Financial capitalism going to heaven the ultrathin ultraluxury supertalls of Manhattan

Abstract

This photo essay is an introduction to a new architectural typology that has emerged as recently as in the 2010s: the speculatively built ultrathin, ultraluxury residential skyscraper, serving as the apotheosis of architecture and global finance intertwined. In stark contrast to what their marketing materials suggest, these supertalls are rarely lived in. Their primary purpose is to store the surplus capital of their ultrawealthy buyers safely—and, of course, to generate jaw-dropping returns for the development companies. Ultraluxury supertalls are present in many global metropolises. Still, in this essay, I will focus on Manhattan, where the skyline has been radically reshaped in the past 10 years by this new crop of skyscrapers, many built around 57th Street, also known as Billionaires’ Row. The paper, accompanied by photographs of the views of some of these towers, will aim to describe this new architectural typology, its target audience, legislative origins, and engineering records and give a feel into what it is like to be on the top of the world—or at least own a few thousand square feet of it. The text is based on artistic research methods: while posing as Gabriella, an apartment-hunting Hungarian billionaire, I accessed and documented the views of 25 of these buildings. Thus, this essay is enriched with details from sales brochures and photographs and transcribed conversation fragments from the viewings.