Finance

The world’s skinniest skyscraper is almost completed. I toured its first luxury condo — take a look inside the NYC tower that’s 24 times taller than it is wide.

The architect of 111 West 57th Street describes it as the “quintessential” New York City building, but I’m not sure I agree with that characterization.

111 West 57th Street

111 West 57th Street

Gregg Pasquarelli, founder of SHoP Architects, which designed the building, said at the press preview that their goal was to create a building that was “uniquely New York and absolutely modern and forward-thinking, but has the DNA of the New York skyscraper embedded in it.”

“It’s the quintessential tower designed and built by New Yorkers,” Pasquarelli said.

The tower’s terracotta and bronze exterior does differentiate it from the sleek glassy surfaces of the other new skyscrapers on Billionaires’ Row.

But while the skyscraper’s facade and super-tall, super-skinny silhouette are certainly unusual, I can’t say that my tour of its first condo felt too different from another Billionaires’ Row apartment I’ve visited.

Earlier this year, I toured a full-floor residence at nearby 157 West 57th Street that was listed for $58.5 million and found that the standout feature was the view of the park. Steinway Tower has basically the same draw, only slightly more symmetrical — a fact the developers made sure to emphasize during the press event.

Pasquarelli says the building is “uniquely New York.” As a New Yorker, I have to say I’d rather live closer to the ground in a diverse neighborhood than 1,000 feet high in the clouds in Midtown, surrounded by the absent millionaires and billionaires that make up so many of the buyers on Billionaires’ Row.

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