By Kim Velsey 3/20 1:52pm

Housing Developments

5 Photos

432 Park

432 Park Makes Splashy Debut With a Third Of Its Units Already In Contract

How does one describe a luxury housing market where a tower can sell more than a third of its units before it officially hits the market. Frothy? Overheated? How about insane?

Well, the tower that towers above them all—432 Park Avenue—has officially hit the market (a development first reported in The Wall Street Journal) with more than one-third of its 126 units already in contract. Apparently, the 1,396-foot Rafael Vinoly-designed tower has been quietly marketing units since last summer. We’re not sure how we feel about a project that makes its market debut with so many units already spoken for—it’s a little like a debutante attending her coming out ball when she’s already engaged to be married. But, you know, congratulations. Read More

By Kim Velsey 9/04/12 11:12am

Dizzying Designs

Prices may rise in tandem with the tower.

Higher Tower, Higher Prices: Is 432 Park Avenue Upping Its Asking Prices?

With everyone else tacking on millions to the asks for their apartments, we guess 432 Park Avenue wanted to get in on the action, even if the most soaring of soaring residential towers has yet to break ground. Why should One57 and 15 Central Park West rake in all the cash? Especially when 432 Park Avenue is set to be the tallest residential building in the city at 1,395 feet? Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/05/12 11:53am

Dizzying Designs

Hello Midtown.

Just How Crazy Will New York’s Tallest New Building Be? The 432 Park Avenue Pics You’ve Been Waiting For

Last week, The Journal got its hands on a 67-page marketing packet for Harry Macklowe and CIM’s soaring tower at 432 Park Avenue, the former Drake Hotel site where the developers are working on the tallest tower in the entire city, apartment or otherwise.

In their write-up, Journal journalist Eliot Brown and Craig Karmin mentioned that inside the packet “are a collection of striking images of what would be the tallest residential tower in the U.S. at 1,395 feet as well as a number of other interesting factoids about the tower, called 432 Park.”

Those factoids are below, but what obviously whet The Observer‘s appetite most was the promise of “striking images” (we have a thing for those) that were sadly absent from The Journal‘s report. But no more. Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/31/12 5:40pm

Skyscraper Living

Going up. (original image:Dave Hogerty/Curbed, with additions by NYO)

Just How Insane is the 57th Street Skyline Going to Be?

Last night, The Observer got a glimpse of the super-tall residential tower Gary Barnett has planned for Broadway and 57th Street, just one block away from his already very tall One57.

Our good friends at Curbed picked up on this and were brilliant enough to photoshop the two onto the same skyline. It is quite the striking image, but not quite complete.

After all, rival 432 Park is already underway—and looking for more investors, if you’re interested, as The Journal revealed yesterday—so we figured, what the hey, let’s put them all together.

Welcome to your new skyline, circa 2015. Read More

By Matt Chaban 4/27/12 5:07pm

Skyscraper Living

To infinity, and beyond. (CIM)

The Tallest Building in New York City, 432 Park Avenue, Is Now Rising

The Observer was wandering along 57th Street today when we saw an unexpected sight: a cement truck backed up to the old Drake Hotel site. Two of them actually, one dumping its payload into the maw that Macklowe built while another waited to do so.

And so, a new era for our ever-more-spindly skyline begins, thanks to Harry Macklowe and his secretive partners at CIM. See what the future holds after the jump. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/19/11 11:15am

Love the Drake!

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's 432 Park Avenue! (WSJ)

Drake Tower Will Not Top Empire State Building, Still Tallest Apartment Tower Ever

In July, renderings of the most watched development site in the city leaked out. They were unofficial, the work of some avid architecture geeks, but it turns out the designs of the condo-tower planned for the Drake Hotel site were not that far off. The Journal gets the first official look at CIM, Harry Macklowe and Rafael Viñoly’s new project, and while it will not rise to 1,420 feet, as first expected, the 1,300-foot tower would surpass every apartment building in the city by a few hundred feet. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/24/11 11:32am

Love the Drake!

10 Photos

That is tall.

Harry Macklowe, CIM and Viñoly Planning 1,420-Foot Toothpick Tower on Park Avenue?

For years now, the Drake Hotel site at the corner of 57th Street and Park Avenue has been one of the most closely watched developments in the city. A historic hotel was destroyed to make way for a mystery project that has grown all the more intriguing as it actually looks like it might get built. Mysterious California developer CIM teamed up with Harry Macklowe, the site’s former owner and fifth-act maestro, and now details are dribbling out that make for some jaw-dropping possibilities. Read More