James von Klemperer, president of the skyscraper-friendly firm Kohn Pedersen Fox, says slender high-rises are prone to such issues, but they’re entirely avoidable.

Curbed asked three engineering experts the same question to vastly different responses. But will they inevitably face a similar fate? “Camouflage” is quite the euphemism, especially considering how The Cut referred to the building as “the most wretched of hellholes.” According to reports, several of these issues are quietly afflicting other residential supertalls, too. (The Times notes that number is more than twice the median household income in the Bronx.) She adds: “Everything here was camouflage.” The icing on the cake? “Everybody hates each other here,” said Abramovich, who now faces $82,000 in late fees and interest for refusing to cover recent increases in common charges. When it opened, in 2015, homeowners were obligated to spend $1,200 per year on the service that requirement jumped to $15,000 in 2021 despite reduced hours because of the pandemic.ĥ. Residents also lamented surging fees at 432 Park’s private restaurant, which is helmed by Michelin-star chef Shaun Hergatt. Residents have compared the building’s creaky walls to “the galley of a ship.” The worst of the cacophony comes from the communal garbage chute, which “sounds like a bomb” when bags tumble down.Ĥ. The building’s insurance costs skyrocketed 300 percent in two years thanks to two 2018 water-related incidents that cost $9.7 million in covered losses.ģ. An anonymous buyer cited a “catastrophic water flood” as grounds to exit a deal to buy an 84th-floor unit in 2016. These were caused by a “blown” flange and a “water line failure” that caused water to enter elevator shafts, removing two of the building’s four residential elevators from service for weeks. 432 Park has suffered several floods, one of which caused an estimated $500,000 in property damage to Abramovich’s apartment. “That’s how I went up to my hoity-toity apartment before closing.”Ģ. “They put me in a freight elevator surrounded by steel plates and plywood, with a hard-hat operator,” she said. When Sarina Abramovich and her husband, who bought a high-floor unit for $17 million, was scheduled to move in, the building was still under construction.

Blame the structure’s staggering height, which has far surpassed the engineering breakthroughs required to enable such sky-high trophy apartments.ġ.

Residents of 432 Park are reportedly sparring with developers (and each other) over millions of dollars worth of water damage from mechanical and plumbing issues, frequent elevator malfunctions, and unbearably creaky walls when the building shimmies during high winds. The high life, it turns out, comes with drawbacks. Along with fellow elongated toothpick One57, the $3.1 billion building helped inaugurate what’s now known as Billionaire’s Row, the stretch of ultra-luxury supertalls that redefined the city skyline with a shimmering swath of “middle fingers”-or are they more like sore thumbs? Macklowe and designed by Rafael Viñoly, the 1,400-foot-tall skyscraper became the Western Hemisphere’s tallest residential building when it opened in 2014. If you missed the damning New York Times exposé of what it’s like to live in Manhattan’s 432 Park Avenue, you’re in for gleeful schadenfreude.

Downside life supertall leaks creaks