Listen........i ain't no architect ........ but when i look at this monstrosity......even i could have told you....... that is going to be bernard /barney/barney rubble......trouble (cockney ......... for you non brits ).......didn't any of these jack offs ........know this was a fucking dinosaur ......unless it is rubber ....... you going to get cracks ...it is what concrete does ........ a fuckin needle too .......i cannot believe they built......... and sold that fucking eyesore........ .........it will be fun to watch it 9/11 ......... fifty bucks says its a demo job .....whoever thought this was going to be okay...... should be fired ........ what a waste of cash ....... who wants to live that high in the sky anyways!!!!..... you fucking morons ........ i have always said .....condos are like fucking rat cages ........ you are piled on top of cunts .......and you do not own it ........ you own the empty air inside ........ you cannot do fuck all .....whoever thought about this...... must be high as fuck .......anyways i always though you can only go si high with concrete and if poured fast it is not good ,....but hey!!!!!......what the fuck do i know....... i am just a vanilla gorilla........ looking for a table danc ......billionaires with all their money .........would have thought ......just look at this eyesore.......... it was a fucking bad investment ........i have never understood why people want to live that high in the sky !!!!!......i lived on the 5 floor ......... and that was way...... way... way ........ too much ....i like my plates/plates of meat /feet (cockney slang .....!!!)........firmly on the terra firma ...........
- Are you a disgruntled 432 Park Avenue resident? Contact laura.parnaby@dailymail.com
Its bizarre proportions rise unnervingly for 102 floors above New York City's toniest streets.
And now building safety experts say there is good reason to be unsettled by 432 Park Avenue, a super-tall but ultra-skinny condo tower filled with 125 apartments on Manhattan's 'Billionaires' Row.'
The skyscraper - which only opened in 2015 - is covered in cracks and cavities, after developers insisted on an aesthetically pleasing white concrete facade which experts claim has serious flaws.
Jennifer Lopez and ex-boyfriend Alex Rodriguez paid $15.3 million for their apartment in 432 Park in 2018, giving the high-rise instant Hollywood cachet.
They sold it a year later for $17.5 million after deeming it too small to raise their blended family, although a photo of A-Rod using the toilet snapped from a neighboring building also sparked privacy concerns.
The A-list stars will now likely be counting their blessings, after a New York Times report said the building faces a $160 million repair bill just to fix its facade, with one expert even predicting that the skyscraper could be abandoned.
Engineering experts told the newspaper that the cracks and gouges on the facade of 432 Park suggest it is being 'overtaxed by wind and rain'.
Those same engineers said that unless developers spend a nine-figure sum to fix the tower then residents may need to evacuate - and the towering structure could even pose a danger to pedestrians on the street below.
The exterior of 432 Park Avenue today. Look more closely and you'll see a host of worrying issues, engineers warn
Cracks are seen on the concrete facade of the 40th floor of 432 Park Avenue in January 2023
Anthony Ingraffea, a concrete fractures expert who is also an engineering professor emeritus at Cornell University, said that left as is, 432 Park Avenue could eventually rain 'concrete hand grenades' onto the sidewalks.
'I would not sign off as a licensed engineer in the State of New York that this building will last forever,' Ingraffea told The Times.
'I would sign a document that says the Empire State Building will last. This building, I doubt it.'
Structural engineer Steve Bongiorno, who worked on an earlier version of the tower's design, offered an equally disturbing hypothesis about 432 Park Avenue's future.
'The building is being stressed beyond what was intended,' he told the Times.
Left untreated, he warned that: 'Chunks of concrete will fall off, and windows will start loosening up.
'You can’t take the elevators, mechanical systems start to fail, pipe joints start to break and you get water leaks all over the place.
'The building just becomes uninhabitable.'
Bongiorno also warned that 432 Park has yet to be tested by sustained hurricane force winds, which could potentially cause severe damage.
Meanwhile, for those living inside the behemoth, there are already issues aplenty.
Residents have found themselves plagued by faulty elevators, poor plumbing and shaky floors.
Ching Wong, a Hong Kong real estate investor spent $15 million on a three-bed condo in the tower in 2019 - but now finds himself faced with a horrific slew of snags.
Wong says his bathroom door will not close properly, the air conditioning is broken in one of the apartment's bedrooms, and the building's 75-foot-long pool for residents is often closed.
Jennifer Lopez and ex-boyfriend Alex Rodriguez (pictured together) paid $15.3 million for their apartment in 432 Park in 2018, giving the skyscraper instant Hollywood cachet
An ugly-looking repair marks the pristine concrete exterior of 432 Park Avenue in a photograph shot by New York City's Department of Buildings in early 2023
The grubby, cracked exterior of 432 Park Avenue is seen in a Daily Mail photograph shot today
He is even more upset by the tripling of the building's monthly fees in the six years since he has moved in than structural issues.
Meanwhile, Wong's neighbor, Jacqueline Finkelstein-LeBow, was left distraught after a $135,000 rug inside her condo suffered water damage.
Finkelstein-LeBow, who is also on the developer board, told the Daily Mail though that The Times article was 'crazy' and had blown the building's defects out of proportion.
'Fixes need to be made for sure, but the building is safe' she said, adding that she could not elaborate while litigation was ongoing.
'I live on the 64th floor. If it wasn't safe, I wouldn't be living here.'
Building residents are also said to be annoyed by a demand for them to stump up the $5.3 million cost of renovating the tower's private restaurants.
The deceptively serene facade may conceal a host of ugly battles - but engineers say the building's minimalist design is the root cause of many of its problems.
'It looks very simple,' Justin Peters, a project executive for Lendlease, the building's construction manager, told trade publication Engineering News-Record. 'It isn't.'
Court papers detailing the discussions between developers show that there was a fierce disagreement about whether to coat the building in a slick, white color, or prioritize stability by using a darker, sturdier concrete.
Documents seen by the Times show that developers stubbornly pursued aesthetics over longevity, ignoring repeated warnings by structural engineers.
The court filings show that Silvian Marcus, a structural engineer at WSP, recommended adding a coal derivative called flyash to the concrete mix.
He made the suggestion after growing concerned about cracks in test columns created before construction on the tower began.
'They will not accept flyash (color is too dark),' Hezi Mena, an engineer who was then a senior associate at WSP, wrote to Marcus in a December 2012 email.
Marcus replied saying that developers had two options - 'color or cracks'.
Resident Jacqueline Finkelstein-LeBow was left distraught after a $135,000 rug inside her condo suffered water damage. It is still unclear whether a building defect or faulty underfloor heating installed by Finkelstein-LeBow caused the damage, according to the Times
Residents reportedly complained of a number of issues after moving in, including rumors that high-altitude apartments would sway and creak over the city below
A ‘catastrophic flood’ allegedly caused major damage to units on the 83rd, 84th, 85th, and 86th floors in 2016
The suit says the developers ignored repair ideas 'due to potential schedule, cost and aesthetic impacts' they feared would discourage wealthy buyers
'Hold the pour until they have a valid mix,' he wrote to Mena and the developers.
'Otherwise we will have future problems very painful to be solved and substantial project delays.'
But construction went ahead with the white exterior envisaged by the artsy developers, and cracks almost immediately began to show.
Bill Unger from the tower's development team
Consultants were brought in to fix the building's exterior without compromising its style. They advised painting the tower with an elastomeric coating, which would seal the cracks and protect the exterior from water and air damage.
However, this thick, rubbery overlay would give the building a glossy look and spoil the matte aesthetic the developers had originally sought.
The lead developer, real estate heavyweight Harry Macklowe, suggested using a clear-coat finish similar to the product used to patch up the yacht he raced in European regattas.
But Marcus advised against this, siding instead with the safer option tabled by the consultants. He admitted that this would 'have appearance impact,' but was the best option overall.
'You are not being at all helpful!' Bill Unger, a senior member of 432 Park's development team, hollered back in an email seen by the NYT.
'Honestly, I prefer to disappoint today rather than installing something that even the manufacturer has doubts that will work,' Marcus replied.
Developers opted for the clear, aesthetic option, leading to severe issues by the point of completion in 2015.
Further deterioration at the very top of the tower in early 2023. An ugly paint and plaster job had to be carried out to remedy the problem
A phenomenon known as 'honeycombing' was photographed on the 68th floor of 432 Park Avenue in January 2023
More cracks are visible on the ninth floor of 432 Park Avenue in January 2023
There are other issues too. The shape of the building itself means those living on its top floors are more likely to feel their apartment move as the building sways in the wind.
A less aesthetically pleasing tapered top to the building could have mitigated this, by making the tower more aerodynamic.
Builders instead constructed a series of open-air floors to let wind pass through - but the emergence of cracks and breakdowns in the building's counterweight system suggest the wind is further stressing the tower, according to engineer Scott Chen.
Charles L'Heureux, who was then a senior project manager with Lendlease wrote in an October 2015 email about 'voids' found in the concrete exterior which were so concerning that repairs were needed 'immediately'.
David Dods, who was a top executive involved with Macklowe's company, wrote back describing the defects in even more damning terms.
The severity of the problems was 'beyond concerning,' he wrote.
'It is deplorable and should be embarrassing to anyone associated with the project with even the slightest level of care for quality.'
Jose Torero, head of the department of civil, environmental and geomatic engineering at University College London, said the building now stands as a failed experiment at reaching new heights.
'A ten-year-old building should not be showing that level of deterioration,' Torero told the Times. 'Nobody can argue that that is not a failure.'
Building safety experts say there is good reason to be unsettled by 432 Park Avenue, a super-tall but ultra-skinny condo constructed for the one percent
Another close-up shows stains and apparent cracks on the building's exterior this month
Pockmarked concrete is pictured in January 2023. Building inspectors described them as 'surface voids'
Jami Schlicher, a spokesperson for one of the project's developers, CIM Group, said in a statement to the Times that the tower was considered safe by inspectors.
She slammed claims about deterioration as 'baseless' and said allegations that the developers ignored safety concerns were 'categorically untrue, defamatory and yet another misstep by the board that will drive down property values'.
Residents still living in 432 Park face now face a cooling ultra-luxury real estate market and a building besieged by bad publicity.
They are divided over how to fix the building's issues. The glossy rubbery coating developers didn't want is one option.
Insurers are unlikely to pay the cost of the repair, meaning that even the most deep pocketed resident of the skyscraper face paying eye-watering sums to keep their homes inhabitable.
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