The world’s thinnest skyscraper apartment building is like a coffee stirrer

The Steinway Tower in Manhattan, USA is an impressive architectural achievement. It is not only the 3rd tallest building in the Western Hemisphere – after One Word Mall (543m) and Central Park Tower (472m) but also the thinnest skyscraper in the world.

Although it is 435m high, the Steinway tower is only 18m wide. It is so thin that The Guardian has likened it to a “coffee stirrer”.

Although the Steinway Tower is built with the finest concrete in the world, it is not immune to the phenomenon of most other skyscrapers, which is swaying.

Structural engineers Rowan Williams Davis and Irwin told The New York Times in 2015 that a tower over 300m tall will sway several centimeters on windy days. The trick is to design the buildings so that the occupants never feel the movement.

These skyscrapers, or pencil towers, first became popular in Hong Kong in the 1970s, but now they are also becoming mainstream in the US.

Despite providing people with beautiful views of the surroundings, such buildings also have many problems. Typically, the tower 432 Park Avenue Tower has been reported by people about the oddities that appear.

In September 2021, the tower’s condominium administration sued the developers for not “reasonably designing and constructing the building for its outstanding height”, resulting in the terrible noises and vibrations in the houses.

However, none of that was reported at the Steinway Tower.

The Steinway Tower may hold the title of the world’s thinnest skyscraper. It is worth mentioning that house prices here are quite high. A studio apartment starts at $7.75 million, while a penthouse costs $66 million.

While the Steinway Tower may be very thin for a residential tower, it is certainly not the thinnest tower in the world. That title now belongs to the I360 Coastal Observation tower in Brighton, UK. It is only 3.9m in diameter, with a height-to-width ratio of more than 40:1.