New York Ready to Regain Tall-Building Title From Chicago

New York City may be one-upping Chicago — again — in a tall-building contest.

Reportedly surpassing 1,450 feet, the Big Apple’s Central Park Tower under construction appears to be ready to snatch the last remaining title away from Willis Tower, for four decades the tallest building in the United States and, for 25 years, in the entire world, back when it was called the Sears Tower.

Once completed — and properly measured — the Central Park Tower could take the No. 1 spot in tallest roof height in the Western Hemisphere. But there’s still no certainty, according to Daniel Safarik, editor of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s publication. The council is a nonprofit group based in Chicago that tracks such milestones.

“What we don’t have is the verification of exactly what level they’ve gotten to, how much is actually constructed,” Safarik said. “It’s not an official statistic that we track until the building reaches that level.”

Besides, he said, there’s no way of knowing exactly what that height is until the Central Park Tower is completed, which isn’t expected until next year. New York’s Extell Development, the tower's builder, did not respond to a request for comment.

In its marketing materials, Extell expects Central Park Tower, which will have stunning views of Central Park, to take the title of tallest residential building in the world upon completion. The 179 condominiums and penthouses also come at a tall price, ranging from $6.9 million to $63 million.

That’s got analysts tallying the predicted sellout price at $4 billion, putting it on track to become the nation’s priciest residential tower. Located at 217 W. 57th St., that might be appropriate considering the street’s “Billionaires’ Row” moniker.

In Chicago, the city seems to be shaking off the punch. It’s not like what happened in 2013 when New York pinched the Willis Tower title of tallest building in the United States with One World Trade Center.

At issue then was not the absolute height of the building — the roof lines on Willis Tower are about 116 feet higher than One World Trade Center’s —but on the tiptop elevation of what’s on the roof and whether it’s actually part of the structure.

In Willis’ case, the issue is antennas, moveable, replaceable functioning objects. In One World Trade Center’s case, it’s a spire with a beacon that sits atop it, reaching 1,776 feet, meant to commemorate America’s independence on the site of the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed by terrorists on 9/11.

At least that’s what architect David Childs from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill SOM and representatives of the New York Port Authority that were overseeing the construction told the Council on Tall Buildings committee making the official determination, Safarik said.

When making such lofty decisions, the council measures what’s called height-to-tip, or the “absolute silhouette of the building as measured to the top of its highest architectural element,” he said. That object is meant to be a permanent part of the design, not an antenna or a flagpole or a windmill.

“It’s really all about the beacon that sits at the top of the spire,” Safarik said. “The thing that supports the beacon is a spire. It may be festooned with functional uses, like antennas and such, but its purpose is to hold the lantern at 1,776 feet.” Aesthetic judgments aside, One World Trade Center wiggled its way to the top.

“We got a lot of hate mail on that one,” Safarik said.

It also drew the ire of then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who wasn’t shy about expressing his opinion. “If it looks like an antenna, acts like an antenna, then it is an antenna,” Emanuel reportedly said after the decision was announced.

“At the Willis Tower, you have a panoramic view that is unmatched,” he said. “You can’t get a view like that from an antenna.”

And so it is. But Safarik notes that Willis Tower still has a very important title: tallest tower in Chicago. At least for now.