Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogelbaumb here we humans love a superlative. There are world records out there for the tallest buildings, both residential and unoccupied, for the largest permanent vertical maze, and the largest playing card structure. But today we're talking about the world's skinniest skyscraper. It's called Steinway Tower, and it's located at one eleven West fifty seventh Street in New York City.
The building stands one four hundred and twenty eight feet tall. That's four hundred and thirty five meters, but it's no more than sixty feet wide. That's eighteen meters, giving it a width ratio of twenty four to one. If you're having trouble imagining the width of this building, you could think of it as about one and a half full sized school buses long, or just shy of the distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate on a Major League Baseball pitch. But it is really tall. Only two
other skyscrapers in New York City are taller. There's the one World Trade Center, which stands at one thousand, seven hundred and seventy six feet that's five hundred and forty one meters tall, and Central Park Tower, which is one thousand, five hundred and fifty feet or four hundred and seventy two meters tall, but each of those are over three times as wide as the Steinway. Steinway Tower was so named because it's built above the famed Steinway and Son's
Piano company headquarters. It cost two billion dollars to build and is in a high rent district smack dab in the middle of the southern end of Central Park. This stretch of ultra luxury real estate is aptly nicknamed Billionaire's Row. A Construction on the eighty four floor tower began in twenty thirteen, and the building, with sixty condos total, began
welcoming residents in April of twenty twenty two. The cheapest condo in Steinway Tower will reportedly set you back seven point seventy five million dollars, with prices rising to more than sixty six million for the Penthouse. This is a three story condo connected by an oval staircase, with over seven thousand square feet in its floor plan that's over six hundred square meters. It includes four bedrooms, five baths, fourteen foot high ceilings that's about four meters, and a
private elevator. But if you're interested, sorry, it's off the market. It's sold to an international buyer who only viewed it virtually. Most New Yorkers are happy to get a building with a washer and dryer in the basement, But as you might expect, Steinway Tower offers a few more amenities, including a twenty four hour concierge and door attendant, a twenty five meters swimming pool it's about eighty feet, a fitness center, private shops, and a private dining room. There is a
slight downside to living among the clouds. The dimensions of the tower make it highly susceptible to swaying when it's hit by high winds as much as three feet that's almost a full meter. Some visitors have complained of severe nausea because of the swaying. A nearby residential building four thirty two Park Avenue has been beset by engineering problems, including sway, and those issues have been difficult to repair
because of the building's height. Whatever else they may have done in creating Steinway Tower, the building's designers were attempting to create something bold and memorable. While not the tallest building in the world, it looks like they've fulfilled that mission, though one critic who was not impressed with Steinway Tower's dimensions said, these are not the proportions of a classical column, but of a coffee stirer. This less than flattering nickname,
the coffee Stirer, has stuck. Today's episode is based on the article maybe you can be Too Thin Meet the World's skinniest skyscraper on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Patti Resmusen. Brainstuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com, and is produced by Tyler Klain. The four more podcasts from my Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.