Jami Schlicher, a spokeswoman for the project’s other developer, CIM Group, said in a statement that the tower was designed and built by world-class professionals and was considered safe by inspectors. She called claims of the facade’s deterioration “baseless” and said accusations that the developer ignored risks were “categorically untrue, defamatory and yet another misstep by the board that will drive down property values.”
Other recently built luxury high-rise condominiums have had problems too. But some of the issues at 432 Park, including the persistent cracks and counterweight problems, may trace back to its development team’s insistence on its distinctive white color. The tower was a building where everything — its exterior, its height and its slenderness — “was pushed to a limit,” Jose Torero, head of the department of civil, environmental and geomatic engineering at University College London, said.
It has attracted keen interest from engineering experts across the globe — first for its daring design and now for its many problems.
It is not uncommon for the city to mandate the installation of sidewalk sheds when there is a risk of falling debris. But city officials said they have no cause for such a move here.“None of the parties associated with the building have approached D.O.B. with new information indicating structural stability or life safety concerns with the building,” Mr. Rudansky said.
Still, worsening cracks could lead to greater risk for pedestrians, said Mr. Bongiorno, who is not involved in the tower lawsuits.
Some residents think the construction issues are overblown and are costing them far too much in legal fees. Others believe the building is being mismanaged. One particular sore spot is a $5.3 million renovation of the private restaurant that condo owners have been asked to pay for.
Michael Rothfeld and Bianca Pallaro contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy, Kitty Bennett, Kirsten Noyes and Joy Dong contributed research.
Seeking what he once called an “absolutely pure” building, Harry Macklowe, a well-known New York developer, tore down the luxury Drake Hotel and commissioned Rafael Viñoly, the Uruguayan modernist, to design a perfectly rectilinear body for a tower on the site. They assembled engineers, construction firms and concrete specialists to carry out the vision.The tower at 432 Park Avenue was set to become the tallest residential building in the world and one of the slimmest. Its “slenderness” ratio is 15 to one; by comparison the Empire State Building has a ratio of three to one because it has a much wider base.Mr. Macklowe, who was responsible for avant-garde projects such as the glass cube Apple store on Fifth Avenue, wanted something that would distinguish it from nearby glassy towers topped by swoops and flourishes.“It looks very simple,” Justin Peters, a project executive for Lendlease, the construction manager at 432 Park, told the trade publication Engineering News-Record. “It isn’t.”The design was a marketing hit, with the building’s 125 units selling for over $2.5 billion, according to the real estate data analysis company Marketproof. Early buyers included Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez and the Saudi retail magnate Fawaz Alhokair.
But its success has been marred by infighting among its wealthy residents, who cannot agree on how to solve the building’s growing list of problems without hurting property values.The condo board at 432 Park has filed two separate suits accusing the building’s team of developers of selling them defective units and of fraudulently covering up the issues.This summer, Mr. Macklowe tried to sell his three units in the building. He had to drop his plan, because he had defaulted on the loans used to buy them.A representative for Mr. Macklowe declined to comment. Mr. Viñoly died in 2023; a spokesman for the firm did not return repeated requests for comment. WSP, the firm that led the structural engineering of the tower, declined comment.
A Stressed BuildingAll concrete is vulnerable to some cracking, according to engineering experts interviewed by The New York Times, who emphasized the tower was built to code and designed to withstand high winds. None suggested there is any risk of a cataclysmic event, such as a collapse.But there have been warning signs that the building may not be performing as intended. The heavy suspended weight system designed to reduce sway and keep residents from feeling seasick has undergone extensive repairs, according to private communications between the condo board and residents.In all, the problems at 432 Park could cost over $100 million to remedy, according to engineering reports that the condo board commissioned and the independent engineers who reviewed the tower’s condition. And further cracking could present a danger to pedestrians below, the experts said.“The building is being stressed beyond what was intended,” said Steve Bongiorno, a structural engineer in New York who was consulted on an early bid for the design of the building and has continued to closely track its issues.
Engineers sent around photos of the defects to others tied to the project in hopes of finding solutions, according to emails from the suit.One recipient was Silvian Marcus, a structural engineer at WSP who had worked on the rippling facade of Frank Gehry’s 8 Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan, and was enlisted as part of the team for 432 Park.Concerned with the cracks in the model columns, Mr. Marcus recommended adding flyash to the mix, a byproduct of coal combustion often used to make concrete more durable.“They will not accept flyash (color is too dark),” replied Hezi Mena, an engineer who was then a senior associate at WSP, in a December 2012 email.There were two options, Mr. Marcus replied: “Color or cracks.”Construction at the Midtown site was set to start, and time was running out. The team, Mr. Marcus wrote, should not still have been experimenting.
Mr. Macklowe was at the vanguard of the luxury condo craze in the 2010s, fueled mostly by overseas investors seeking trophy pieds-à-terre. To attract this discerning clientele, Mr. Macklowe sought simplicity.He enlisted the firm of Mr. Viñoly, both celebrated and criticized for his bold designs. (His crescent-shaped Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas had been nicknamed the “death ray” after complaints that its glassy surface magnified sun rays, singeing hair off poolside guests and melting plastic.)For the tower at 432 Park, the two men collaborated on a grid-like facade that drew inspiration from the understated elegance of a trash can designed by the influential Austrian designer Josef Hoffmann.But the design was proving difficult to execute, as the cracking continued.The developers brought on a series of consultants who reached similar conclusions: The cracking was bound to get worse, and a lasting fix would be costly.They called for painting the building with an elastomeric coating — a thick, rubbery membrane that would seal the cracks and protect the exterior from air and water seeping in.
But the coating would give the building a glossy sheen that clashed with the developers’ vision.Instead, Mr. Macklowe suggested workers apply a clear-coat finish similar to the product used to patch the yacht he raced in European regattas.Over the next few weeks, developers argued with a rotating cast of consultants, some of whom they eventually fired.One of the development team’s own engineers, Mr. Marcus, sided with consultants who had endorsed the more inelegant coating, even though it could “have appearance impact,” he wrote in an October 2013 email.“You are not being at all helpful!” Bill Unger, a senior member of 432 Park’s development team, shot back in an email.
An electrical mishap the week before Thanksgiving in 2019 knocked out power, leading residents to seek refuge at the Four Seasons Hotel. The swaying in one apartment was so bad that an engineering firm was hired to steady the unit.Representatives for the developers have said the complaints were overblown, fueled by an engineering and legal industry that thrives off litigation between condo boards and developers. Many construction issues have been addressed, they said, and the condo board has failed to fulfill some of its upkeep and maintenance obligations on the facade. They have also argued that the court deadline has expired to file many of the claims the condo board is now making.
But some engineering experts see many of the inconveniences as symptoms of problems with the building’s design.All tall buildings sway in the wind, but supertall skinny towers move more. At 432 Park, designers expected the building to sway several feet — enough for water to slosh in bathtubs and chandeliers to jingle.Like other supertall towers, 432 Park relies on the counterweight system to address the forces of wind and reduce the feeling of swaying for residents. But unlike many other supertall towers that are tiered or taper toward the top, 432 Park is rectangular, making it less aerodynamic.The developers believed that their boxy design would work, thanks to a series of open-air floors that allow wind to pass through.But the rapid appearance of cracks, the emergence of new ones and past breakdowns in the counterweight system all point to the building facing unexpected stress from wind, said Scott Chen, a forensic engineer in Melbourne, Australia, who studied the building.
“There’s no sidewalk shed that’s going to protect you from chunks of concrete popping off a 1,400-foot building,” he said.Anthony Ingraffea, an expert in concrete fractures and a Cornell University engineering professor emeritus who reviewed photos from the inspections of 432 Park, described some of the defects as cosmetic for now, but said others have potential to peel off the building and become “concrete hand grenades.” “I would not sign off as a licensed engineer in the State of New York that this building will last forever,” Mr. Ingraffea said. “I would sign a document that says the Empire State Building will last. This building, I doubt it.” A Long ShadowThe residents at 432 Park are divided on the remedy to the building’s problems, according to court documents and emails obtained by the Times.Recent estimates for repairs would involve filling cracks, reinforcing columns, adding a new cladding system to prevent water damage and the application of an elastomeric coating — the same fix the developers initially resisted.
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