Brooklyn Tower vs Central Park Tower

Comparing the Brooklyn Tower and the Central Park Tower is interesting because they both stand in New York, NY, and were completed within 3 years of each other, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

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 Brooklyn Tower reaches 1033ft (315m) with 74 floors above ground.

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 Brooklyn Tower 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 SHoP Architects 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.

Both the Brooklyn Tower and the Central Park Tower were designed to serve as residential towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

In terms of capacity, the Brooklyn Tower offers 550 apartments, while the Central Park Tower provides 179 units.

Both the Brooklyn Tower 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.