Posted on 02/03/2021 6:39:53 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT
The nearly 1,400-foot tower at 432 Park Avenue, briefly the tallest residential building in the world, ...
The claims include: millions of dollars of water damage from plumbing and mechanical issues; frequent elevator malfunctions; and walls that creak like the galley of a ship — all of which may be connected to the building’s main selling point: its immense height...
Engineers privy to some of the disputes say many of the same issues are occurring quietly in other new towers.
...identity of virtually all the buyers were concealed by shell companies.
The 96th floor penthouse at the top of the building sold in 2016 for nearly $88 million to a company representing the Saudi retail magnate Fawaz Alhokair.
“They’re still billing it as God’s.gif”>t to the world, and it’s not.”
“They put me in a freight elevator surrounded by steel plates and plywood, with a hard-hat operator,” she said. “That’s how I went up to my hoity-toity apartment before closing.”
“a high-wind condition” stopped an elevator and caused a resident to be “entrapped” on the evening of Oct. 31, 2019 for 1 hour and 25 minutes. Wind sway can cause the cables in the elevator shaft to slap around and lead to slowdowns or shutdowns, according to an engineer who asked not to be named...
Some residents also railed against surging fees at the building’s private restaurant, overseen by the Michelin-star chef, Shaun Hergatt. When the building opened in late 2015, homeowners were required to spend $1,200 a year on the service; in 2021, that requirement jumps to $15,000, despite limited hours of operation because of the pandemic. And breakfast is no longer free.
“Everybody hates each other here,” she said, but, for the most part, residents want to keep the squabbling out of the public eye.
(Excerpt) Read more at dnyuz.com ...
I remember when it was going up a few years ago and it struck me then as nothing more than a tall skinny Lego brick that added nothing to the NYC skyline. Since then, other towers on 57th Street have surpassed this one and are at least a little more aesthetically pleasing. But I always wonder how much time those who own these high-priced apartments actually spend there.
We might laugh at these people and call them suckers but there are a number of people in the world who are so fabulously wealthy that paying $30m and up for a place in Manhattan that they might only spend a few weeks a year is akin to one of us common folk splurging for dinner at a nice steakhouse.
I lived in a highrise in NYC (albeit only on the 16th floor)...gave me the creeps.
Heated marble floors!
12-6 Ceilings!
10x10 glass!
Private elevator landing!
Sorry, no more free breakfast.
All very nice.
And I’m glad they can sell them, they make a profit and thereby employing the masses.
And the world goes around.
Wouldn't want to spend the night that high up.
“because they are all sellers........”
The prisoner’s dilemma? On a large scale.
Game theory with 103 players and their legal teams.
That’s the ticket!
9/11 cured me of going into tall buildings.
I wouldn’t want to go in the bottom floor of that building.
“”The nearly 1,400-foot tower at 432 Park Avenue, briefly the tallest residential building in the world, was the pinnacle of New York’s luxury condo boom half a decade ago, fueled largely by foreign buyers seeking discretion and big returns.””
I’ll save others the trouble of wondering what the heck city they’re talking about - should have excerpted it...
Good golly...hope that was an unoccupied building.
But apparently toilets aren’t included...?
The preferred view on entering the bathroom is a nice view through a window, perhaps over the tub.
The WC should not be in plain sight.
WC (Water Closet aka toilet).
Beyond dangerous
Interesting to see the core with shear walls remain intact on the way down.
That core was the elevator core with massive poured rebarred sections of hydraulic contrete. The outer sections were blown first, then the interior cores were blown in sequence with much more powerful charges— again in sequence. It left quite a pile tough concrete and rebar in the center pile as you observed.
All the rebar was separated from the concrete mechanically (cannot imagine this) and the rebar was smelted in recycling facilities back to refined steel for various applications.
“living in a tall building in NYC with creaky elevators, cranky neighbors, paying a fortune for crappy service, hardcore leftist mayor and governor, getting taxed up the wahoo, increasing crime with a glut of fellow moron ‘citizens’ and a declining city economy in fear of Covid — ahhhhh no thanks. “
Perhaps it is in fact the tall buildings that attract the underbelly of society?
Near most tall buildings are big problems?
A friend was deadset against a Billion Dollar addition to a hospital near his home.
He explained that hospitals need a massive 24/7 staff of low-wage workers and they tend to live near the hospital.
It is a fact.
The Icarus of housing.
Very nice!
If I can remember it, I will steal it and use it!!!
Because the taller you go, the more interior space is used by building services, elevators, HVAC ducts, stairs...
IMO after a certain point, it is just for bragging rights.
Icarus and his father could use it for a take off-platform.
No problems with a proper glide ratio and make good on their escape from NYC.
Who, from outside the area, can name the bridge in the photo, to the right of the building?
“This is a liberal wet dream with a little more lipstick on it: people piled on top of each other, living in the city, using mass transit, all trying to stay socially distant.”
Most correct!
“Behavioral sink” is a term invented by ethologist John B. Calhoun to describe a collapse in behavior which can result from overcrowding.
Among the males the behavior disturbances ranged from sexual deviation to cannibalism and from frenetic overactivity to a pathological withdrawal from which individuals would emerge to eat, drink and move about only when other members of the community were asleep. The social organization of the animals showed equal disruption.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink
Could also make for a spectacular suicide/murder jump down if you someone chisel your way out a window.
Now that I think of it I wonder whether suicide rates are higher for those who live in moderate highrises, particularly with balconies.
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