Pencil Towers

Hideous.

This should have been a poll.

I was fascinated by them until all the mechanical issues surfaced. And the concept of a trash shoot on a high floor. A bag of juicy wet rubbish dropped 80 floors up….BOMBS AWAY! FIRE IN THE HOLE!

Get used to it. You will see “corridors” full of supertall buildings, a la 57th Street, *all* over Manhattan & Brooklyn.

They scare the hell out of me. Yeah, I really want to feel the building sway in high winds. Yikes! 😬

Man-ha-an.

Hideous, unimaginative, and cheap looking.

One of the most efficient methods of money laundering based on price per square foot.

I think we are one fire or collapse from people abandoning them in droves.

*

They should be easy targets for Saudi terrorists. And they are full of Russian oligarchs and nouveau riche. Take them out.

That was one hell of a trailer—too bad that, except for cutting edge-special effects, the picture sucked eggs.

[quote]the picture sucked eggs.

No it didn't, r12.

It looks like a crystal chandelier exploded high above Manhattan and rain down shards on the city.

OP- Better a Pencil Tower than a

Pencil DICK

R12- We may never love like this again.

Sounds like something the Brady kids would have made

R15: what about a pencil DIALER?

Hmmm, Stephanie Forrester was in TI? OJ too.

I think they are fascinating, and a little bit terrifying. I don’t live in NYC, so I don’t have to deal with the negative aspects. I’m sure they’re going to become more prevalent, so might as well get used to them. Would love to spend a few nights in one, the views are ridiculous.

I like 111 W57th and 53W53

R21- I like 165 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London.

A. They look like a big ol' target for a jet to fly into. Don't need that reminder.

B. What happens when the power goes out? Walk down all those flights of stairs? And no mechanical systems to pump the water up or flush the toilets?

C, What R7 said.

I like blue.

I’m guilty —I move to NYC from California 30 years ago …apparently I now say “Man-haT-n” or similar…as in The Bronx 🤷🏻‍♂️

[quote] What happens when the power goes out? Walk down all those flights of stairs? And no mechanical systems to pump the water up or flush the toilets?

Don't be silly, R23, no one lives in these. The once glorious skyline of Manhattan is becoming a money-laundering pincushion.

Hate them. Everyone who designs this is a whore and a sellout.

I was the REAL star of that movie. Ask all the little gay boys.

I think they are beautiful.

Not one single person posting on this thread, including myself, could possibly afford to live in one.

Nothing but a giant middle finger.

Pencil towers and pencil dicks aren't my cup of tea.

R29, what does that have to do with anything?

The only pencil- ish towers I ever liked were these and now they're gone 😪

WTC 1 and 2 weren’t “pencil” towers—far too big a floor plate

R29 if I had the money to live in them I’d buy a beautiful brownstone in the village- with a roof deck.

[quote] Not one single person posting on this thread, including myself, could possibly afford to live in one.

You seem to be implying we're not allowed to criticize the abodes of the wealthy even when they're placed smack in a city center.

Could that really be true?

I'd be gobsmacked to think that even here someone could [italic]possibly[/italic] be that shallow and servile.

@r29, Even if I were Jeff Bezos rich you still couldn't give me a pencil dick high rise 😠

Do not dare to criticize our income superiors! Their exquisite tastes are beyond those of mere plebes like ourselves!

There is actually a cunt on one of the real estate websites who argues pretty much that, R38.

Money makes might and might makes right and she can't wait to see all the poor people chucked out and old buildings smashed to pieces.

Some of them are actually quite beautiful.

Some of them are ugly.

All of them would not appeal to me. I don't mind a view but prefer something a bit more Art Deco-y.

Clearly they're atrocious!

Undoubtedly gorgeous!

...Sums up this stupid thread.

Views are nice, but being up in the clouds is no view at all. The best is something around the 10th to 15th floor where you can have great views, but still feel connected to the earth

R42, I'd go a bit higher - 25 stories or so - and you can still get both a fabulous view and a feeling of being anchored in the city.

I had a chance to visit the penthouse in the old AT&T building opposite the WTC, on the 35th floor, and that was fantastic, but it was also evidently the largest penthouse in NYC at the time.

The most beautiful apartment I have ever been in was on Central Park South on the 16th floor. The view of Central Park was hypnotic. The interiors were salvaged from an Austrian palace.

In true patrician custom, I simply refuse to acknowledge they exist.

I used to work in a high rise, and while there had jobs on the 25th floor, 11th floor, 19th floor, and 15th. I always thought that the views weren't as good higher-up, and were actually best between 11 and 16.

All skyscrapers move in high winds.

^ I'm guessing the pencil dick ones are way more noticeable

This would have been a great addition to NYC's skyline.

They're an eyesore. They look like buildings built by people who didn't have the money to build a real building.

@r48, 😂 They could have named that the Camshaft Building

Hate them. I don’t live there and maybe this is extreme but they put me off ever coming back to NYC These and the replacement WTC building represent ‘new’ New York to me. Give me 90s NYC and that skyline over what it is now any day.

From afar they look like nothing more than elevator shafts.

I really don't like them. I don't know the exact ratio when a skyscraper - which is obviously much taller than it is wide under normal circumstances - becomes an ugly "pencil" but I usually know it when I see it.

Nope. No thank you. Give me the suburbs any day. So many many things can go wrong up there.

Despise them. I would take a basement apartment in an old brownstone over any apartment in any of these.

On principal.

I’m sure they are quite luxurious with stunning views but they have ruined the skyline of New York. I was born in Jersey City, grew up on Summit Avenue. I have been watching that skyline 58 years now, and it breaks my heart how cheap, ugly and totally non-Manhattan it now looks.

Remember when A-Rod was photographed dropping a deuce in one of those pencil-y things?

R55 here. Here is another link. I want to mention that I am not against modern designs or changing the look of Manhattan, obviously it is going to change.

One of the new projects that I love is Little Island in NYC. To me that is modern, functional and beautiful. And adds value to the neighborhood with music, classes, family events, workshops.

A tall and skinny building only has 1 function (mostly) and is for the 1%.

It is incredibly annoying that it only exists for those few people but the rest of us plebeians have to have our senses assaulted by its ugliness. Plus the obstruction of the sun and blocking of views.

R55 and R57 here again. Here is Little Island for those who are unfamiliar with it (since I referenced it.)

For better pictures, click on the link.

Just wait until a hurricane more powerful than a category 5 hits Manhattan. I can’t believe someone on the top floor survives it.

If the hurricane were directly hitting the city, I'd assume they'd evacuate residences on high floors - if they even stuck around in the city to sustain a hit.

Little Island is nice enough, but it also drags more tourists thru our neighborhood…I’ve had sufficient with the High Line.

The flood zone on the west side (Chelsea and adjacent) runs down the middle of 10th Ave…quite the site to behold during Sandy—good luck to those folks who overpaid for condos between the WSH & 10th Ave.

*sight

Swaying under 30MPH winds what does anyone think would happen under 150MPH gusts in a hurricane?

1000 people had to be recovered from Sanibel island last week because they refused to evacuate ahead of the hurricane. I believe a portion of the owners in the pencil tower would do the same.

Sanibel is flat as a pancake and there was only one way on and off the island. That bridge was destroyed. What were these people thinking?

^ Some people don't believe it will ever happen to them, or they're MAGA nut jobs that think hurricanes are socialism and wanted to "stick it to the libs".

I can't imagine living that high up. I once lived on the 15th floor of a building and it was fine - I wasn't scared and the views were great. But, it was a pain for someone who comes and goes a lot. And I'd prefer a height where I could jump and live, even if I shattered by hip and broke my leg. Lol. You really don't need to be that high up for great views; the third or fourth floors of buildings give an entirely different perspective.

The concept of the pencil tower sounds much more appealing than it is in reality. A floor-through apartment in the sky sounds fabulous, and I'm sure it is for the billionaires who spend one of two nights a year in them.

I've been high up in a skyscraper much larger and the swaying with the constant wind on what was otherwise a calm weather day made me nauseous, and I'm not prone to motion sickness. I can't imagine what it would be like in a storm. And neither can anyone who owns one of these because they wouldn't be there in a storm comparable to hurricane Ian and Sanibel Island. Residents of the latter were faced with either staying and trying to protect everything they had, or leave and come back to nothing, and they have no insurance. The owners of an apartment in one of these towers would, without doubt, have insurance (and even if they didn't, a hundred $million to a billionaire is the equivalent to the change you and I find under our sofa cushions after a party).

The other issue when it comes to tall residential buildings is that the lower floors always suffer the ignorance and carelessness of those on the upper floors. After living on the fifth floor of an 18-story building, I vowed to never again own property in that circumstance. I rebuilt my primary bathroom three times in 10 years thanks to the idiots on the 9th floor who just couldn't seem to stop overflowing their bathtub.

A few years before 911 I went to an upper floor of the World Trade Center to get some specialized State tax forms. I looked out the window and it was like looking down from a plane window at cruising altitude.

As a 49 year NYer, I think they’re fine. They add to any with their height - where else are people still looking to build sypertalll skyscrapers on the US? I think they’re interesting to look at from afar and from the ground.

I do, however, HATE everything Thomas Heatherwick has done n NYC - including Little Island and The Vessel. Crappy uninteresting tourist attractions - I have no idea why he wa said so much to think of such vapid, impractical concepts.

Absolutely hideous.

The highest floor I ever lived on was the 29th. Sometimes during high winds you could hear a little creaking in the bones of the building but I never noticed swaying. Although I was drinking quite a lot during that time so maybe I was just accustomed to being a bit unbalanced.

Agree with R68. Lower floors take brunt of all the irresponsible residents on higher floors. Plumbing issues can be a nightmare of never ending horror if you have people on floors above you in your "stack" that abuse the kitchens in particular. People cram all kinds of shit down the kitchen sink and think everything's fine, but it tends to clog up inside the pipes on lower floors and then you end up with everyone's foul sewer water coming up out of your sink. I only live on the highest possible floor now, with as few floors above me as possible. I think the ideal is to have 1 floor above so you aren't exposed directly to the roof, but have minimal people above to send problems your way.

I don't care for the money laundering nor do I like the design. However, I quickly got used to them on the skyline and they don't bug me so much in this aspect!

Agree with ^ I live on the 11th of a 12-storey setback matched to higher tower. It works pretty well, and in our part of MANHATTAN we get unobstructedp views of Hudson Yards, the ESB and most of lower Manhattan.

In theory they have some potential pluses: floor-through apartments, views, a potentially elegant profile. But the profile is never in fact elegant, the height is too great for anything other than a hotel novelty, and the.floor.plana tend to be bad and have some stack issues that inhibit the flexibility of customization.

The.profile reminds me of the silvered transistor tubes in an antique radio; it's as if they might be twisted out and removed with a little yank and replaced by a new one. Only not, of course. They would be.more.inyeresting if a handful.made some striking use of color, but they don't, of course. And the fenestration is often basic to a fault,. And, of course, not crowning element to cap it off.

Teal luxury for me is not living in a hideously expensive tower that looks like it should be boutique office clients, not doméstico space. Luxury for me is grounded ness and the calm and quiet that comes with quality materials and construction, not sheets of drywall hoisted hundreds of feet above the ground and low ceilings and Property Brothers grade finishes ti be ripped out and replaced with something almost identical, but of course not quite. Luxury is the calm and quiet if good neighbors in a solid building, not the quiet if hermetically sealed windows with the constant whoosh of air currents outside.

They seem as though they might in theory be interesting small punctuation marks in the skyline, but instead they are overly attenuated exclamation marks - to be avoided because it's like laughing at your own joke.

R75 an added note: in the real world, though, they all are luxury buildings…”luxury” is the only kind of new apt building that exists here. I’d like to see the first one to be marketed as NOT LUXURY…that I might look to buy. ;)

Pencil towers are indeed horrid, but they're much better than pencil dicks.

I wonder if anyone's going to make the comparison between pencil towers and pencil dicks--we've yet to hear that yet here, and it's such a hilarious joke to make.

(Sorry for the double use of "yet")

NYC has among the least imaginative architecture in an major world city