Metropolitan North Project | 1,500 FT | 100 FLOORS

This video by @rgarri4 shows the truly monumental impact this tower would have. Like @mcart says, they have done entire rebuilds and historical revivals that are much more difficult before. All you need are the original plans and you can totally complete this building outright. 1,500 feet to the roof, and a spire to push you over 2,000 feet total and you’ve got your icon.

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It’s awesome to see these recreations of the original plan, and I agree it was a huge missed opportunity, but given what we know about the current state of office construction, it’s not realistic to see this building built as originally designed. Modern office tenants want huge, open floorplates and floor to ceiling windows; reviving it as an office tower would require completely re-envisioning the exterior (probably in 90% glass or more), and I have a feeling the building’s E/W elevation is too narrow to support wide open floorplates.

Residential is a different story. We’ve seen with One Wall Street and Woolworth that residential conversions of old Art Deco towers can succeed, although I do think if this was built as a residential, the exterior would be modified with larger windows (think 220 CPS and 520 Park).

The trick is really the neighborhood. This isn’t Midtown where skyscraper canyons are the norm. I can see the neighborhood rallying against such a massive wall of a tower rising in this relatively airy part of Manhattan. But those renderings gave me an idea – what if instead of one tower atop the base, they built two? Just remove the middle and you’ve got a pair of slender supertall condos in a prime neighborhood that preserves a lot of sunlight and views.

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Because WFH is such a trendy thing, use the central span for intimate, private office spaces. Something with windows that can be opened to air out any pathogens. Those things could sell big post-COVID. You’re giving up precious square footage there. For the interiors, imagine rich, wooden textures and mouldings mixed with beautiful marbling and gilded accents and trim pieces. Sure, maybe redesign the windows to be a foot or two wider and taller, but try to keep the exterior relatively masonry-heavy. I think the neighborhood is fine, this isn’t in the no-man’s land of development of the villages, but instead it’s in a neighborhood that may just be chomping at the bit for something big. Anything between 14th and Houston is largely off-limits, but certainly we could push Midtown south to 23rd at the very least? Maybe provide a good multi-million sum to improve Madison Square Park and maybe some funds for the Flatiron as well?

Speaking of going more southward, when are we gonna see the huge portion in between downtown and Midtown get more dense and bigger. I’m not talking about supertalls or anything but it seems pretty small. Maybe when the residential cap is lifted we’ll see more dense developments there.

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What do you think?

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It would certainly restore balance to the Manhattan skyline. It would also be able to largely take the baton from the Empire State Building and advance the Art Deco movement farther down the island. It would also make the city look more like Metropolis than ever before, so that’s a plus!

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Or the NIMBY organizations will continue their grift because they represent high-maintenance wealthy individuals. People who are stuck in the Britney Spears era of New York.

With the original core being restored and the upper floors being built, I estimate this building should have about 3,500,000 to 3,600,000 square feet of total space, accounting for setbacks and things of that nature. Luckily, the setbacks on this building are less severe as the ones on the Empire State Building, so less space is lost from them. I also tacked on a spire to the top of this building @bmosborne so you would understand the vision I am trying to achieve here. Credit goes to him for the original photo.

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Thank you for your edit. If you look at older posts on this page, I have already worked on a few models including this building with a taller spire. Please let me know what you think. I think your spire is amazing, and I love it’s height.

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I wanted this to basically be the Empire State Building without all the drawbacks and cheesy/corny tropes. Call back to the Empire State with a very similar but still larger designed spire, but still do better of course, make it just that much harder to beat. Make it that 500-600 feet more resilient to the modern towers of today, and boom, you’ve got a winner!

How tall do you want it?

I was just comparing this design for the Metropolitan North building to the Empire State Building because this design is 1,500 feet to the roof and about 2,000 feet to the tip. The Empire State Building is 1,454 feet to its own tip. Sorry if I confused you.

This is a great edit from both of you guys, impressive!

Although not to burst your bubble, if this was a proposal as of now people will go full NIMBY because they’ll claim that it’ll take the spotlight of the Empire State building.

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Doubt it. They’ll probably be way more focused on Grand Central or the Helmsley building. Saying such as “It will overwhelm them” As if they’re not already overwhelmed.

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True, but some of the popular views of the ESB are from Brooklyn or when it is framed by one of the towers of the Manhattan Bridge, including from New Jersey, but I do get what you’re saying.

I forgot to mention how NIMBY-wise they’ll feel about the proposal since it’s very close to areas around 23rd street and 14th street since it doesn’t have any skyscrapers.

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You could tack on the Chrysler building to that list as well, they have to add something visible to get some more people on their side.

@mcart @NewYorkCity76

Here’s another rendering with the singular spire and a slightly enlarged tower from an earlier rendering by @bmosborne that has a slightly different camera angle and a later time of day. This one also shows 175 Park Avenue and Hudson Yards much better, so that’s a plus! This also captures more of the industrial loft, edgier, less Finance Bros pressed khakis and clean feel than the first spire rendering I did.

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Awesome shots and edits of the future skyscrapers! The Metropolitan North Project is like a future version of the ESB! :smiley: @bmosborne @Shane_Keena

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I love this building and wish a developer would build it! If the Empire State Building is really losing its status as the crown of midtown, then it is time for a new tower to be built, but it must be at least 1500 ft roof height…

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Well, the balance of architectural power has shifted westward, very westward, in the midtown skyline. It has also shifted towards glass, modernist towers. Hudson Yards has been the main driver of this shift, but you have a decent copilot in Manhattan West and a fair navigator in some of the spillover developments that have been occurring as well. Think of this as the Godfather of architectural storylines. The old Don of the skyline, the Empire State Building, is losing relevance, and fast. He has one son who can take over as Don, but the timing hasn’t been there. Now, the timing may just be there for the son to take over. The other potential candidates are either too frail and skinny, in a bad location to be able to take advantage of a good spot in the skyline, or they waste all their floor area on the lower floors, prohibiting them from building high enough to have an impact. This one does none of those three things, and comes out looking much stronger than the Empire State Building ever could.

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