aol time warner center - one central park

October 23, 2001 10:12 PM

aol time warner center - one central park
welcome to five-star living. at the center of everything.
posted by quonsar (18 comments total)

Yup right by my college. The dynamite explosions were great distractions.
posted by riffola at 10:14 PM on October 23, 2001

anyone else feel like moving into 80-stories-high twin towers?
posted by double+good at 10:45 PM on October 23, 2001

The way things are now, I guess these flats must be on a kind of fire sale.
posted by betobeto at 11:01 PM on October 23, 2001

Well, I certanly wouldn't want to live there now. Are they the tallest towers in NYC now?
posted by delmoi at 11:06 PM on October 23, 2001

Well, I don't think they're very tall right now.

The Empire State is taller. I think that Trump building is taller too. I'm not 100% sure of that. If it wasn't 2:30 in the morning I'd get my architectual posse on it and get to the bottom of it.
posted by QrysDonnell at 11:32 PM on October 23, 2001

I'd live there now if I could get a 1 bedroom for under $1300 a month there. Totally.
posted by QrysDonnell at 11:32 PM on October 23, 2001

Ok, first of all, it's not finished yet. Second, the estimated height will be somewhere around 750 feet. That doesn't even put it in the top ten tallest buildings (still standing) in New York. Finally, I hope that many people think the way that you do about living in New York. That way, I can buy up a whole bunch of real estate in the next few years for a song and sell it all back at a huge profit when people come to their senses. Woo hoo!
posted by UrbanFigaro at 11:33 PM on October 23, 2001

Empire State is the tallest, the new Trump building appears to be shorter than the Chrysler. The AOLTW Center is currently about a 4 storey high metal frame.
posted by riffola at 11:34 PM on October 23, 2001

Okay, Trump World Tower is 881 ft (they say 90 stories, but it really only has 72 floors). 55th tallest in the world.

AOL Time Warner Center will be 750 feet (as has mentioned before it's only about 4 stories of a steel frame right now)

Taller buildings than the Trump World Tower in NYC are:
Conde Nast Building - 866 ft. 53rd tallest in the world.
Citicorp Center - 915 ft. 44th tallest.
40 Wall Street - 927 ft. 39th tallest.
American International - 952 ft. 33rd tallest.
Chrystler Building - 1046 ft. 19th tallest.
Empire State Building - 1250 ft. 9th tallest.

The old WTC1 was 1368, WTC2 was 1362. Incidentally the observation deck out there was the highest open-air observation deck (it was on the roof of tower 2.)

750 is the height of One Penn Plaza, which appears to be the 17th tallest building in the city currently.

All this info is from Wired New York's Sckyscraper Page which has pictures of all of these buildings and extensive WTC coverage (from a building perspective). Although I couldn't find the old height for the WTC's towers there I got that from 'some other site'..
posted by QrysDonnell at 12:17 AM on October 24, 2001

I shudder to think what the bottom of columbus circle will look like when this is finished.
posted by rabi at 1:02 AM on October 24, 2001

I remember when some of the earlier proposals for this site were vetted. One of them was frickin' enormous and people went around creating maps of how much, say, of Central Park would now never get direct sunlight anymore because of it. The present design is twin towers partly because of those objections, to allow an airier appearance and less shading of the environs. Although it would have been nice to get the streets back, that wasn't realistic; these mega-projects seem to be the only way builders think they can economically proceed. Look at Trump's moribund Television City proposal, or the downtown Guggenheim.
posted by dhartung at 1:30 AM on October 24, 2001

double+good : anyone else feel like moving into 80-stories-high twin towers?


The towers will be 55 [or 53] stories tall. Not 80. It is being built at the old New York Coliseum site at Columbus Circle. This design concept sketch of the towers makes it look less intimidating than the flash piece linked by quonsar. This is the concept sketch for the rejected design dhartung mentioned.
posted by tamim at 4:54 AM on October 24, 2001

Oh, great, I mean, soon we can all see this monstrosity from like the north end of the park. Just what we need.
posted by bob bisquick at 6:19 AM on October 24, 2001

At the center of it all? What, pray tell, is it all? I guess Lincoln Center is close by, and the Garden, but in my years of living in Manhattan I've come to think of Midtown as a sort the cultural armpit of the city, a cross between Disneyworld and the futuristic L.A. from Bladerunner.

Give me the West Village any day.
posted by saladin at 6:39 AM on October 24, 2001

Indeed, Saladin, this building is not in midtown, or the upper west side, or Clinton/Hell's Kitchen -- it's in sort of a neighborhood limbo. However, some of the swankiest buildings in town are on Central Park South and West, directly across Columbus Circle from the new high-rise, and with Lincoln Center nearby the builders are attaching to that cachet.

There are some incredibly well-researched posts in this thread, btw. Click around QrysDonnel and Tamim's links to learn lots more.
posted by werty at 7:01 AM on October 24, 2001

we walked by the beginnings of this thing the other day. It does indeed look like the beginning of something big. But you have to feel for all the rich people behind this building, who will have their wonderful view of Central Park blocked by this thing (no doubt a view they paid for).
posted by harrycaul at 8:21 AM on October 24, 2001

harrycaul: eh, if their that rich, they'll probably just 'move up' to the new building. And if their not, then they don't deserve to see it! :P
posted by delmoi at 11:03 AM on October 24, 2001

I guess their view will be something like this or this.
posted by kcalder at 1:36 PM on October 24, 2001