More Skyscrapers Coming Soon to New York City's Skyline

Stefanos Chen reports on the next wave of skyscrapers expected to transform the New York City skyline, following a high-rise building boom that has added numerous luxury condo towers to the city in recent years.

"There are currently nine completed towers in New York that are over 1,000 feet tall, and seven of them were built after 2007. Nearly twice that many — another 16 such towers — are being planned or are under construction, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a Chicago-based nonprofit that tracks high-rise construction," according to Chen.

Chen describes the wave of construction as unprecedented, and also writes that the city's skyline "looks starkly different than it did a decade ago, redrawn by the massive Hudson Yards project on the West Side of Manhattan; a profusion of towers on and around Billionaires’ Row in Midtown; and the revitalization of Lower Manhattan, with One World Trade Center leading the way."

The article includes images of Lower Manhattan from 1925, 1980, 2001, and 2019; the East Side of Manhattan from 1931, 1960, and 2019; and the West Side of Manhattan from 1931, 1984, and 2019. The article places the plans for new skyscrapers in context of the technological innovations that enabled new building heights, and the cultural importance of skyscrapers to the popular imagination of the city.

In a follow up article, Ryan Deffenbaugh examines five examples of skyscrapers that will leave a lasting mark on the city's skyline in the near future: Tower Fifth, Central Park Tower, 111 West 57th Street, JPMorgan Headquarters, and One Vanderbilt.