The Stats

Height: 202 m/664 ft.
Floors (over ground): 58
Floors (under ground): 3
Year: 1983
Architect: Swanke Hayden Connell
Owner: Donald Trump

The Facts

- The corner of facade facing the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street is sliced off in a series of setbacks (forming a sort of hanging garden and place for festive displays), with the corner above that broken diagonally into a series of sawtooth edges running to the top.

- A cascading waterfall directly across from the entrance forms the monumental centerpiece of the open interior.

- The building was the tallest concrete-framed tower in the city at the time of its completion.

The Pictures

http://web.mit.edu/bic/www/7-12-02-%20Trump%20Tower.jpg

http://www.greatgridlock.net/NYC_Images/025.jpg

http://bild.li/geektrip/NY/Trumptower.jpg

http://privat.ostprignitz.de/zbinden/graphic/tecnic/pictures/new_york4.jpg

http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/trump_tower/images/trump_tower_att_reflection.jpg

http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/trump_tower/images/trump_tower_up_trees.jpg

Nice setbacks.And the trees are also nice :)
8.5/10

setbacks are nice. the black glass also fits well with the building 7.5

8.5/10...The setbacks are great, it's unique, it's black and shiny, and the setbacks make the building look different from various angles. To top all that off it has trees! When's the last time you've seen trees on a skyscraper?

nice building. I like the glass on it. 8/10

8/10

Nice building. It is defined by its setbacks. And yes those trees add a touch of nature.

The zig-zaged accordion facade makes this building what it is.

9

9/10

Looks like Wachovia in Miami.

10/10:)

very handsome one! i like it! go NTC!!! 10/10

8.5/10

nice and clean. i like the setbacks. 10/10

9/10 :okay:

9/10

Some angles remind me of the Manulife building in Edmonton.

8.0

9/10

Awesome tall structure.

8/10

Pretty cool

lovely :) 8

call me weird but.. why does everybody thinks this is nice? It is a unappealing building to me that tries to catch sympathy by putting trees in the design.. the setbacks are a nice optical illusion sometimes, but they cannot help to make this building a beauty. of course, it''s not very bad. but in no way very good.

5.5

uffffffff, one of my favorite in NYC, beautiful building, awesome 10/10

I like the design, but having said that it is rather unextraordinary. 7/10.

Looks bloody huge though.

0.0


Nothing but pure hatred for this building.

9/10;)

8.5

Nice zig-zags :)

good. not more 6/10.

More SHOCK than AWE......

4.5/10

What are those trees doing there?

6.5/10

10! I love it!

sweet looking building...one of my faves in NY. 9/10

9/10


Great tower

Looks great !! I like the shape of the building

Nice facade

10/10

9/10

8.5/10. Cool design!

This building has class. 8.5/10

TRUMP TOWER

737 Fifth Avenue

Northeast corner at 56th Street
Developer: Donald Trump
Architect: Swanke, Hayden & Connell (Der Scutt, design partner in charge)
Erected: 1983

http://www.thecityreview.com/trumpt2.gif

By Carter B. Horsley

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.

http://www.thecityreview.com/crown5.gif

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.

http://www.thecityreview.com/ibmtrio.gif
From right to left, Sony/ATT, IBM, Trump, 712 Fifth Avenue and 9 West 57th Street towers

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.

The lobby's polished, regally rosy granite walls and floors and polished brass vitrines and “T”-shaped stanchions are lavishly bright and amusing and manage to just miss being outlandish. The “T” logo of the stanchions and vitrines is different from the inlaid Trump Tower seal on the slight ramp of the broad Fifth Avenue avenue lobby entrance, shown below, which was removed in the late 1990s. (The ramp is a good alternative to steps and enhances the notion of descending entrance and ascending exit. The office tower elevators are located in this lobby, but the residential condominium apartments have their own, separate entrance with large marquee on 56th Street that is restrained and attractive, if not inspired.)

http://www.thecityreview.com/trumpt3.gif

The inconsistency of the logo styles is not as puzzling as why immodest Donald chose not to employ them more often, such as in the skylight over the waterfall. The omission, of course, is unimportant.

Public restrooms are in short supply in midtown and where they have been included, often mandated by new zoning laws, they are often secluded to discourage use. Here they are tucked away on the lower level down the south corridor, but they are worth the trip for the angled marble entrance, shown below, is one of the best designs in this project and in the city.

http://www.thecityreview.com/trumpt6.gif

The large polished bronze frame outlining the lobby entrance on Fifth Avenue clearly pronounces the tone of the interior, but it also reminds older New Yorkers of the large and wonderful Art Deco medallions that graced the front of Bonwit Teller and should have been incorporated into the new design either on the exterior or the interior, an inexcusable, unforgivable wrong.

We may rightly lament the passing of Bonwit Teller and the other great bastions of retail elegance such as DePinna and Best & Company that have disappeared from Fifth Avenue. Once the great Savoy Plaza Hotel was demolished to make way for the General Motors Buildings and once Sheldon Solow built his sloping skyscraper at 9 West 57th Street, the low-rise, turn-of-the-century eloquent ambiance of this part of town was transformed into a melange of the old and new.

http://www.thecityreview.com/trumpt5.gif

Without Trump Tower, however, the former IBM Building and the Sony Building might not have been developed. The “Plaza” office district is now the city's best and most desirable and that can be largely attributed to this project.

During the Christmas Holiday season, the building's setbacks at 56th Street are used for carols, as shown in the picture at the right.

In 1998, the Fifth Avenue facade above the entrance was altered to accommodate a two-story-high sign for "Avon," as shown below. The sign has gray letters against a cream background and is behind clear, not bronze glass windows. The Avon name is now more prominent than the Trump name in bronze just above the entrance.

Was Donald asleep in his quite rococco, palatial lair in the tower, or on vacation?

Wake up, and get rid of the Avon sign as it detracts from the building's ambiance and architectural design. It is not unelegant, just strange. After all, what is Avon compared to Trump, at least in New York?

http://www.thecityreview.com/trumpflg.gif http://www.thecityreview.com/trumpent.gif

In September, 2000, Mr. Trump took out some full-page advertisements announcing that he would be happy to emblazon the name of a retailer in a large brassy sign just beneath the first setback of Trump Tower at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street. Is one to interpret this as a a new age of Trump modesty in which he lets others have almost equal billing? Is this a sign that Time Squaritis and billboarding is spreading and contagious and that all buildings will be emblazoning with billboards of one type or another? Is Trump running short of cash?

Whatever the answer, both the Avon sign and any new "sign," brass or not, is not in keeping with the building's quite fine design and Donald should leave well enough alone. This is not a question of context, but taste and it is all the more strange because Trump is doing it to himself. If I owned an apartment in the tower, I might investigate whether this was a cheapening of my values, but then I'm not a lawyer and Trump has good lawyers, but the notion of a new sign several stories off the ground in this building is preposterous and almost galling.

http://www.thecityreview.com/trumtas.jpg

In early 2004, Asprey reopened witn a redesigned storefront, designed by Sir Norman Foster. It was very elegant, very white and very bright, in keeping with recent trends towards multi-floor retail spaces along the avenue. It had little to do with the bronze Trump Tower but was impressive enough not to despoil it.

10

7/10 its nice in design.

The Setbacks are nice, but I think it gets a bit 2 repetive, esp. at the base. And it needs more of a punchline at the top part. But its a creative concept. 7.5/10

I think its kinda bland too
never seen it in real life and not sure I would gain much if I did Sorry Guys !
5.5/10

does D. Trump live there?

I like the height..and I appreciate the style...7/10.

This is much better than Trump's World Tower.

The setbacks and the trees are great.

9/10

yuck I dont like the lines on this building at all...5

7.5/10 :tongue3:

7/10

A bit dated looking. 6.5/10.

8/10

very nice tower 8.5

8.5

8/10 - Nice glass!

Having seen it featured on 'The Apprentice', I have to admit that I'm a fan of this building.

It soars well, the setbacks are great, and the base/entrance is very luxurious. It's the perfect symbol of the corporate excesses of the 1980s.

I'm puzzled as to why Donald Trump didn't make it taller though. :)

8.5

9/10

nice setbacks...and garden:D

8/10

7/10

Already a classic. 8/10.

The trees are a nice touch, and the building is ok, 7/10

Quite nice. Adds a lot to the New York City skyline. I give it an 8.5/10. :yes:

Nice one, 9

I like the sleekness, great setback...
8.5/10

Don't like it >> 5

8.5/10
The facade has an amazing colour and the shape is quite original because from everywhere you look at it,the building seems different.

The cube things above the front of it make it look VERY 80's and quite tacky. 7

8/10

7.5/10

8/10

Nice facade. 8.5.

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/547/2507night_shot_lights.jpg

Nice pic of Toronto, but why here?
Scotia Plaza its similar but...
7/10

7/10

8.5/10

8/10

Great tower. Unusual shape and nice, dark glass. 9/10

9.5/10

original 7/10

Nice setbacks and facade 8/10

8.5/10

awesome 9/10

9/10

I don like Donald, but this building is impresive

9/10

Wasnt impressed when I saw this last year. 6/10

6/10

9. very nice.

Quite overrated. A big glass box. Yes, the setback design is okay, but it's still bland. Also, after seeing inside it on 'The Apprentice', I think it's rather tacky and kitsch internally. I recall the Dining room - yuck. 6/10

9/10... Tall, beautiful and unusual... You're hired! :D

I loved this tower is great 9.0

love this tower 9/10

9/10.

8/10

7/10

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=trumpworldtower-newyorkcity-ny-usa

http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2006/03/443413.jpg

9/10

9/10

8/10

9.5 / 10

an 8 :cheers:

It's aiight, but I want to expect more from Mr. "Look at Me". 5/10

7.5/1o

7/10

for a tower like that in N.Y.C ill give it an 8.5/10

7/10

9/10

9. Very good building. Regards.

8/10

9/10

10/10 excellent

10/10

8/10

9/10

8/10