[hammersklavier]

There are some relevant site constraints.

First of all, this is an overbuild and as a consequence they're limited to using the existing elevator core. One elevator core = one tower, and one tower = slab. The only ways around that site constraint would be to flatten the old Gimbels warehouse or to punch a hole down to the foundations for a second core. Both of which make the project cost rise and therefore financing more difficult.

That said, however, there are certainly more creative ways around the site constraints. One idea here would be to break the tower up into two or perhaps even three distinct massings connected by breezeways (which would preserve the circulation patterns of a single tower but make the building visually more vertical and interesting, at the very least).