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Skyscraper shuffles height record books

Bryant Park giant to top Chrysler Building

By Andrew Lisa, amNewYork Business Editor | alisa@am-ny.com

September 27, 2007

The Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park will reshape Manhattan's skyline and force a revision of the record books that catalog the city's giants.

The 54-story building stands 945 feet tall, but tops out at 1,200 feet with the addition of an ornamental spire, inheriting the title of New York's second-tallest skyscraper. It was held by the Chrysler Building since Sept. 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers were destroyed and the Empire State Building returned to the top spot.

"The building is topped off already," said Jordan Barowitz, director of external affairs of the Durst Organization, the real estate development firm that partnered with BofA to erect the building. "The last piece of steel went in a few weeks ago and the first tenants will arrive in May 2008."

One Bryant Park doesn't break any records without its decorative spire, but the use of such a device to raise a tower's bragging rights isn't out of the ordinary.

"It's very common that some ornamental feature would raise the bar that extra bit," said Carol Willis, architectural historian and director of the Skyscraper Museum in Battery Park City. "You saw that historically, certainly with the Chrysler Building and the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, which was the first world's tallest that was not in the United States."

The erection of the twin, bridge-linked Petronas Towers was a watershed moment for architectural classification, she said.

"A different version of 'tallest' came into play with the towers," Willis said. "A controversy arose over the question of [whether] height should be measured from the top of the needle as opposed to the roof ..."

The new World Trade Center's Freedom Tower, for instance, will claim its patriotic 1,776-foot height by means of a massive antenna. The top floor will be more than 400 feet below.

"Historically, skylines change in fits and starts," Willis said. "In boom cycles, a lot of buildings are built -- and sometimes not finished -- before a crash. In good times, people build more buildings and taller buildings. We seem to be in a sort of a mini-boom."

Tall and green
At 54 stories tall, and occupying two acres, the Bank of America Tower will not only be the largest development site in Midtown, but may also be the most environmentally friendly skyscraper in the country.

Consuming much of the west side of Sixth Avenue between 42nd and 43rd streets, the building extends west down the block to the Conde Nast tower.

The site contains 50,000 square feet for the reconstructed Henry Miller's Theater, whose landmarked facade was preserved on 43rd Street.