SHoP-Designed 57th Street Tower Will Stand 1,421 Feet Tall

As it turns out, the SHoP-designed supertall tower at 111 West 57th Street will not stand 1,397 feet tall. It will be even taller. Crain's unearthed new documents last week, and reps for the project confirm, that the skinny skyscraper, developed by JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group, will soar to 1,421 feet, topping 432 Park Avenue by 24 feet. The documents relate to wind loads for the building, and they were recently posted on the Skyscraper forum. Department of Buildings filings state that the building will stand 1,397 feet tall, but these documents indicate that the crown will push the height well beyond that, meaning that the tower, which already nabbed a superlative for being the world's skinniest skyscraper, will also grab the title of the tallest residential building in the city (and the hemisphere)—that is, if it reaches the top before Extell's Nordstrom Tower.

In other news, Michael Stern, of JDS Development Group, also plans to build the tower without union labor (he did the same at Walker Tower). Extell boss Gary Barnett told Crain's, "If they built that tower nonunion, it would be unprecedented." Of the seven supertall towers going up in the city, 111 West 57th is the only one to use non-union labor, and union leaders are not pleased. The president of the Building and Construction Trades Council told Crain's, "If Mike Stern wants to run his mouth, that's fine, but I don't know how it's going to get built. This is a needle in the haystack—an experiment more than anything else."

· West 57th St. tower aims to be hemisphere's tallest [Crain's]
· Nonunion West 57th St. spire aims to shatter record [Crain's]
· All 111 West 57th Street coverage [Curbed]