The rooms usually relegated to the background in most luxury buildings, well in almost any building to be honest, are claiming the spotlight among a new group of supertall buildings being developed across the city. Developers are increasing the size of their mechanical floors on lower levels in order to build taller residential buildings with more condos located in the upper sections of the building, Crain's reports.
In their analysis, Crain's focused on three buildings - The Bauhouse Group developed tower on East 58th Street, The Robert A.M. Stern-designed 220 Central Park South, and another Stern building at 520 Park Avenue.
In the case of all three buildings, developers are using a loophole in the city's laws to create taller buildings without violating building or height restrictions. This is where mechanical floors take center stage. These floors house some of the structure's most vital functions like heating, cooling, backup generators, and water pumps.
Developers for the above-mentioned buildings are creating larger mechanical floors on the lower levels of their residential buildings. These floors do no count towards the overall residential square footage assigned to the building, and as a result, developers are able to build more units higher up - pricier units that command spectacular views of the city.
In the buildings Crain's examined, all three could see their height increase by over 100 feet, pushing the heights of 220 Central Park South and 3 Sutton Place to over 1,000 feet.
[Vornado Realty Trust's 220 Central Park South]
· The little loophole helping developers build higher supertall towers [Crain's]
· 520 Park Avenue Archives [Curbed]
· 220 Central Park South Archives [Curbed]
· 3 Sutton Place Archives [Curbed]
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