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

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

LOCATION OF THE WORLD’S SHALLOWEST (SKINNIEST) BUILDING; VANCOUVER, BC V. PITTSBURGH, PA

THE SAM KEE BUILDING 8 WEST PENDER STREET, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORY: The Sam Kee Company—one of the wealthiest firms in Chinatown—purchased a standard-sized lot in 1903. In 1912, however, Vancouver widened Pender Street and expropriated 24 feet of the above-ground portion of the property—effectively (or so it was first believed) making conventional commercial use of the remaining frontage impractical, if not impossible. In 1913, after refusing the neighbors offer to buy the remaining land, Sam Kee hired an architectural firm to design a building that would fit on the lot. BUILDING DIMENSIONS: Ground floor depth (from storefront to rear of building): 4 feet 11 inches. Second floor depth (from overhanging bay window to rear): 6 feet.  CURRENT USAGE: The building is currently a tourist attraction and also houses an insurance office. CLAIM TO TITLE OF WORLD’S SHALLOWEST BUILDING: ·         The building depth is 4 feet 11 inches on the ground floor. ·         Recognized as the “World’s Shallowest Building” by Guinness World Records

THE HENDEL BUILDING AKA “THE SKINNY BUILDING”  241 FORBES AVE., PITTSBURGH, PA HISTORY: The Hendel Building, more commonly known as the "Skinny Building", is an unusual building in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Skinny Building's narrow lot was created in 1903 by a street widening project. The building itself was constructed in 1926 by Louis Hendel, partly out of spite for neighboring business owners who complained about him obstructing the sidewalk with his fruit-selling business. BUILDING DIMENSIONS: The “Skinny Building” is 80 feet long and 5 feet 3 inches wide. It is a three-story steel-framed building with a brick, wood and glass façade. CURRENT USAGE: The building is currently owned by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation and the Foundation plans to renovate the building as part of the Fourth Avenue Historic District. CLAIM TO THE TITLE OF THE WORLD’S SHALLOWEST BUILDING: ·         At no point along the entire three-story height does the building exceed a depth of 5 feet 3 inches. ·         The second floor of the Sam Kee Building has a depth of 6 feet.