It is an architectural feat and it rises in the heart of the city of skyscrapers, New York. Made by the architecture firm Shop, it is its thinness that makes its appeal and its luxury. The cheapest apartment is $8 million…
It is nicknamed “Stairway to Heaven”, as in the Led Zeppelin song, no doubt because of its floors which narrow at the top, forming a staircase to paradise… But seen from Central Park, the brand new Steinway tower looks a bit fear: it looks like a long straight rod pointing towards the heavens, much higher, and above all thinner than the neighboring skyscrapers. Located at 111 West 57th Street, in the heart of “Billionaire’s Row”, it is the latest of the “pencil towers”, these giant and ultra-narrow “pencil towers” which, over the past ten years, changed the skyline of Manhattan. This new type of building is fashionable: it allows real estate developers to make profitable “from the top” the operation of a cramped housing estate, and the occupants to enjoy breathtaking views. But it has a downside: at the top, when the wind blows, you can feel it. A gust of 80 km/h can cause the building to pitch 15 centimeters, a figure which rises to 60 centimeters for a tornado of 160 km/h.
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The tower occupies the adjacent space of the majestic Steinway Hall, built in 1925 on 57th Street, which housed the offices, showroom and concert hall of the prestigious piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons. To plant the foundations, we had to dig very deep – 30 meters under the ground! Two hundred rock anchors were buried there, a record in New York. Firmly anchored in solid ground, the tower was able to emerge from the ground in 2015 thanks to a 67-meter crane, the tallest ever used in Manhattan.
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Designed to “disorient” the wind, the walls resist the most violent gusts
If it holds up today, it is primarily thanks to two parallel “shear walls”. These walls form the two east and west facades of the building, while the other two are essentially made up of bay windows supported by columns to allow occupants to enjoy views of Central Park (to the north) and the rest of Manhattan ( South). Pierced with windows and covered with terracotta specially designed to “disorient” the wind, these immense walls resist the most violent gusts. To reinforce the stability of the whole, the designers have also planned four “mechanical floors” placed at different strategic locations in the building, stiffened by stabilizers that let air through to limit the impact of gusts.
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To top it off, they capped the building with an 800-tonne weight atop the tower – unheard of in the annals of building construction – capable of dampening vibrations and earthquakes. This was necessary to prevent the “stairway to paradise” from turning into a nightmare…
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