“A Fence Around Central Park”
“One would hope that the city would act as protector of sun and light and clean air and space and parkland. Those elements are essential to combat the stress of urban life.”
–Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1987)
The economic “kick” from the row of super-towers — called “Billionaire’s Row” — now rising along the south end of Manhattan’s Central Park is a one-time event.
By contrast (literally), the loss to the city in terms of sunlight and untrammeled public space is forever.
That’s the takeaway from a study by the Environmental Simulation Center, whose “shadow assessments” calculate that the latest crop of Manhattan condo towers will cast wide swaths of the southern end of Central Park into shadow, especially during the already dimmer, cooler winter months.
In fact, given the physics of such things, the real loser will be the upper East Side, which lies northeast of the new construction.
The effect will be most pronounced in the late afternoon:
“At noon on the winter solstice, for example, shadows reach twice a building’s height and fall due north before stretching to 4.2 times its height in a northeasterly direction, 90 minutes before sunset.”
–Warren St. John, “Shadows Over Central Park“; The New York Times (10/28/2013)
“Ghost Towers,” Real Shadows
If those towers were actually occupied, you could argue that at least there was a corresponding group of “winners” offsetting all the Central Park and upper East Side losers.
But, the reality is that many of the units in these buildings — fetching from $10 million to almost $100(!) million — are third, fourth, or even fifth residences for the global elite who have the money for such things.
The result?
Something like 25% (or less) of the towers will be occupied at any given time.
