New York's Leaning Tower

The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

On Thursday evening I passed by New York’s leaning tower. We’ve all heard of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The modern day equivalent of that is the Millennium Tower in San Francisco. That building is leaning nearly 60cm, a little over 2 feet. Several attempts have been made to stabilize the Millennium Tower by underpinning the foundation and have actually destabilized the building even further.

New York’s leaning tower is right on the East River and I was speaking on a yacht full of investors while taking a tour of NY Harbor. I got a close up first hand view of the building. We passed my so many iconic landmarks from the water including Rikers Island, Ellis Island, Lady Liberty, the Battery, the new Freedom Tower. I was even able to get a photograph of one of my mother’s buildings from the water. She was an architect in Manhattan at one of New York’s premiere architecture firms.

The building in question has been fully erected, all 60 stories of poured concrete. It's all happening over at One Seaport or 161 Maiden Lane: 60 storeys of prime real estate on Manhattan’s East River waterfront. At first glance it may look like any other construction project downtown. But look a lot closer, and you’ll find it’s actually leaning 8 centimetres, or three inches, to the north. The North side of the building consists of a sheer wall made of solid concrete. It’s an incredibly narrow building. From the water it seems pencil thin.

Manhattan island is ideal for building tall buildings. Most of it sits on solid bedrock which is made mostly of slate. But a building which is directly on the East River will have brackish salt water do contend with at the foundation level which will make the soil underneath the tower more fluid.

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