I’ve been intrigued with skyscrapers since my dad used the Empire State Building as his office address. He was a circulation consultant for business magazines. He rented a mailbox at & used a telephone answering service in the Empire State Building so he’d have that prestigious address. At first the owners had trouble leasing space because of the building’s height. As a result, it was called the Empty State Building for awhile.
When I noted 432 Park Ave. going up & up, others had noted it too. It has a prominent place in the NY Skyscraper Museum in lower Manhattan near the new World Trade Center. And it was featured in The NY Historical Society’s exhibit on zoning.
For a few days it was the highest residential building in the world. There’s no escaping it when looking at the Manhattan skyline.
But, what’s it like to live in a1,396-foot-tall ”pencil tower?” Sounds like it could be miserable.
Said Garrison Keillor in his *Garrison Keillor Newsletter*posting, The pandemic: one man’s appreciation, on February 9, 2021: “Developers have taken tiny lots and thrown up a 90-story needle and sold apartments for vast amounts to people who want to look down on the rest of us but meanwhile high winds cause the needle to sway dramatically, which often snaps water pipes and causes major leaks and brings elevators to a stop and causes eerie whining sounds. It gave us joy, to think that architects and developers have found a way to earn big profits from torturing oligarchs from authoritarian countries who have way too much money.”
Read on…
