432 PARK AVENUE – NEW YORK CITY

432 Park Avenue is a residential skyscraper at 57th Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, overlooking Central Park. The 1,396-foot-tall tower was developed by CIM Group and Harry B. Macklowe and designed by Rafael Viñoly. A part of Billionaires' Row, 432 Park Avenue has some of the most expensive residences in the city, with the median unit selling for tens of millions of dollars. At the time of its completion in 2015, 432 Park Avenue was the third-tallest building in the United States and the tallest residential building in the world. As of 2023, it is the sixth-tallest building in the United States, the fifth-tallest building in New York City, and the third-tallest residential building in the world.

432 Park Ave. New York, NY

STEINWAY TOWER (111 WEST 57TH STREET)

 

111 West 57th Street, also known as Steinway Tower, is a supertall residential skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.  The 60 apartments in the tower range in cost from $18 million to $66 million per unit, and offer 360-degree views of the city. It is located just south of Central Park, along a stretch of Manhattan’s 57th Street known as “Billionaires’ Row.”  The main portion of the building is an 84-story, 1,428-foot (435-meter) tower designed by SHoP Architects and completed in 2021.  The tower is the fourth-tallest building in the United States as of November 2022, as well as the thinnest skyscraper in the world with a width-to-height ratio of about 1:24.

STEINWAY TOWER
111 WEST 57TH STREET
NEW YORK, CITY

KENNETH C. GRIFFIN – RESIDENTIAL PURCHASES – NYC AND CHICAGO

 

Kenneth Griffin, born October 15, 1968 is an American billionaire hedge fund manager, entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder, chief executive (CEO), Co-Chief Investment Officer (Co-CIO) and majority owner of the investment firm Citadel.  Griffin owns an expansive private luxury real estate portfolio valued at around $1 billion.  In 2019 Griffin set the record for the most expensive residential sale ever closed in the U.S., when he purchased roughly 24,000 square feet across three floors at 220 Central Park South for $238 million. The space was “raw space” meaning Griffin had to build it out.  In 2017 Griffin, who is a resident of Chicago, purchased a penthouse apartment atop the No. 9 Walton, a luxury condo tower, for $58.75 million. The purchase broke the record for the most expensive sale in Chicago’s history.

220 Central Park South is a residential skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, situated along Billionaires' Row on the south side of Central Park South between Broadway and Seventh Avenue. 220 Central Park South is composed of two sections: a 70-story, 950-foot tower on 58th Street that is the 17th-tallest building in New York City, and an 18-story section on Central Park South.

Looking east along 58th Street across 9th Avenue
By Jim.henderson - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82938492

1717 BROADWAY

1717 Broadway is a skyscraper located in Manhattan, New York City. At 750 feet high, it is the tallest hotel in North America. The building contains two hotels, the Courtyard New York Manhattan/Central Park and the Residence Inn New York Manhattan/Central Park, with a total of 639 rooms.

1717 BROADWAY SEEN IN FEBRUARY 2017

BROOKLYN-BATTERY (HUGH L. CAREY) TUNNEL

The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (officially the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel) is a tolled tunnel in New York City that connects Red Hook in Brooklyn with Battery Park in Manhattan. The tunnel consists of twin tubes that each carry two traffic lanes under the mouth of the East River. I-478 is the official route designation for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and its approaches, although it is not signed as such. With a length of 9,117 feet, the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in North America.

U.S. SHARK INJURIES VS. BITE INJURIES IN NEW YORK CITY

75 ½ BEDFORD STREET – THE NARROWEST HOUSE IN NEW YORK

75 ½ Bedford Street is a house located in the West Village neighborhood of New York City that is only 9 feet 6 inches wide. Built in 1873, it is often described as the narrowest* house in New York. Its past tenants have included Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ann McGovern, cartoonist William Steig and anthropologist Margaret Mead. The three-story house is located between Commerce and Morton Streets, not far from Seventh Avenue South in the West Village section of Manhattan. It is considered the narrowest* townhouse in New York City by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. On the inside, the house measures 8 feet 7 inches wide, and at its narrowest, it is only two feet wide. The external dimensions of the house are approximately 9.5 feet by 42 feet, on a lot that is 80 feet deep. City records list the house as 999 square feet. The current owner is George Gund IV (son of sports entrepreneur George Gund III), who purchased the house for $3.25 million in June 2013. *According to Wikipedia, New York City tax records suggests that several residential buildings may be smaller, The tax files list a 9-foot wide house that shares a lot with a larger house on East 27th Street in Manhattan, and a corner building in Greenpoint in Brooklyn with an office on the ground floor listed at just under 8 feet. (Your humble blogger is not inclined to conduct any further investigation, and is going with 75 ½ Bedford as being the narrowest house in NYC).

75 ½ Bedford Street, New York City

PENNSYLVANIA 6-5000

The telephone number in the Glen Miller Orchestra’s hit song “Pennsylvania 6-5000” (1940) is the number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. The number is now written as 1-212-736-5000. According to the hotel’s website, Pennsylvania 6-5000 is New York’s oldest continually assigned telephone number and possibly the oldest continually-assigned number in the world.

15 TALLEST BUILDINGS IN MANHATTAN

VERNON C. BAIN CENTER (VCBC)

The Vernon C. Bain Center (VBC), also known as the Vernon C. Bain Maritime Facility and by the nickname “The Boat” is the world’s largest prison barge.

“The Boat” is an 800-bed jail barge used to hold inmates for the New York City Department of Corrections. The barge is anchored off the Bronx's southern shore, near Hunts Point. It was built in New Orleans along the Mississippi River for $161 million in Avondale Shipyard, and brought to New York in 1992 to reduce overcrowding in the island's land-bound buildings for a lower price. It is designed to handle inmates from medium- to maximum-security in 16 dormitories and 100 cells. Currently the only barge in use, the Vernon C. Bain Center is the third prison barge that the New York Department of Corrections has used. The added security of the prison being on water has prevented at least four attempted escapes. The barge is named in memorial for warden Vernon C. Bain who died in an automobile accident.

Vernon C. Bain Center - "The Boat"

NEW YORK CITY PARKS

There are 4 parks in NYC larger than Central Park.

TOP 10 NEW YORK CITY PARKS BY AREA
PARK	BOROUGH	AREA/ACRES
Pelham Bay Park	Bronx	2,765
Greenbelt	Staten Island	1,178
Van Cortlandt Park	Bronx	1,146
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park	Queens	897
Central Park	Manhattan	843
Freshkills Park	Staten Island	813
Marine Park	Brooklyn	798
Bronx Park	Bronx	718
Alley Pond Park	Queens	655
Forest Park	Queens	544

SKYSCRAPERS - CENTRAL PARK TOWER

CENTRAL PARK TOWER: 

·         225 West 57^th Street, NYC

·         Also known as the Nordstrom Tower

·         Supertall mixed-use commercial/residential tower

·         Height to roof: 1,550 feet

·         Total height: 1,775 feet (one foot shorter than the World Trade Center)

·         Floor count: 130 (95 habitable)

·         Second-tallest skyscraper in the U.S.

·         Tallest building by roof height in the U.S. surpassing the Willis Tower

·         Construction started: 2014

·         Completion scheduled: 2020

NEW YORK CITY TAXI DRIVERS

TOP 5 FIRST NAMES OF NEW YORK CITY TAXI DRIVERS
1	Md
2	Mohammad
3	Mohammed
4	Muhammad
5	Mohamed

Frequency of Names Per 10k of Drivers