Status: Completed

Upon completion in 2014, this Lower Manhattan tower took the title of New York City’s tallest building. With its spire, the structure reaches a symbolic height of 1,776 feet; without, it’s a mere 1,368 feet.

Status: Proposed

Developer Harry Macklowe, the brains behind the skyline-altering tower at 432 Park Avenue, is planning another cloud-piercer on Fifth Avenue. It’ll rise more than 1,550 feet, and Macklowe will need to amass air rights, including some from neighboring St. Patrick’s Cathedral, for the tower to reach its full height. The building will have a spate of bonkers amenities for both tenants and the public—including “the city’s tallest observatory, where visitors would be able to dive down a transparent, 60-foot corkscrew slide,” per the New York Times.

Status: Under construction

One WTC will still technically be taller than Extell’s Central Park Tower (formerly known as the Nordstrom Tower), but if you’re looking at parapet height alone, this 57th Street building will come out on top: After losing its own spire, it now stands at 1,550 feet tall. Sales for the skyline-piercing building’s condos launched in 2018, and as anticipated they’re very expensive; reportedly, more than a dozen of its apartments will ask more than $20 million. It topped out in September 2019.

Status: Proposed

There has been speculation about a supertall tower planned for 80 South Street, and in 2016, the site sold to China Oceanwide Holdings. The sale was contingent upon the original owner, the Howard Hughes Corporation, transferring over 300,000 square feet of air rights after initially getting over 100,000 square feet of air rights for the site. The development potential for the site now stands at 817,784 square feet, and a proposed building could rise to 1,436 feet. As of 2019, Oceanwide was searching for a buyer for the site, with a sale price of around $300 million.

Status: Under construction

SHoP’s 57th Street tower may not be New York City’s tallest, but it will be the skinniest, which is its own sort of engineering marvel. The residential structure will reach a height of 1,428 feet once it’s completed. Construction on the building, which cantilevers over the old Steinway Hall, is well underway, and its condos hit the market last fall. It topped out in October 2019.

Status: Under construction

SL Green’s 1,401-foot-tall tower is currently under construction, and will tower over much of Midtown East upon completion. It’ll bring new subway entrances, public plazas, and an observation deck soaring 1,020 feet in the air with it upon completion in 2020. It started going vertical in 2017, and has topped out as of September 2019.

Status: Completed

New York City’s current tallest residential building topped out at its full 1,396-foot height in October 2014. The Rafael Viñoly-designed structure has been controversial from the start, thanks to its height and distinctive facade, which was inspired by a trash can (no, really). Closings on its high-end condos began in 2016—the priciest thus far is a three-unit combo that sold for a whopping $91 million—with residents moving in not long after.

Status: Under construction

This spring, the city approved JPMorgan Chase’s plans to demolish 270 Park Avenue—aka the Union Carbide Building—and replace it with a supertall skyscraper. According to plans on file with the Department of Buildings, the new building, to be designed by Foster + Partners, will be a supertall rising 1,322 feet. It’ll come with a 10,000-square-foot, privately owned public space, along with $42 million in investment towards pedestrian and transit upgrades. The old building, designed by SOM’s Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois, is currently being demolished.

Status: Under construction

Hudson Yards’s tallest building, designed by Kohn Pederson Fox, has officially topped out. It will also be home to the city’s tallest—and most mind-bogglingly terrifying—observation deck, known as Edge, located on the building’s 75th floor and jutting out more than 1,000 feet above the city. (Its views are incredible.) That opens on March 11, but tickets are already available.

Status: Completed

When this iconic building was completed in 1931, it snagged the title of the tallest building in the world—at least until the Twin Towers topped out in the 1970s. At 1,250 feet high, the Art Deco structure may be dwarfed by newer construction, but it remains more beloved than the towers along Billionaire’s Row.

Status: Completed

Also known as One Bryant Park, this 1,200-foot tower overlooks Bryant Park and Times Square. It has the distinction of being the first building to achieve Platinum LEED certification.

Status: Completed

After long delays, work finally resumed on this Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners structure in 2015, and it topped out at 1,079 feet in 2016. The 80-story office tower officially debuted last summer, and tenants like GroupM (which has a 20-year lease for 700,000 square feet), Tiffany’s, and London-based steakhouse Hawksmoor will move in soon. In all, the building offers 2.5 million square feet of space.

Status: Completed

Jean Nouvel’s MoMA-adjacent tower hit the market in 2015, with luxury condos that take full advantage of its 1,050-foot-tall height. The lucky one-percenters who end up living there will also have access to some sweet MoMA perks, including a special “benefactor” membership and access to “small, private curatorial talks.” Fancy. The building topped out at 82 stories last year.

Status: Completed

The 1,046-foot-tall Chrysler Building may not have been the world’s tallest building for long (11 months, to be precise, before the Empire State Building came along), but it can rest easy in the knowledge that it’s still perhaps New York City’s loveliest skyscraper.

Status: Completed

Unlike the original Times building, this 1,046-foot-tall structure sticks out on the New York City skyline. The Renzo Piano-designed building initially had ladder-like rods on its facade, but those were removed after three separate daredevils scaled the tower in 2008.

Status: Under construction

Bjarke Ingels’s 1,031-foot behemoth will stand 65 stories tall when it’s completed in 2022. Its design is perhaps most notable for the vertical gardens that wrap all around the exterior of the building. The 2.2 million-square-feet office building will be developed at an estimated cost of $3.2 billion. An anchor tenant has yet to sign on, but Pfizer has inked a deal for a lease.

Status: Proposed

The Department of Buildings has given the green light to this 1,011-foot skyscraper, designed by Russian firm Meganom. Two buildings at the corner of 29th Street and Fifth Avenue have already been torn down in preparation for the skyscraper’s rise, and an adjacent limestone structure will be incorporated into the supertall’s base. The building will be home to just 41 apartments, per the DOB filings, and its design is intended to maximize what will surely be the very large footprints of those units. 

Status: Completed

The tallest residential tower at the Hudson Yards megaproject was designed by David Childs of SOM. The building topped out at 1,009 feet in June 2018, and its ultra-luxe apartments—which start at $5 million—hit the market on the same day that Hudson Yards opened to the public. It’s also home to an Equinox hotel and the fancy fitness chain’s largest club, both of which opened this summer.

Status: Completed 

This mixed-use tower is home to both ultra-luxurious condos and rentals, as well as the Park Hyatt New York hotel. It reached its full, 1,005-foot height in 2012, and was briefly the city’s tallest residential building.

Status: Completed

Brookfield’s mini-megaproject, located just a few blocks southeast of Hudson Yards, will include an office tower that will just reach supertall status, standing at 995 feet tall. The 67-story office tower, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, officially opened in October 2019.

Status: Proposed

As part of an integrated plan to redevelop several sites in the South Street Seaport, the Howard Hughes Corporation aims to build an up to 990-foot tower on a contested lot that could bring hundreds of new apartments to the neighborhood’s historic district. The mixed-use building would rise on the edge of the historically low-slung patch of Lower Manhattan under a scenario that would transfer more than 700,000 unused development rights, many from three high-profile properties, to alter the zoning at 250 Water Street. But the project is not yet set in stone; it would need to go through the city’s ULURP process before moving forward.