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Another feature that separates Steinway Tower from its neighbors while linking it to New York’s design past is the ornamentation on its east and west faces, which references the Gilded Age facades of Louis Sullivan’s Bayard-Condict Building (1899) and Daniel Burnham’s Flatiron Building (1902). The results are evident in many beloved buildings from the 1920s and 30s, such as the Empire State Building and the New Yorker Hotel. Kitt Chappell, “A Reconsideration of the Equitable Building in New York,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians vol. A solid rectangle 36 stories tall, the Equitable Building overshadowed a half-mile of adjacent city, including Trinity Church directly across Broadway public outcry against the shading-out of the church, designed by Richard Upjohn in 1846, prompted passage of the zoning law. Graham’s Equitable Building in the Financial District, completed in 1915. The resolution, in turn, can be traced to office towers such as Ernest R. 2 City of New York Board of Estimate and Apportionment, “ Building Zone Resolution,” July 25, 1916. Steinway Tower’s most obvious feature, the stepped-back form, directly references a 1916 zoning resolution that restricted the height of Manhattan buildings in relation to surrounding streets. In Steinway Tower, SHoP Architects have produced a clever pastiche of traditional skyscraper design in NYC. Yet it stands out in a positive way, because in Steinway Tower, SHoP Architects have produced a clever pastiche of traditional skyscraper design in NYC. This building is similar in concept to its contemporaries, in that it maximizes a very small plot of land in Midtown, taking advantage of air rights to build an egregiously tall structure. The tower is stepped back and heavily ornamented on the east and west sides (concealing two structural shear walls), while the north and south sides boast floor-to-ceiling windows with full views toward Central Park and Downtown, respectively. But there is one exception: 111 West 57th Street, also known as Steinway Tower, designed by SHoP Architects and expected to be completed this year. I live in Midtown, and I see these buildings every day. 1 See documentation of the exhibition “ New York’s Super-Slenders” at the New York Skyscraper Museum (2016). Over the last decade, New York City has seen an increase in condominium development in pencil towers that cater to the super-rich, especially along the stretch of 57th Street that has come to be known as Billionaires’ Row. Carlos Balza Gerardino December 2021 The Equitable Building (1915), The New Yorker Hotel (1929), and 111 West 57th Street (2021).
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