Reaching into the heavens, 111 West 57th Street tops out as 28th-tallest building on Earth

Rendering of 111 West 57th Street towering over NYC's other supertall icons (image credit SHoP Architects via @JDSDevelopment Instagram)

Wednesday, Oct 30, 2019 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

Excelsior! New York City once again channels the state motto (“ever higher” in Latin) with the official topping-out of 111 West 57th Street, as announced today by developer JDS Development in partnership with The Property Markets Group.

111 West 57th Street combines Gilded Age charm with cutting-edge luxury and space-age engineering. The 1,428-foot supertall now stands as New York’s fourth-tallest skyscraper, the second-tallest apartment building in the United States (after the down-the-street Central Park Tower), and the 28th-tallest building on Earth. More astonishingly, the structure’s “slenderness” (height-to-width) ratio clocks in at a staggering 1:24, making it the world’s thinnest skyscraper. The 82-story engineering marvel, designed by SHoP Architects, ascends in a series of graceful setbacks, clad in fluted terra-cotta on the sides, toward a slender parapet a quarter-mile above Midtown’s busy sidewalks.

In 1896, architect Louis Sullivan, who pioneered high-rise expression in then-emerging tall buildings, famously opined that “loftiness” is a skyscraper’s “chief characteristic” and “thrilling aspect,” a tall building’s “very open organ tone in its appeal. [Loftiness] must be in turn the dominant chard in his expression of it, the true excitant of his imagination. It must be tall, every inch of it tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top.” 111 West 57th Street perfectly captures a skyscraper's innate, empathetic heavenward thrust that Sullivan poetically extolled.

Photo by Peter Murdock

Bath

Each of the 62 forthcoming apartments spans at least an entire floor of the building, creating utmost privacy and dazzling views in all directions. To the south, floor-to-ceiling windows open onto Midtown panoramas that rival views from the Empire State Building observatory, while northern exposures unfold upon unmatched, perfectly-centered vistas of Central Park. Three- and four-bedroom condos are available from $16 million. The loftiest residence presently on the market is Penthouse 74, a 4 bed / 5.5 baths with an ask of $57 million.