CitySpire Center

CitySpire Center is located in midtown Manhattan between West 55th and West 56th Streets and 6th and 7th Avenues. It is New York City’s tallest mixed-used skyscraper. The bottom 23 floors of the tower are for commercial use and above it are luxury apartments which increase in size the higher they are. It was also the 2nd tallest concrete skyscraper in the world when it was completed. The building is owned by Tishman Speyer Properties.

The architect of the CitySpire Center became Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn, Inc. Architects. The construction was finished in 1987. The building is 248 metres (814 feet) tall and it has 75 floors. The tower exceeded the allowed height by 4 metres (14 feet), but the government and residents have exaggerated the problem into a scandal, causing CitySpire Center owners to create three floors of new dance studios over a passageway adjoining his tower and give them to the city's Cultural Affairs Department as a "punishment". According to some neighbouring residents the top of the building whistled. This problem was caused by wind and it was immediately solved.

The plan of this octagonal glass tower consists of short streamlined extension wings, the whole rising in triple setbacks, ending in a domed top which is illuminated with a white light at night. The real strength of the building is its lobby, one of the most attractive in the city. Other parts of the building also show detailed planning.

CitySpire Center together with Carnegie Hall Tower and the Metropolitan Tower create midtown’s most staggering and awesome grouping of skyscrapers. CitySpire Center is the tallest of all three. Despite all these facts, it is the least well-known of all New York skyscrapers, probably because of its central position between other high buildings and the fact, that it is not seen from outside the island of Manhattan.