One Vanderbilt confirms 1,020-foot observation deck
It’s been almost a year since 6sqft first heard inklings that One Vanderbilt–the city’s second tallest tower–would offer a sky-high observation deck, and now that developer SL Green has secured $1.5 billion in construction financing and broken ground on the 1,401-foot supertall, they’e confirmed that the tower will, in fact, have an sky deck. Bloomberg reports that the viewing platform will be located at the 1,020-foot mark, which will make it the third-highest indoor-outdoor observatory in the city after the forthcoming 1,100-foot deck at 30 Hudson Yards and the Empire State Building’s at 1,050 feet (One World Observatory is at 1,250 feet, but it’s not outdoors).
Though One Vanderbilt’s deck is joining a growing list of observation platforms, it’s set apart by its proximity to Grand Central, the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building. “Think of how beautiful that will be at night when the Chrysler is fully lit, to be up in the sky looking at its majestic facade,” said Rob Schiffer, a managing director at SL Green.
Schiffer won’t say how much a visit to the observatory will cost, nor will he disclose the anticipated revenue. By comparison, a visit to One World Observatory costs $32, and the Empire State Building charges $29 to visit the 86th floor main deck and $47 for both the deck and observatory. Similarly, One World Trade Center has estimated that tourism will account for one quarter, or $53 million, of its annual revenue by 2019.
Plans for the observation deck are currently being developed by Montreal-based GSM Project, who are also behind the decks at Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building) and London’s Shard Tower. Though SL Green has released no information regarding the design, at a presentation last year, Jamie van Klemperer, president of Kohn Pedersen Fox (the project’s architect), referenced a “four-part contrapuntal structure will feature a transparent topper,” that was then envisioned as “a public event space and observatory.”
[Via Bloomberg]
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