Нью-Йорк қаласындағы CitySpire бұрқашығы

Skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

CitySpire (also known as CitySpire Center) is a mixed use skyscraper at 150 West 56th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Completed in 1990 and designed by Murphy/Jahn Architects, the building measures 814 feet (248 m) tall with 75 stories. CitySpire was developed by Ian Bruce Eichner on a site adjacent to the New York City Center theater. When completed, CitySpire was the second tallest concrete tower in the United States after the Sears Tower. The skyscraper has an octagonal plan with a dome inspired by that of the New York City Center. The facade is made of stone with glass windows, and it contains setbacks at the 46th and 62nd floors. The building has entrances at 56th and 55th Streets, connected by a passageway that forms part of 6½ Avenue. The lowest 22 floors of the tower are for commercial use. Above are luxury apartments, which are larger on higher floors. Eichner proposed CitySpire in 1984, acquiring unused air rights above City Center and making improvements to the theater to almost double the tower's area. After several agencies approved the project, City Center began construction in 1985 and was topped out by June 1987. A controversy ensued when the building exceeded its approved height by ; Eichner agreed to add dance studio space to compensate for the height overrun, but he ultimately never built the space. Soon after CitySpire's opening in 1989, the building went into foreclosure, and there were complaints of a whistling noise from the roof for two years.

CitySpire is at 150 West 56th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue three blocks south of Central Park, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building's land lot covers and has a frontage of 225.5 feet (69 m) along 56th Street. While the site is 200 feet (61 m) deep, extending south to 55th Street, only a small section of the lot has frontage on 55th Street. The building is directly west of the New York City Center and 125 West 55th Street; Immediately to the north are Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Hall Tower, Russian Tea Room, and Metropolitan Tower from west to east. Other nearby buildings include 140 West 57th Street, 130 West 57th Street, and the Parker New York hotel to the northeast, as well as the 55th Street Playhouse to the southwest and 1345 Avenue of the Americas to the southeast. Several buildings in the area were constructed as residences for artists and musicians, such as 130 and 140 West 57th Street, the Rodin Studios, and the Osborne Apartments, as well as the demolished Sherwood Studios and Rembrandt. In addition, the area contained the headquarters of organizations such as the American Fine Arts Society, the Lotos Club, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. Just prior to CitySpire's construction, the site was occupied by six vacant lots at 132–158 West 56th Street and one on 137 West 55th Street. These lots were acquired in the 1970s by Richard M. Chapman, who razed the buildings there.

CitySpire (also known as CitySpire Center It was constructed by Tishman Realty & Construction, with Robert Rosenwasser Associates as structural engineer. CitySpire is 814 feet (248 m) tall with 75 above ground levels and two basement stories; When completed, CitySpire was the second tallest concrete tower in the United States after the Sears Tower in Chicago. CitySpire has three setbacks on the east and west they are placed at the 23rd, 46th, and 62nd floors. Most of the building is no more than 80 feet (24 m) wide. As proposed, the main shaft of the tower was to be clad in stone, while the wings were to be made of glass. Eichner disliked the parapets; he suggested that residents on the 46th floor "can look out at it and know they're looking at a wall instead of Central Park so that Helmut Jahn can rest easy knowing that his 'artistic integrity' is intact." The roof has a copper faced dome The dome itself contains louvers and was designed with a green surface. When the dome was constructed, wind created a loud whistling sound when passing through the louvers; this was remedied in 1992 with the removal of alternating panels. Paul Sachner of Architectural Record initially likened the dome to that of the Nebraska State Capitol,

The superstructure is made of concrete. Given the size of the lot, this would have provided up to of space. This amounted to of extra space. The interior floor numbering system skips floors 13 and 25, so there are physically only 73 stories, though the top story is numbered 75. or 23 floors of the building are for commercial use. There are luxury apartments on the remaining floors, The arcade is one of nine passageways that form 6½ Avenue, a set of full block passageways from 51st to 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The connection itself was not opened until 1997, several years after the building opened; The arcade, designed by Brennan Beer Gorman, consists of marble and granite walls as well as a 25 feet (8 m) ceiling. The passageway is decorated in an Art Deco inspired style, with theater posters on the walls. The space has recessed lights on the ceiling and lights on the walls, but there is no seating since the passageway was designed merely for pedestrian movement. The residential lobby at 150 West 56th Street has a domed ceiling as well as wooden paneling. (originally Carnegie Bar and Books). The bar, on the ground floor, has a ceiling 25 feet (8 m) high with an overhanging mezzanine. A garage and cafe was also included in the base. Many of the residential units are separated from each other by the building's shear walls. Due to the setbacks on the exterior, floors 47 through 61 typically measure , while floors 63 through 69 are an octagon measuring 80 feet across. but he ended up never living in the unit. Klar had hired Juan Pablo Molyneux to redesign the penthouse over two and a half years. The master bedroom takes up an entire story, while the master bathroom has green marble cladding as well as bronze and mahogany fixtures. though this was apparently because Molyneux actually never saw the design in person, having been dismissed before the design was completed. It was also advertised with a media room containing a large screen TV; a lounge with bar; and a business center with stock quote and telex machines. The modern amenities include a party and conference rooms, play area, and fitness center with pool. The Mecca Temple was acquired by the New York City government in 1943 and became a theater. In 1982, City Center completed a minor renovation to the lobby and orchestra. City Center planned another set of improvements to enlarge stage, storage, and balcony areas. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated City Center as a city landmark in 1983; as a result, the commission was required to approve any major alterations to the theater. Concurrently, Bruce Eichner bought Chapman's neighboring site for $18 million. Eichner would also make improvements to City Center to obtain additional space. The proposed air rights sale received criticism both for its relatively low price and for the fact that it would allow an excessively large building. City Center Tower was one of several high rise developments planned for the area at the time; Metropolitan Tower and Carnegie Hall Tower were being proposed as well. The air rights transfers needed the approval of several agencies. The LPC was scheduled to hold a hearing for the proposed sale in November 1984, but an unrelated controversy over another landmark candidate took up all the time allotted for discussing the air rights sale. The LPC granted the project a "certificate of appropriateness" in January 1985, which allowed the LPC to apply for a special zoning permit from the New York City Planning Commission (CPC) for the air rights transfer. Several agencies then needed to approve the tower itself. Following objections from members of the Board of Estimate and CPC, some elements of City Center Tower were downsized. followed by the Board of Estimate that August. The building had been approved to a height of about 800 feet (244 m). efn|The height is cited variously as 798 feet (243 m), He described the tower as a "quintessential New York skyscraper", compared to the "undistinguished" glass clad office buildings on Madison and Park Avenues. Eichner received $157.5 million in construction financing. Both Eichner and his lawyer Howard Horenstein donated several thousand dollars to Mayor Ed Koch, who had voted in favor of the tower. The donations were investigated in an ethics probe in 1987.

By the time the Board of Estimate had approved City Center Tower, pouring of the concrete slabs was underway. The construction of CitySpire involved controversies over safety. Susan Guszynski of the Joffrey Ballet, a tenant in City Center, wrote a letter to the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) in late 1986, alleging that three Joffrey staff had been hit by falling concrete during one week that October. The Buildings Department subsequently received four additional complaints of falling objects, including one instance in which a portion of the facade fell from the roof. Neighbors also filed lawsuits claiming that CitySpire's construction had led to debris pileups and various incidents. One neighbor claimed that he received death threats after complaining to the police about cracked windows, while another neighbor was allegedly raped after an attacker climbed into her apartment through CitySpire's scaffolding. Horenstein denied the advertisements were intended to discourage minorities.

The building had topped out by mid 1987. The building, as constructed, exceeded its approved height by either 11 feet (3 m) or 14 feet (4 m). The difference of 3 feet (1 m) was a calculation error from two different methods of measuring height, The topped out structure had to undergo a second public review from the Board of Estimate, Manhattan Community Board 5, and the CPC. though he saw the height overruns as being "of no consequence to anyone". By the end of 1987, Eichner had sold 164 of the apartments, and some of the commercial space was already occupied. Community Board 5 officials voted against allowing the extra height in protest of the zoning law. CPC chairwoman Sylvia Deutsch rejected Eichner's offer to add unrelated amenities and pay the city extra cash, and she also dismissed complaints from neighbors who opposed the project for unrelated reasons. In April 1988, the city and Eichner tentatively reached a settlement in which Eichner agreed to build of dance studios above the pedestrian arcade and reduce some facade details. The agreement, contingent on the dome not being completed, had not been ratified by the CPC or Board of Estimate. however, community groups thought it would set a precedent for developers who built past their height limits, While Community Board 5 had notified the DOB about the illegal work earlier, the dome had been completed by the time the DOB issued a stop work order. The ribs were partially removed so CitySpire would only exceed the permitted height by 1.5 feet (0 m). City Center filed a lawsuit that month, alleging that Eichner had not renovated the theater as promised. City Center sought an injunction to forbid the DOB from issuing CitySpire a certificate of occupancy for the top twenty stories until the renovations were performed. A New York Supreme Court justice declined to issue the injunction, In March 1989, the Board of Estimate voted 6–5 to allow the dance studios as an appropriate penalty. The height agreement received opposition from city comptroller Harrison J. Goldin, who charged that Eichner was violating the law, and from critics who believed the dance studios, at , were too small. which investigators determined was an arson. Eichner had still not completed renovations at City Center like he had promised, and the building's pedestrian arcade was not open to the public.

Eichner had sold 280 of the apartments and three quarters of the office space by early 1989, which included Citibank and European American Bank. The next month, the bank foreclosed on the loans. Neighbors reported being kept awake by the noise. Monroe Price opined that "the community should attempt to understand what the building is trying to say", while Progressive Architecture said: "In a less restrictive era, we might look forward to developers' plans for 'The Wind Chime Centre' or 'One Kazoo Plaza'." At a hearing in February 1991, Judge Gerald Denaro of New York City's Environmental Control Board ordered a study on the noise coming from the dome. The building faced a fine of up to $880 if it was found guilty of whistling. The bankruptcy proceeding absolved Eichner from paying $11 million in unpaid taxes, but the building's residential sales office had to shut down that year. In April 1991, Denaro ruled that CitySpire was guilty of violating the noise ordinance and fined the managing agent $220. A federal judge ruled that September that the city's noise code was too vague to be enforced, leading the New York City Council to draft a law to more strictly define noise. By May 1992, the building's board of managers said the whistling would be fixed within several weeks. Bankruptcy proceedings, meanwhile, had been stalled over an unpaid $324,000 capital gains tax. A reorganization plan for the tower was finally approved in September 1992, eighteen months after the building's owner had filed for bankruptcy. The roof noise was stopped that October, and the receivers paid the city $2.1 million instead of renovating City Center's studios as a penalty. The receivers also sought to be exempted from their obligation to build studios above the pedestrian arcade, which was still unfinished.

Euram, a subsidiary of European American Bank's parent ABN AMRO, took over the residential section and renovated 75 vacant units. The Bank of Nova Scotia rebranded the commercial section as Midland Tower. Although the financial issues and noise complaints had been resolved, the studios and arcade, which had been a compromise for CitySpire's height, had still not been completed by 1995. The arcade was strewn with litter and blocked off with razor wire and wooden panels, and CitySpire's owners planned to renovate it for use. The owners planned to scrap the studios above the arcade, instead creating additional rehearsal space in City Center itself. Around 1996, Joseph Neumann and Credit Suisse First Boston acquired CitySpire for $38 million. The building had been offered for $50 million, but Neumann and First Boston were able to buy the building for less after beating a competing bid from Henry Elghanayan. At the time, the building owed $1.9 million in taxes to the city government. The office owners (composed of First Boston and external investors), along with the residential condo owners, bore the cost of the pedestrian arcade's $1 million renovation. The office stories were owned by Singapore government investment fund GIC by 2001. GIC leased space to Windels Marx, GE Capital, and The Recording Academy. That year, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley provided a $900 million mortgage to GIC for CitySpire's office stories and some of GIC's other properties. The office section of CitySpire was acquired in 2004 by Tishman Speyer, who bought a 51 percent majority stake. GIC continued to hold a 49 percent stake. In 2012, Tishman Speyer and an unidentified pension fund acquired CitySpire and several other buildings as part of a portfolio valued at $1.6 billion. The same year, Douglas Elliman marketed the penthouse apartment for $100 million, which would have made it the most expensive residence in New York City had it been sold at that price. only to withdraw it again in 2015. At that point, the majority of CitySpire's residences, over sixty percent, were being used as pieds a terre rather than as primary residences.

When CitySpire was being planned, Paul Goldberger praised Jahn for including design elements inspired by both City Center and earlier New York City skyscrapers. However, he said the design was "only partially successful in terms of its relationship to the City Center building itself", especially as both buildings' domes were rarely visible simultaneously. Harry Berkowitz of Newsday described the project as one of several designed by architects who "want little to do with the idea of adjusting to a neighborhood". Paul M. Sachner wrote for Architectural Record that the plans "exemplify the 'high tech historicist' quality" of Murphy/Jahn's work, but he said "many question the appropriateness of a 70 story building" on such a narrow site. CitySpire, Carnegie Hall Tower, and Metropolitan Tower became known as the "Tuning Fork Trio" because of their shape and proximity to each other. CitySpire's construction also prompted discussion on the appropriateness of transferring air rights from city landmarks, such as City Center, to raise money for landmarks' upkeep. New York Landmarks Conservancy executive director Laurie Beckelman said that "we save [city landmarks] by putting them out of context" in allowing the transfers, and Community Board 5 district manager Joan E. Ramer said that "selling off a precious city resource without understanding the ramifications is simply irresponsible". Goldberger also referred to CitySpire as a "case of the city selling its birthright for a mess of pottage".