Trump Tower is a 58 story skyscraper in New York City. It is at 725 Fifth Avenue at the corner of 56th Street. The tower was erected in 1983, and designed by Der Scutt . It is known for being in the reality show The Apprentice, and having the famous "boardroom". The building is also famous for having a man-made waterfall in the lobby, streching over three stories high. Donald Trump is also known for living at the tower.
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This much maligned, mixed-use 68-story building is brassy, as shown above, but spectacular.
It replaced the modest Art Deco box of the former Bonwit Teller Building, which had nicely complemented the adjoining Tiffany Building before its chairman Walter Hoving made a dreadful four-story addition to it.
Nothing about Trump Tower, of course, is modest.
As bronze-colored glass towers go, this is very fine because of its detailing and, more importantly, its thin, stepped massing.
The tower is made to appear even thinner by its straight-edge fluting, which also creates more corner windows that are more saleable. (The project's apartment layouts had to be modified during construction when it was discovered that too many corner bedrooms looked into other apartment bedrooms.)
The unusual layout also proved that flat-roof buildings are not necessarily ugly even in a Post-Modern age.
The vertical stepping of the base of the tower on Fifth Avenue is brilliantly executed to create great visual interest for pedestrians, especially because the setbacks are lushly landscaped and play host to choral groups during the Christmas season, perhaps the most charming holiday display in a city and a neighborhood noted for its festive observations.
Bonwit's, for decades one of the city's most elegant department stores, relocated to a handsome new small building wedged between Tiffany's and the IBM Building to the east and connected to Trump Tower several levels in the tower's atrium. It did not survive the relocation for long and was replaced eventually by Galleries Lafayette, which, in turn, succumbed to the vagaries of New York retail competition. In 1996, this small, handsome structure was replaced by a new retail building for Nike designed, appropriately, in high school regalia.
The stepping effect of the tower is thematically continued with the lobby atrium's great seven-story waterfall beneath the large angled skylight.
Much of the atrium, shown at the right, is lined with mirrors creating delightful visual havoc for the hordes of tourists who ride the criss-crossed escalators to the upper and lower retail floors. At the top level there are very handsome outdoor terraces on both the 57th and 56th street sides of the project, which overlooks the great atrium of the former IBM Building on the eastern half of the block and adjoins, on the northeast, the new Nike store.
The concept of an inner-city, vertical shopping mall has had rough going and the retail boutiques that line most of the atrium have had mixed success here at certainly one of the world's finest and most expensive street-level retail locations.
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This 68-story brass skyscraper nestled between Tiffany & Co. and the IBM building on the corner of 56th St. and Fifth Ave. has gained even greater fame of late due to The Donald’s most recent successful gamble: the TV show The Apprentice. The 2004 NBC hit highlighted both the corporate and residential faces of Trump’s 1983 real estate investment, but neglected the sleek, five-floor Art Deco-style shopping space below. Home to stylish boutiques like the newly-renovated Asprey store on the first floor and a full-service Avon spa and boutique, the building’s swanky atrium comes complete with typical Fifth Ave. price tags. The lower-level café is no bargain either—but the cheesecake is worth an inflated credit card bill. Once inside, a wall of water and a five-story-high skylight offer decadent ambiance for shopping or a quick latte at Starbucks on the second level. The entry corridor leads to an enclosed garden area—complete with lunch tables, a brass Krispy Kreme kiosk and an entrance to the Tourneau watch company.
Before entering the atrium to shop, stop on the southwest corner of Fifth Ave. and 56th St. to peer up at the architecture. Cascading garden terraces on the structure’s “stepbacks” and shimmering bronze-colored glass designed by Der Scutt of the Swanke, Hayden & Connell set the building apart from the plain glass boxes that surround it. Look up higher to the 60th-68th floor penthouse apartments, which run up to $10 million for a four-bedroom abode—or upwards of a cool $1 million for a one-bedroom. Aside from the cost, the breathtaking panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge and the New York Harbor in the distance make residents feel like they’re on top of the world.—Corinne Iozzio
