all about rich and poor. The conclusions are not terribly reassuring on either axis.

There are 8 (and counting) super-slender (or Sliver or Needle or Skinny) towers on the newly christened Billionaires Row and 5 of them exceed 1,000 feet (305m). Fewer than half are in any way architecturally redeeming, which is the biggest disappointment of all (to me). I have no real issue with the idea of these buildings, but the reality is sometimes hard to reconcile with the often fairytale history of height in our city.

‘Crossing’ at the Woolworth ‘Cathedral of Commerce’

Decrying the height of these buildings seems almost laughable; this is New York, after all. Height, excess and exclusivity are currents that run through the history…