111 West 57th Street (Steinway Tower) is a skyscraper with an aspect ratio of 1:24, meaning its height is 24 times its width. For comparison, a classical column has a ratio of approximately 10:1, while a pencil has a ratio of approximately 15:1.
Photographed by Kir Simakov – he won an award for this image in the architectural photography category in 2025.
It is also one of the tallest residential buildings in the Western Hemisphere (84 stories), built, or rather, built on top of the legendary Steinway Hall.
Historical background: Steinway Hall was built in 1925 by architects Warren & Wetmore, the same architects who built Grand Central Terminal. As the name suggests, the concert hall belonged to the Steinway family, the renowned manufacturer of luxury pianos.
Another particularly striking feature of the tower is that with each floor closer to the top, it seems to become narrower and narrower, until it almost disappears into the sky among the clouds.
This effect is achieved by its decorative spire, constructed from thin vertical ribs. The voids between them open up the sky, forcing the eye to complete the illusion of an almost “transparent” top. Just imagine: the already ultra-slim skyscraper disappearing into the clouds.
The building’s airiness is more than compensated for by the heaviness of its luxury. Firstly, the building doesn’t have multiple apartments per floor; each one occupies its own floor entirely. The cheapest apartment cost $7.75 million. A four-story penthouse for distinguished gentlemen, over a thousand square meters in size, cost $110 million, becoming one of the symbols of the undisguised luxury of New York’s Billionaires’ Row.
To live in such an ultra-skyscraper in a single block with a view of Central Park, the tower’s owners had to pay not only millions but also in comfort. Due to its high center of gravity, the tower sways as much as a meter in windy weather, causing some residents to complain of slight dizziness and motion sickness.
Even the unique façade, covered in terracotta pylons, doesn’t help. Firstly, it’s opulent and beautiful: due to the curvature of the terracotta, the façade changes throughout the day — the ribs cast different shadows in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Therefore, the tower looks not like a flat glass ruler, but like a thin, textured, almost jewel-like object. Secondly, this uneven relief helps “break” the wind: the airflow breaks against the vertical pylons, partially stabilizing the tower itself.
Another compromise is the rather unusual layout of the apartments, which are arranged around the building’s core, where the service shaft and high-speed elevators are located. Despite the 360-degree view, the rooms themselves are quite narrow (yes, ironically — narrow rooms in the narrowest skyscraper) and form a circular labyrinth around the elevators.
And while I’m happy for the residents of 111 West 57th Street, critics call the skyscraper an example of the architecture of “excess capital,” comparing its shape to a wooden coffee stirrer.
And, in my opinion, it’s better to have “needles piercing the skyline” than crack needles in the subway. But many will disagree with me, since “this isn’t housing, it serves no social function, it’s a luxury item,” like “a yacht, only anchored to the ground.”
The architects are the trendy SHoP Architects, the same ones who designed The Copper Towers.
📍Steinway Tower / 111 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019
