One57

One57, formerly known as Carnegie 57, is a 75-story, supertall skyscraper at 157 West 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in the Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The building has 92 condominium units on top of a new Park Hyatt Hotel with 210 rooms, the flagship Hyatt property. The tower was developed by Extell Development Company and designed by Christian de Portzamparc. It was the first ultra-luxury condominium tower along a stretch of 57th Street called Billionaires' Row. 
Extell CEO Gary Barnett started acquiring One57's site in 1998, although building plans were not filed until 2009. Construction started in 2010, and work reached the top floor by mid-2012. Toward the end of construction, there were two major incidents at the building: a collapsed construction crane requiring the evacuation of the nearby building, as well as a fire. Upon completion in 2014, it was the tallest residential building in the city for a few months until the completion of 432 Park Avenue. 
The building set the records for the city's most and second-most expensive residences, selling respectively for $100.5 million and $91.5 million. However, sale prices started dropping in the late 2010s due to a general decline in the luxury condominium market in New York City. The tower's design, particularly its facade, was also negatively critiqued upon its completion.
Site.
One57 is in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, just south of Central Park, between Sixth Avenue to the east and Seventh Avenue to the west. The building contains frontage along 57th Street to the south and 58th Street to the north. The irregular site covers , with the 57th and 58th Streets sides being slightly offset. The 57th Street frontage is wide, while the lot has a depth of between the two streets.
One57 immediately adjoins Alwyn Court and the Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing to the west, and occupies the same city block as the Nippon Club, Calvary Baptist Church, 111 West 57th Street, and The Quin to the east. One57 is also near Carnegie Hall and Carnegie Hall Tower to the southwest; the Russian Tea Room and Metropolitan Tower to the south; 130 West 57th Street and 140 West 57th Street to the southeast; and JW Marriott Essex House and Hampshire House to the north. One57 is one of several major developments around 57th Street and Central Park that are collectively dubbed Billionaires' Row by the media. Other buildings along Billionaires' Row include 432 Park Avenue four blocks southeast, 220 Central Park South one block northwest, Central Park Tower one block west, and the nearby 111 West 57th Street.
Design.
The tower, developed by Extell Development Company and designed by French architect Christian de Portzamparc. The interiors are by New York-based designer Thomas Juul-Hansen. The building has a roof height at , and its top floor at .
Facade.
The use of dark and light glass on the building’s exterior creates vertical stripes, while also manipulating sunlight and maximizing views. The tower is characterized by its rippled canopies and numerous setbacks on 57th Street, its mottled fenestration, curved tops, scoops and accentuated verticality.
Interior.
The base of the building contains a Park Hyatt Hotel with 210 rooms, the flagship Hyatt property. As planned, the Hyatt was to include a ballroom, spa, swimming pool, fitness room, and conference rooms.
The building has 92 condominium units above the 20th floor. When One57 was completed, each of the units on the top eleven floors, occupying an entire story, was listed with a starting price of at least $50 million.
History.
Planning.
Extell Development Company’s founder and president, Gary Barnett, acquired the property and air rights over fifteen years, buying the first property on One57's present site in 1998. At first, Barnett said he wanted to build a 40-story, building for $300 million. However, plans for views of Central Park took shape as the assemblage got larger and markets started rising. By 2002, Barnett had acquired a small building at 161 West 57th Street, as well as the air rights over the Chalif School of Dancing at 165 West 57th. The area at the time contained several brownstone townhouses, as well as a parking garage and the Park Savoy hotel. Even though Barnett was able to acquire the garage and townhouses, he did not buy the Park Savoy because the building's owners asked $80 million, almost eight times what Barnett was willing to pay.
By about 2007, Barnett was introduced to Khadem al-Qubaisi, head of Emirati investment funds Aabar Investments and Tasameem Real Estate Company, who agreed to fund the project. The structures between 151 and 161 West 57th Street were being demolished by May 2007, when Barnett announced that a residential and hotel building with at least 50 stories would be built on the site. Demolition was completed that November. No further progress had been made by the following August, when the "New York Post" reported that Extell had not yet filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings. Plans for excavation were filed in November 2008. The following month, Steve Cuozzo of the "New York Post" reported that the website of project contractor Aegis Security Design indicated that the site would include a Park Hyatt hotel, along with stores and luxury condominiums. At the time, Extell was consulting with city agencies to purchase air rights from neighboring sites, including the Alwyn Court and the Chalif School of Dancing.
Plans for a tower at 157 West 57th Street were filed in March 2009. SLCE Architects was listed as the architect of record, with input from Frank Williams and Costas Kondylis, although de Portzamparc was also rumored to be involved. The plans called a 73-story, tower with 210 hotel rooms on the lowest twenty floors, amenity rooms on the 21st story, a mechanical space on the 46th story, and 136 residences on the other stories between floors 22 and 72. De Portzamparc's involvement was confirmed in a September 2009 article in French newspaper "Le Figaro". That November, Aabar announced it had paid Extell for a majority stake in the construction of 157 West 57th Street. The development was to be the first major project in New York City after the financial crisis of 2007–2008; at the time, the city's unemployment rate was a relatively high 10 percent. 
Construction.
Partial work permits for 157 West 57th Street were issued in September 2009. Foundation work started in 2009 and took over a year, because of the difficulty of digging two basement levels and the building's supports. Aside from the foundation work, details on the construction process remained scarce. Revised plans were submitted to the Department of Buildings in March 2010. The changes included adding two floors, combining some of the units into duplex apartments, and enclosing some of the setback terraces that had been included in the original design. Two months later, the media announced that the development would be called Carnegie 57. Upon its expected completion in 2013, Carnegie 57 was to surpass the Trump World Tower as the city's tallest residential building, with a height of just over .
The main contractor, Lend Lease Project Management & Construction, started constructing the skyscraper's reinforced columns in August 2010. At the time, Barnett said Extell was negotiating with a potential lender for a $1.3 billion loan. In May 2011, the project was officially renamed One57, a reference to its address number of 157, as well as the fact that the building would be located on 57th Street. Extell received a $700 million construction loan for the project in October 2011 from a Bank of America-led syndicate that included Banco Santander, Abu Dhabi International Bank and Capital One. Of this loan, $375 million was to be paid off by the expected opening of the Park Hyatt hotel.
Sales at the project officially launched in December 2011. By the next May, Extell announced that One57 was 50% sold with $1 billion in transactions. One of these was a duplex penthouse on the 89th and 90th floors, which sold for $90 million, then a citywide record. Framework for the top floor was completed by October 2012.
Incidents.
On October 29, 2012, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the construction crane on the building partially collapsed, causing thousands of people in the neighborhood to be evacuated for six days. In response to the crane collapse, area dentists filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the evacuation caused a lack of income. The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) also stated they had received multiple complaints about the work site. However, the crane was inspected a week earlier and considered in good shape, leading city officials to call the boom's failure a freakish occurrence. In May 2013, Extell announced plans to hoist a new crane, approved by the DOB. This involved a mandatory evacuation of the neighboring Alwyn Court and Briarcliff apartment buildings, the residents of whom received up to $1,500 each. The coop board at the Alwyn Court attempted to block the forced evacuation, but the crane was hoisted as planned after Extell and the Alwyn signed an undisclosed agreement. Its tasks completed, the replacement crane was removed in November 2013.
On the evening of March 15, 2014, a fire broke out in the loading dock of One57, spreading into the courtyard behind the building and then onto the adjacent property at 152 West 58th Street, which was consequently evacuated.
Post-opening.
By May 2014, the building was 75 percent sold, with sales on thirteen units having been closed and sixty more in contract. The first resale at One57 occurred that October, when a unit was resold for $34 million, a $3.45 million increase from the initial sale price five months prior. By then, competition from other developments on Billionaires' Row had caused sales to stall at just above 75 percent. One57 became the city's most expensive building per square foot by 2015, with residences selling for an average of that year.
Media outlets reported in 2016 that the International Petroleum Investment Company—parent company of the building's main financier, Aabar—was linked to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. Because Aabar's head, al-Qubaisi, had been implicated in the scandal, the financing of One57 was investigated as well. The next year, Nigerian businessman Kola Aluko was investigated for money laundering; the suspected laundering included his purchase of a penthouse apartment at One57. That May saw the first foreclosure in the building, for another apartment. Aluko's $51 million apartment was also foreclosed upon shortly thereafter; it was ultimately sold for $36 million in September 2017, the largest foreclosure auction in city history. The two foreclosures, amid a slowing luxury real estate market, raised public scrutiny about the viability of Billionaires' Row, where more luxury residential towers were being erected at the time.
By late 2018, the luxury real estate market in New York City had stalled. To lure tenants, Extell unveiled new buyer's incentives, offering to waive between three and five years of common charges and pay 50% of broker's commissions. One57 was affected by this downturn, as the average price of units declined from in 2014 to in 2020. The downturn was worsened by a general decrease in real estate activity in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. One57 contained the most expensive residence sold in the city that June: an 88th-story apartment that sold for $28 million, forty-one percent lower than its original price.
Notable residents.
When sales of One57 were launched, Barnett initially did not identify buyers. Nine billionaires including Lawrence Stroll and Silas Chou had purchased full-floor units at One57 by September 2012. The Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, had also agreed to purchase a penthouse unit for $100 million. The building set the record for the city's second-most expensive residence in 2015, when hedge fund manager Bill Ackman bought a 75th floor duplex for $91.5 million. The building also had the city's most expensive residence at the time: the penthouse, which sold for $100.5 million in 2014. The buyer's identity was initially kept secret, but the media subsequently announced that the buyer had been Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell. Additionally, in 2016, Sunline Group chairman Liu Yiqian bought a unit at One57 for $23 million. 
Several prospective residents had their contracts canceled. Barnett refused to sell to British developer Nick Candy and another buyer after they both separately indicated their intentions to renovate their apartments, and entrepreneur Michael Hirtenstein's purchase was canceled after he hired a worker to film his unit, in spite of Barnett's request that buyers not see their units before purchase. 
Critical reception.
One57 was named "Worst Building of the Year" in 2014 by "Curbed", which said, "Pretty much everyone (or at least most archicritics) agrees that its wavy blue facade is ugly." According to "New York" magazine's architecture critic Justin Davidson, One57 was "so clumsily gaudy that a fellow architect surmised [that de Portzamparc] must be a socialist pranking the plutocrats". Another architecture critic, James Russell, characterized the facade as "endless acres of cheap-looking frameless glass in cartoonish stripes and blotches of silver and pewter". Michael Kimmelman, in "The New York Times", contrasted One57's "pox of tinted panes" against de Portzamparc's earlier, "jewel-like" LVMH Tower nearby.
One57 was also criticized for its shape and symbolism. Matthew Shaer of "New York" magazine wrote that the building resembled a "gleaming, tumescent phallus" that stood out from its surroundings, while the "Times" Kimmelman characterized the building's form as "cascade of clunky curves" . Further, Shaer said that many of One57's buyers did not intend to actually become residents, and that the apartments were akin to an "investment, a collectible item, a safe-deposit box" for the ultra-wealthy.