That photo was taken in March though so l would imagine that they would have made more progress.:)

You are right, this is mini excavation done by mini construction equipment.
Anyway, most of the work on the site will be demolition not excavation. I will try to get more pictures next weekend.

You can rent one of those little loaders for a couple hundred a day....Hardly evidence...jeez I want this tower to go vertical, best supertall design proposal in NYC IMO.

Agreed love this tower...I thought I should post a few of these here. The future of the skyline is bright!. I made models of 111 west 57th street,520 Park Avenue, 220 Central Park south, tower verre, 432 park avenue, one57

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3826/...90e79cd4_b.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7138/...6e08b13d_b.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3696/...93b889b7_b.jpg

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2898/...42e139a1_b.jpg

All the nervous nelllies should know by now that designs, especially of this scope, are always being tweaked.



Why would it not be?


Right. As you all already know, this project involves more than just digging a hole. There is much to be done, and if they've begun, they've begun. But let me just state that even if nothing had begun on site, in no way would the development be "languishing", and applies to both this site and the Tower Verre site for those concerned about that one.






The gap with 432 is why I want a tower of 900 ft or so at the 31 W. 57th street sight.

These images are like porn. This and Torre Verre must get built.

Enough with the hysterics. This building will look like the images. There are still lots of details to work out, but nothing fundamental is changing.

My point was that construction documents are not ready for the building (I get the impression that they still aren't through 100% DD), so even if JDS was ready to pour concrete tomorrow we just aren't at that stage yet. The design and documentation phase is still ongoing.

Why all the presentations? They want the buzz, the publicity, the prestige. Why buy a place a One57 for $80 million when you could hold out for an even sexier place down the street?

Sorry that the dog and pony show isn't geared towards nit-pickers on the Internet.

Awesome work. Please keep it up! :tup:

Does 31w 57th street include that dumpy building three over from the Plaza? I know it was recently sold and I believe the rumors were that it would eventually be demolished for an ultra luxury tower...

That's the Park Lane Hotel, which is on CPS. Not part of the 31 W 57th deal.

Ahh. Thanks. Any news regarding that?

Here's the thread. Just two pages so far:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=208092

Amazing work Danielson. :cheers::cheers:

^^^

This is making me so impatient. Its like waiting on the 24th of December for gifts, I want it!!! Can't wait to see this one in person in the future. :psycho:

I know, it looks so damn Beautiful!!!

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpo...postcount=1188

http://i.imgur.com/nh23Tel.png

http://i.imgur.com/GVQjmVq.png

I know you guys won't mind me reposting at least one of these to comment on real quick...but after having just moved to Austin (another American hotbed of development) things like this make me excited for the New York I will witness on visits towards the end of the decade (and this isn't even including Hudson Yards, Manhattan West, the GCT-area rezoning, etc). We will usher in the 2020s in grand style. :notacrook:

But beyond that, there is still much to do here. Both interior and exterior portions of the building are landmarked, and portions of the building are in the process of being altered/demolished.

The lowrise portion in the background will be demolished, but more of the building will be left intact due to revisions from Landmarks. That alone has altered the design.
There are other details that are still being worked out, for example revisions to the design on the façade (see below)...


April 6, 2014


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/155138559/original.jpg



http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/155138560/original.jpg



Slight change to design on the façade...

http://jdsdevelopmentgroup.com/wp-co..._side-face.jpg
http://jdsdevelopmentgroup.com/portf...t-57th-street/


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/154858495/original.jpg

1,397 ft? At least a couple of the heights are off, so who knows...


http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/20...-new-york-city



http://www.vanityfair.com/dam/2014/0...-street-02.jpg

To rooftop I think they mean?

It's probably an accurate height, but its the first I've seen it anywhere...



http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/20...-new-york-city

Too Rich, Too Thin, Too Tall?


http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/20...treet-ss03.jpg

Michael Stern is the head of JDS Development Group, one of the companies building 111 West 57th Street.


By Paul Goldberger
May 2014

It looks as though the top 10 or so floors of 111 West 57th St are too thin to even have apartments or condos in them. I like all the towers but 111 just looks kinda ridiculous. Like its way way way too skinny and it may look quite odd.

Some of the heights are still off for those buildings but good to see this one could potentially be the same height as 432 :)

Barnett needs to go a bit higher lol

I will definitely take 1,397 ft. for this tower. I guess that's what the constant references to "about 1,400 ft" or "almost 1,400 ft" were.

But, yeah, Barnett needs to add at least 100 ft. to 225 W57, and 31 W57 better have an impressive height too. Towers will really need to soar in this neighborhood to make an impression.

I always presume that whatever height is given for this tower is a total height, including the glass crown.

It's interesting though, the way the 57th street towers always get lumped together in the media, and it's always with a sense if caution. Yet the massive supertowers of the west side are always presented with a sense if optimism and excitement.

I think it's because the 57th street towers aren't being built to increase the vibrancy of street life in midtown (with the exception of Nordstrom) or to add new office space. They're basically 21st century castles for the global elite class. I'm not saying I'm against these buildings (so far I like the designs I've seen so far and buildings can always shift roles in their usage. How many art deco "office buildings" are now converted to residential?)

But from the media's perspective, the Hudson Yards is seen as a massive project which will include a ton of office space, a public observation deck, and a public plaza with (hopefully) impressive night life and cultural attractions. That's probably the main difference in the eyes of the media.

I think the sense of caution conveyed in reporting about the 57th Street towers also represents a justified concern about the questionable sustainability of dumping this much luxury supply on the market at once. How deep is the can the market for 25M+, or even 75M+ apartments really be?

It's indisputable that the population of NY will continue increase over time and that the drop of crime rates and general increase in cleanliness and pedestrian experience has changed the calculus for first-time buyers away from 20th Century trend of moving to the suburbs and towards starting families and buying right here in NYC. Despite any hiccups caused by interest rate increases or other minor shocks to the market in one direction or another, I think it's pretty safe to say that there is long-run sustainability for demand growth and thus continued development for condos in the 1-5M range. For towers relying so heavily on super-luxury pricing, though, where is all of the demand coming from? 5-10 years ago there were only a handful of apartments in the whole city that could have drawn prices that now serve as fundamental assumptions in the financial models for these projects. I know a lot of demand is coming from NY buyers (or so all of the major developers seem to say), but income growth in the city hasn't come close to the growth of pricing at this end of the market. With respect to money coming from abroad, we need to question the extent to which the demand represents a permanent change in appetite of a new class of global elite and to which extent it represents a desire for the global elite to park their money in a relatively safe asset class until global economic conditions become more stable.

I love the designs we are getting out of this luxury housing boom, but I think there is a very realistic possibility a bubble is forming in this sector of the market. Look at some of the beautiful apartments selling for 50M (say the penthouse at Walker Tower)... is that really only half the value of the top floors of One57? In a world where there are only a handful of penthouses at that height, it doesn't really matter how the value of those penthouses compares to other lower priced luxury options in NYC--all you really need are a handful of billionaires that simply don't care about relative value and want their trophy at any cost. Once you break through that initial group of wild-spending billionaires, though, most super rich people, even other billionaires, aren't going to pay twice the price for a penthouse in One57 than they would for the penthouse of One Madison Park. The One57 experience may be a bit better, but is there really 50M in difference between the two?

I hope I'm wrong, as I do love a lot of what's being planned, but I think the media is correct to report on this barrage of proposals with skepticism. It's like any other novelty item: people will pay crazy amounts to be the first to have something that didn't previously exist, but once the market reacts and the commodity becomes more widely available, that initial novelty value rapidly declines. If that happens and 100M penthouses start selling for 70M, projects based on the 100M assumption may stall out.

Hudson Yards is a different animal. No matter how you cut it, NYC needs more modern office space. Landmarking and pricing constraints make it difficult to deliver that space on the scale needed to meet demand in Midtown East and FiDi alone. In a worst-case scenario I can see market troubles delaying parts Hudson Yards beyond what is currently anticipated, but in the long run the fundamental needs of the city make it inevitable that this project will succeed eventually.

I wonder why they chose to make it the exact same height as 432?

Not that I'm complaining of course, that's really tall

I don't have an answer, but there are thousands of potential buyers, and actually not that many apartments in that price range.

Now whether you can get those buyers is another question, but they're definitely out there. Keep in mind that most of these buildings have very few units, especially if we're talking 25 million+ apartments.

^^I hope you're right. I also have no idea how much flexibility projects like these have on pricing before they get into trouble--an eventual decline in value for the most extreme end of the spectrum may not render projects unprofitable if mid-floor units hold value pretty well.

In either case, I trust any building from JDS to be well-designed enough to avoid being caught without a chair if the music ever does stop.

The demand will answer that question. The same concern could be asked about office space being built or proposed on the west side, but it hardly is in the media. Only the WTC or proposed towers of the Grand Central area get that a lot.



You ask questions that the market will answer. It's the market, and not just "concerns" about it that will decide what gets built. None of that justifies the concern over these towers being built, because truthfully, the buildings are tall, but they aren't really that large. And New York has never been a timid city.

I think their primary concern is the number of tall buildings being built, but my point is that same concern is hardly found anywhere for the Hudson Yards, which will have much larger buildings, casting larger shadows.



http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/155173115/original.jpg

I think this tops the addition to the Hearst building by Foster...possibly the best in the city's history.


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/155184089/original.jpg

I can't believe how thin that lot is.

It's a small lot. The building itself covers more than the lot. It's integrated with Steinway Hall, which is why it is considered an enlargement.

Some new toys on site. Ignore my finger!

As of April 20th, 2014...

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7006/...276800c3_b.jpg
©Hypothalamus

As of May 1st, 2014...
Photo Credit: #99 on SSC

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7431/...41be0818_b.jpg
IMG_0077 by thenumber99, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5240/...29c77c43_b.jpg
IMG_0080 by thenumber99, on Flickr

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2896/...a34161fb_b.jpg
IMG_0085 by thenumber99, on Flickr

Still hard to believe its going to be 1,350 ft given the site. Amazing how far engineering and technology has advanced with respect to skyscrapers.

the question is do the economics require 100 MM condos, and would they still do ok with only 70 MM or 50 MM? What's the ROI on these things if the sales are as anticipated - must be gargantuan no?

According to that one source it'll be 1397' which is slightly crazier :haha:

IIRC, the cost to build One57 was ~$1billion, and sales were ~$2billion.

I'm assuming that accounts for the sea level change?

No, they said the actual building was 1397'

They didn't say anything, an article said 1397. That doesn't mean it is official

True, we have no official numbers. We have heard "1400", "almost 1400", "1397" and "1350". In any case, it will be damn tall and skinny.

My guess is 1397 is more accurate than 1350 or 1400, because it came from the developers themselves, and seems to be the most common height cited. But until we have permits and construction, we won't know for sure.

Yes, the 1,397 ft figure is likely a more accurate height than 1,400, which both 432 Park and this tower would basically be if the height holds true. But, as these things go, who knows if the height has been revised yet again. Eventually we will get drawings with the exact heights. Besides, none of the other skyscrapers in that piece accounted for change in sea level.

New York YIMBY:

Construction Update: 111 West 57th Street
BY: NIKOLAI FEDAK ON MAY 15TH 2014 AT 6:00 AM

http://www.yimbynews.com/wp-content/...cavation-2.jpg
Yesterday's excavation progress at 111 West 57th Street, photo by Andrew McKeon

http://www.yimbynews.com/wp-content/...h-vertical.jpg
111 West 57th Street, image via SHoP

The gap in the glass facade on the right kind of reminds me of One Madison Park... except this will be over twice the height :slob:

Filing for revised drawings, assuming they are the current plans...


http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/Jo...ssdocnumber=02


http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/Jo...ssdocnumber=02


http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/Jo...ssdocnumber=01

Are there any better floorplans (with or without units shown)? Glad the poster showed what is on page 33, but would love something a bit clearer/more detailed.

Any help would be appreciated!