Let's hope the deal gets done, and then I'll celebrate. We'll be celebrating a lot it seems. All of our focus on skyscrapers has led up to this.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3708/9...9b90ef7c_c.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2856/9...a9af81da_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3698/9...2896c2eb_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3815/9...2caccc79_c.jpg

This sleeping giant is ready to awaken.

Funny thing is most won't even realize this is so massive and tall until its actually up. Exception of those who keep track with real estate and developments.Same thing with 432 park. Peoples heads will turn when they see all these super tall's rising.

I still expect most of the buzz about this building to center around the store opening. People love to shop, they won't care as much about the tower above because there won't be a deck up there, and so many towers are going up in a city that already has so many. Hopefully it will be a distinctive design that will help define the skyline, something people will know when they see it - be that on a t-shirt, post card, wherever.

Roughly, what are the dimensions of the site?

I'm so interested to hear how to financing request from China turns out, given the craziness in their financial markets lately.

And ooh, question: is the design for this tower still in progress, or has it just not been released yet? It's hard to imagine they're asking a bank for $1bn without a few renderings..

I'd be nice if this would turn out to resemble art-deco. A instant landmark in that location similar to GE Center.

I certainly hope not. Most modern takes on Art Deco look poor simply because no one can afford the sort of detailing that made those older towers shine.

I'm hoping for something modern and sweeping like we are getting at Hudson Yards or Verre.

If it's gonna match 432P for sheer height and dominance of the north Midtown skyline, I'd like to see something..well..come to think of it..
Something that gives the illusion of slenderness given the large footprint it seems to have right now. Maybe a like two or three slender tubes connected at differing heights by short skywalks?

The filing with the DOB said that the "lot area" was 90,915 sq feet, and that the "lot width" was 400 feet. The filing specified 1.2 million sq ft of "zoning area".

Knowing the firm that is working on this project, I can say that we will be getting something like the latter...and certainly not art deco.

A billion dollar spec super high-end residential building is a huge risk in any market. Even with cheap money, most banks wouldn't touch this for that reason alone. Just because banks can get easy cash doesn't mean they have the appetite for an expensive and risky project....and I highly doubt the intention of the Fed is to pump more money into speculative real estate.

As an aside, who cares that money is coming from China (if it actually happens, which I'd guess is unlikely given the recent banking news there)? American money helped build Chinese cities...why can't Chinese money build ours?

:order:

This isn't about American money vs. Chinese money. Let's keep talking about the building please. You can continue your debate amongst yourselves (PM).

Another look at the building footprint...


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/149309225/original.jpg

Ooh...wouldn't it be neat to see a design element occupy that part of the footprint that sticks out by the tunnel?
I'm thinking along the lines of the William Donald Schaefer Building in Baltimore, but with more body on the slender extension and obviously taller.

^That part of the footprint is a landmarked building, so it's going to be preserved. 1780 Broadway is part of the site to give extra air rights to the project and to give frontage on Broadway, but the actual tower won't be on that particular parcel.

Really? It looks a lot smaller than that...

It's possible that the 400-foot width figure refers to the widest distance between two points on the site, indicated by the blue arrow below. If the blue line is 400 feet long, the red line on the right side of the diagram would be 270 feet long.

http://i1076.photobucket.com/albums/...r.jpg~original


Here is the filing. I put a red "X" at the bottom next to the indicated height of the building.

http://i1076.photobucket.com/albums/...1.jpg~original

Manhattan blocks are only 200 ft wide.

The only way I can find a 400ft width is if I start at the corner of Broadway and 58th, and go all the way to the building east of the site. Perhaps this represents the extent of the zoning lot, as opposed to the actual construction site. We do know after all, that Extel purchased airrights from neighboring properties.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4495/p536.jpg

Is anything actually happening on the site? The bricks seem to have been there a really long time.

By the way, Lee's Art Supply is a great store and you can probably get a good view into the lot from the upper floors.