Sliver building

In the early 1980s, there was a high demand in luxury housing market in New York City, but there was a lack of available large lot sizes in high density residential zoning districts. This resulted in towers that were built on small lots but were four to five times taller than neighboring townhouses.{{cite book |title=Calendar #54 N830112 ZRY |date=2 February 1983 |publisher=City Planning Commission |url=https://www.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/about/cpc/830112.pdf |access-date=19 February 2025}} At the time, there were height limits specified in the 1961 Zoning Resolution through the floor area ratio (FAR) formula. However, the resolution also allowed transferable development rights for developers to buy air rights—unused FAR which is empty space above roofs permitted to be expanded upward whose owners do not wish to heighten their buildings—of adjacent buildings to consolidate into a higher FAR in one tall tower. This allowed developers to build much taller buildings than their neighboring buildings.{{cite web |title=New York's Super-Slenders |url=https://old.skyscraper.org/EXHIBITIONS/TEN_TOPS/slender.php |publisher=The Skyscraper Museum |access-date=1 December 2020}}

In 1983, residents in those districts voiced their concerns on a proliferation of tall buildings that were built on narrow lots towering other buildings as they were out of character of the neighborhoods. A few developments including a 19-story building on a lot of {{convert|40|ft|m|adj=on}} frontage and a 32-story building with {{convert|18|ft|m|adj=on}} width were used as examples of buildings that would negatively impact the neighborhoods. They called them as "sliver" buildings. At that time, there were 477 more potential sites for such developments. On March 3, 1983, the now defunct New York City Board of Estimate banned sliver buildings from many residential zoning districts.{{cite news |last1=Carroll |first1=Maurice |title=Ban on 'Silver' Buildings Is Approved by the City |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/04/nyregion/ban-on-silver-buildings-is-approved-by-the-city.html |date=4 March 1983| access-date=19 February 2025 |work=The New York Times}}

The "sliver law" limits the heights of buildings on the lots with frontage of {{convert|45|ft|m}} or less not to exceed the width of the streets or {{convert|100|ft|m}} whichever is less with an exception that if the heights of existing adjacent buildings are higher than that limit, the new building can reach the height of the tallest adjacent buildings.

File:52-54 East End Avenue in New York City.jpg

After the sliver law was enacted, the city halted sliver building constructions that did not complete the foundation, killing those sliver projects.{{cite news |last1=Carroll |first1=Maurice |title=City Orders Halt on Work at 5 East Side 'Sliver' Sites |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/15/nyregion/city-orders-halt-on-work-at-5-east-side-sliver-sites.html |access-date=22 February 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=15 March 1983}} A few years later, some developers were able to build sliver buildings with some novel designs. Developers discovered that the definition of the narrow frontage lots of {{convert|45|ft|m}} or less was based on the "lot lines". The lots that had air rights of adjacent buildings transferred would have the new lot lines enlarged to include the air right space. With this discovery, an owner of the 52-54 East End Avenue lot with {{convert|36|ft|m|adj=on}} frontage bought air rights from an adjacent low-rise building, 50 East End Avenue. The design of the new 40-story tower would have it rise for the first five floors from its narrow base. Then it would cantilevered over the top of the 50 East End Avenue building, and the rest of the tower would be built upward from there. Since the new lot lines of the tower included the cantilevered portion, it resulted in the new lot width of {{convert|45|ft|10|in|m}} which avoided the tower to be subjected to the height limits of the sliver law.{{cite news |last1=Hinds |first1=Michael Decourcy |title=2 New Designs Putting Sliver Ban to the Test |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/04/nyregion/2-new-designs-putting-sliver-ban-to-the-test.html |access-date=21 February 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=4 April 1986}} The 52-54 East End Avenue tower was also notable in that it achieved the slenderness ratio of 12:1 with its narrow base, becoming one of the most slender buildings at the time of the construction.{{cite book |last1=Rahimian |first1=Ahmad |title=Structures Congress XII: proceedings of papers presented at the Structures Congress '94, Atlanta, GA, April 24 - 28, 1994 |date=1994 |publisher=American Society of Civil Engineers |location=New York |isbn=978-0-87262-952-3 |url=https://cedb.asce.org/CEDBsearch/record.jsp?dockey=0086899 |chapter=The Slender Tower of 52-54 East End Avenue}}

The resurgence of the city's real estate market before the 2008 financial crisis led to new sliver buildings being constructed in commercial districts. The new buildings are sometimes cantilevered over adjacent buildings, and built higher than a typical building in the area by adding purchased air rights, sometimes from multiple nearby properties, to the new building's total height.{{Cite news | first = Lana | last = Bortolot | title = Are slivers on the rise? | url = http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-sliver0517,0,329886.story | url-status = dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070927182026/http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-sliver0517,0,329886.story | archive-date = 2007-09-27 | work = AM New York | publisher = Tribune New York Newspaper Holdings, LLC | page = 03 | date = 2007-05-17 | accessdate = 2007-05-18}} Not long after the 2008 global financial crisis, investors were looking for more stable investments. Luxury real-estate markets in major cities like New York, London and Hong Kong were in high demand. This drove a creation of a new breed of luxury residential towers around Central Park in the 2010s. These supertall towers are wider than the sliver buildings known before them but their heights are much taller, making them very high slenderness ratios, as people call them pencil towers.{{cite news |last=Wainwright |first=Oliver |title=Super-tall, super-skinny, super-expensive: the 'pencil towers' of New York's super-rich |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/feb/05/super-tall-super-skinny-super-expensive-the-pencil-towers-of-new-yorks-super-rich |work=The Guardian |date=5 February 2019 |access-date=18 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240115160919/https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/feb/05/super-tall-super-skinny-super-expensive-the-pencil-towers-of-new-yorks-super-rich |archive-date=15 January 2024 |url-status=live}}

File:127 Madison Avenue in New York City.jpg

The sliver law specifies that narrow frontage buildings with the heights that exceed the widths of the streets or {{convert|100|ft|m}} whichever is less are to be considered as tall sliver buildings which are prohibited in many zones. With this restriction, the buildings do not need to be very tall to be considered sliver. For example, a narrow street of {{convert|70|ft|m}} would make buildings on that street with less than {{convert|45|ft|m}} wide and more than {{convert|70|ft|m}} tall to be sliver buildings.{{cite web |last1=Fontan |first1=Jorge |title=NYC Sliver Law |url=https://fontanarchitecture.com/nyc-sliver-law/ |access-date=18 February 2025}} Some examples of those are, 127 Madison Avenue, an eight-story building sandwiched between two bulkier and taller buildings, and 1055 Park Avenue, a twelve-story building that has the width of {{convert|20|ft|m}}.{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=John |title=Guide to contemporary New York City architecture |date=2011 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co |location=New York |isbn=9780393733266 |pages=96,145}}

• Pencil tower: buildings with high slenderness ratios
• Sliver (film)
• List of sliver buildings

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.thecityreview.com/austrianb.html "Plots & Plans"] article on The Austrian Cultural Forum on 52nd Street, New York, NY, USA.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070402205656/http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/02/15/ismael_leyva_towers_over_hells_kitchen_at_785_eighth.php Curbed blog] article on proposed sliver building at 785 8th Av., New York, NY, USA.

Category:Pencil towers in New York City