Central Park Tower Surpasses Chicago’s Willis Tower On Way To Tallest Roof Height In Western Hemisphere

Central Park Tower looking at the southwest corner from Broadway. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, image via Extell

Central Park Tower, aka 217 West 57th Street, has surpassed the 1,450-foot-tall Willis Tower (née Sears Tower) to claim the title of highest roof in the Western Hemisphere. The Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill-designed supertall is being developed by Extell and will soon top-out at 1,550 feet tall over Billionaires’ Row.

New photographs document the ongoing work at the dizzying summit of the reinforced concrete superstructure.

Looking at the southern elevation with the cantilever at the bottom of the photograph. Photo by Michael Young

The difference in the color of the glass is striking. All panes will eventually be stripped of the blue protective film. Photo by Michael Young

Looking from Columbus Circle. Photo by Michael Young

The glass curtain wall on the upper portion of the building is being installed without the blue protective film that coats the remainder of the structure.

Looking east. Photo by Michael Young

The top of Central Park Tower. Photo by Michael Young

Looking east from the New Jersey Turnpike. Photo by Michael Young

Extell is expecting a project sellout of $4 billion. Meanwhile, the Nordstrom flagship store, which will occupy the tower’s podium, will open on October 24, 2019.

The protective film on the wavy glass panels of the retail base is starting to show the transparency of the curtain wall. Photo by Michael Young

Completion of Central Park Tower is expected sometime next year.

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31 Comments on "Central Park Tower Surpasses Chicago’s Willis Tower On Way To Tallest Roof Height In Western Hemisphere"

  1. Jesus Christ how slow is this thing moving? Didnt it pass 1400 feet like three months ago?

  2. I’ve become so accustomed to the blue film, that the uncovered glass looks wrong.

    • Confused in St Louis | July 29, 2019 at 11:45 am | Reply

      Same here… I’m used to the blue film. A couple of great photos, kudos. 220 CPS is looking kind of small in comparison but is still I think the classier building.

  3. CuriousGeorge | July 29, 2019 at 9:16 am | Reply

    Does anyone know the exact height figure? I understand it passed 1,450′ but is it at the 1,500′ level yet?

  4. David in Bushwick | July 29, 2019 at 9:57 am | Reply

    Skyprick Row is coming to a close.
    This era with the obscene exhibition of wealth will be a monument to what nearly brought out nation down through corruption and racist distraction.

    • Oh please. You are just a loser in life and that has made you bitter. Your constant railing against wealth is just so off base. This country was built on acquiring wealth and capitalism. We are the richest country in the history of world. You have people all over the world trying to get in. Our system is clearly working.

      Oh and BTW, NYC has always had wealthy elites, Rockefellers, Astors, Morgan, etc. and they’ve left behind a rich legacy of institutions that has enrich the landscape of NYC.

      What you would like to see is Stalinist Soviet style (or possibly Mao era) class revolution and economic ruin. No thanks.

      • David in Bushwick | July 29, 2019 at 11:40 am | Reply

        “The top 0.1% of American households hold the same amount of wealth as the bottom 90%”

        Our system clearly works for those who can afford a politician to write the laws that will benefit them.
        You clearly are not in the 0.1% so what exactly do you get by supporting them? Your last sentence would indicate you are a Fox parrot which no one should willingly admit unless that is the limit of their intelligence.

        • If we are going to talk about parroting, then I might suggest you look into the mirror. Your 0.1% statement is taken out verbatim from the Leftist-socialist propaganda book.

          Sure, I am not rich (and likely will never be) but unlike you, I am not arguing based out of personnel benefit or bitterness but more on principle. I am no fan of rich people but I realize that this system is still way more successful and more beneficial to more people than your socialist system, where everyone is equal, equally poor and miserable that is.

          “The wealth of the bottom 90% is still more than the wealth of 100% of everyone living under a socialist state.”

          BTW, I don’t watch any of that cable news.

          • Thomas Paine | August 29, 2019 at 3:17 pm |

            This has got to be the most incorrect and ignorant statement of our time. Think about the value of all property held by the middle class and lower higher class alone… cities upon cities, suburbs upon suburbs…so the top .1 percent have that many dollars???? Seems to me the ones with the most capital are liberal elites tell the rest of us to give all our money away so we can live poor while they try to get even more wealth. Go look up the businesses that ultra liberal Soros own (not listed is the liberal media that he had controllling interest in). In short, u are hopelessly programmed and without a mind of your own. If u had s mind u could use it to google just exactly who the 1% is… then figure out what they are trying to do.

        • Charles Langer | July 30, 2019 at 5:57 am | Reply

          The 20/80 Rule, minus/plus single digits on either side; or just our school grading system— 70% to pass… applies to everything in life everywhere in the world.
          For example, IRS statistics:
          69% of Americans pay less in taxes than they receive directly in services, benefits, and grants. (the bottom 50% pays 3% of all taxes BTW)
          What’s the point? Half of all people are worthless or even parasitic. 7 of every 10 fairly useless or at best filler material. The 8th of every 10 are staying enough afloat to pay their way. The 9th of every 10 are doing enough to also support a few others. But the last remaining 10th person is the one carrying all of us to our world leading status.
          So…let’s help the top echelon make even more money so that they keep creating jobs for the rest thru their businesses, investments, and purchases.
          They are feeding the rest, if we drag them down we’ll all starve.

      • I’m trying to move in there but have a billionaire pay my wife two kids & I to live there. Just being honest.

    • You read to much into some stupid buildings. NYC has always had residences for the ultra rich they just finally stacked a bunch of them together.

  5. All the super talls under construction on 57th Street are proceeding at a snail’s pace. What’s disgusting is how little the construction companies pay the city for the privilege of shutting down a lane of traffic while they waste as much time as possible, hoping the real estate market rebounds before they are forced to admit that their buildings aren’t worth as much as predicted.

  6. I hope it’s bird friendly, as the finished glass looks almost transparent.

  7. 220 CPS looks better in all aspects compared to the CPT.

  8. Mao would never stand for this sort of thing. I’m not partisan, just saying. Mao is turning in his grave or mausoleum or whatever (I couldn’t be bothered to google)

    • Yes and it’s no coincidence that once China ditched Maoism for market reform, their economy took off. Went from being one of the poorest country as late as the 1970’s to now the second richest (depending on the measure even the richest) country in the world by embracing capitalism.

      China now puts up towers much taller and grander than CPT practically on a monthly basis.

      • GrouchyOldMan | July 29, 2019 at 7:11 pm | Reply

        Maoism, schmaoism. China got rich because the traitorous Western globalists sold out their nations so they could personally get even richer, transferring trillions in manufacturing to China, decimating their own countries, impoverishing millions, stagnating wages and exporting gigantic amounts of pollution. The traitorous Western elites handed it to China on a silver platter. And what China wasn’t handed, they stole, while Western elites looked the other way, in particular during the Clinton years when China stole endless industrial and military technologies and Clinton didn’t give two figs because they bought him with dirty campaign money. They should all hang.

    • Charles Langer | July 30, 2019 at 6:14 am | Reply

      He also caused the death of a quarter Billion people – more than Stalin and Hitler put together. And we dodged a bullet with Stalin, whose demise came just before his planned WW3…he only ended up killing 100 million.
      And not a single African, South American, and Asian country has escaped Socialist barbarism, Civil War and ethnic cleansing.

      I’ll take our capitalist excesses, spirit of entrepreneurship, and expectation of hard work any day of the week.

  9. MIGUEL castro | July 29, 2019 at 2:17 pm | Reply

    Gorgeous.i can’t wait to move in, and look down at the little communists that resent me. Let them eat cake… Oh no, you can’t buy cake with government food stamps. What a pity. Hahahaha.

  10. Robert E Janonis | July 29, 2019 at 10:04 pm | Reply

    To Bobby Andrews of Pinicle concrete: nice feather in your cap and this Buds is to the late Scott,our local 15-D brother.congraduation

  11. Love the bird reference….check out this past Sundays The Good Fight show to see what will happen to the birds!…..Does anyone know if they’ve sold anything?….I think they had some type of deadline to sell

  12. I am a capitalist and an architect. I know that capitalism is nothing to write home about, it is rife with failures. Consider: 44% of families have savings amounting to less than $400. 69% of adults have less than $1,000 in savings, while 34% have no savings at all. 14% of American households have a negative net worth (New York Federal Reserve, 2017). Somehow capitalism has left a few people behind. Suffice it to say none of these folks will move into the Central Park Tower – including me.

    • Joseph Korom
      That’s because we live in a NOW society, where it’s not important to keep up with the Jones’es than to save like crazy

  13. If I had massive wealth, 57th street or CPS are NOT the places I would choose to live, or simply buy a pied a tierre. I would invest on CPW or even a whole townhouse somewhere. The skyhigh views are great I am sure but not for me.

  14. I have to say, height put aside, this is my least favorite of all the new supertalls. The only really good angle is from below looking up at the cantilever or at the Nordstrom’s facade… That’s kinda it…

  15. Amazing how all the leftist deblasio lovers are spewing their hate for this project and the wealthy elite who will buy into this building. You commie AOC loving pinkos can all move to Cuba. And take your racist scumbag mayor with you.

  16. Christopher Cox | September 2, 2019 at 1:21 pm | Reply

    Okay so there is all this capitalist communist talk here. The only thing that is bad is extremism..the same as with religion. If there is too much capitalism then only the wealthy has money like Lagos Nigeria. If there is too socialism/communism you get Venezuela. You need to be somewhere in the middle. When you get to the extreme either left or right things start to get chaotic. Anyway I like the fact that they are building those buildings. They are beautiful and new technology is created which helps all mankind.

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