Topical Guide 432
Mark Dorset
Signs and Signage
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 2
There is no concierge on duty when Matthew reaches his building. He sets the bags down, gets his key out, opens the door. A sign on the desk reads “Concierge on Break.” This sign appears several times a day, whenever a concierge abandons the post. To Matthew, it seems an invitation to burglars.
New York City, September 5, 2020:
Apartment Life
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 2
One of the workmen has written on the wall, “Can’t smell anything. Until we smell it, there’s nothing we can do.” The motto of the building, thinks Matthew. … He usually doesn’t tell anyone about the slovenly way the building’s managed and maintained, and most of his guests don’t notice what he notices. They wouldn’t notice, for example, the constellation of paper scraps on the carpet in the hall outside his door. These scraps haven’t been vacuumed up in eight days.
Stefanos Chen, “The Downside to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks,” The New York Times:
The nearly 1,400-foot tower at 432 Park Avenue, briefly the tallest residential building in the world, was the pinnacle of New York’s luxury condo boom half a decade ago, fueled largely by foreign buyers seeking discretion and big returns.
Six years later, residents of the exclusive tower are now at odds with the developers, and each other, making clear that even multimillion-dollar price tags do not guarantee problem-free living. The claims include millions of dollars of water damage from plumbing and mechanical issues; frequent elevator malfunctions; and walls that creak like the galley of a ship . . .
CIM Group, one of the developers, said in a statement that the building “is a successfully designed, constructed and virtually sold-out project,” and that they are “working collaboratively” with the condo board, which was run by the developers until January when residents were elected and took control. (Developers typically control condo boards in the first few years of operation.) “Like all new construction, there were maintenance and close-out items during that period,” they said. Macklowe Properties, the other developer, declined to comment. . . .
There have been a number of floods in the building, including two leaks in November 2018 that the general manager of the building, Len Czarnecki, acknowledged in emails to residents. The first leak, on Nov. 22, was caused by a “blown” flange, a ribbed collar that connects piping, around a high-pressure water feed on the 60th floor. Four days later, a “water line failure” on the 74th floor caused water to enter elevator shafts, removing two of the four residential elevators from service for weeks. . . .
One of the most common complaints in supertall buildings is noise, said Luke Leung, a director at the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. He has heard metal partitions between walls groan as buildings sway, and the ghostly whistle of rushing air in doorways and elevator shafts.
Residents at 432 Park complained of creaking, banging and clicking noises in their apartments, and a trash chute “that sounds like a bomb” when garbage is tossed, according to notes from a 2019 owners’ meeting.
Cole Porter, “Down in the Depths (On the 90th Floor),” 1936:
Manhattan, I’m up a tree.
The one that I’ve adored
Is bored
With me.
Manhattan, I’m awfully nice.
Nice people dine with me,
And even twice,
Yet the only one in the world I’m mad about
Talks of somebody else,
And walks out.
With a million neon rainbows burning below me,
And a million blazing taxis raising a roar,
Here I sit, above the town,
In my pet pailletted gown,
Down in the depths on the ninetieth floor.
While the crowds at El Morocco punish the parquet,
And at 21 the couples clamor for more,
I’m deserted and depressed
In my regal eagle nest,
Down in the depths on the ninetieth floor.
When the only one you wanted wants another,
What’s the use of swank and cash in the bank galore?
Why, even the janitor’s wife
Has a perfectly good love life,
And here am I
Facing tomorrow
Alone with my sorrow,
Down in the depths on the ninetieth floor.
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