1717 Broadway Building vs Central Park Tower

Comparing the 1717 Broadway Building and the Central Park Tower is interesting because they both rise in New York, NY, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Nobutaka Ashihara and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than 7 years apart.

This contrast within the same city allows us to see how different creative minds interpreted the evolving needs of New York across time.

Let's take a closer look!

The Central Park Tower is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 1549ft (472m) with 98 floors above ground, while the 1717 Broadway Building reaches 715ft (218m) with 68 floors above ground.

Central Park Tower also offers more total built-up area, a total fo 1,285,307 sqf (119,409m²), which is about 945,307 sqf (87,822m²) more than what the 1717 Broadway Building offers.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the 1717 Broadway Building and the Central Park Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Contemporary style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Nobutaka Ashihara and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The 1717 Broadway Building is primarily hotel, while the Central Park Tower is primarily residential.

The 1717 Broadway Building incorporates a 4-star hotel with 639 rooms. More information is available at the official website.

The Central Park Tower offers 179 residential units.

Both the 1717 Broadway Building and the Central Park Tower rely on a Frame structural system.

A frame structure uses a grid of columns and beams to carry the building's loads. This frees the walls from structural duties, allowing for flexible floor plans and larger windows.

They also employ the same type of facade, a Curtain Wall facade.

A curtain wall is a non-load-bearing facade hung from the structural frame. It is anchored to floor slabs and transfers only its own weight and wind loads, allowing for sleek, glassy exteriors.