According to the New York Times, some of 432 Park’s residents are sparring with its developers over issues such as “millions of dollars of water damage from plumbing and mechanical issues; frequent elevator malfunctions; and walls that creak like the galley of a ship”. This building, which opponents had compared to a “middle finger” to the rest of the city due to its controversial height, seemed to now be giving some of its own residents the same cheeky gesture.1

Abramovich and her husband, described as “retired business owners” in the oil and gas industry, bought a 3,500-sq-ft apartment there for almost $17m in 2016, as a “secondary home” close to their adult children. When Abramovich was poised to move in, she said, neither the building nor apartment were finished.2

There’s also “wind sway”. A 1,000ft building may sway several inches on a day with normal winds. On days with 50mph wind, such a tower may move approximately six inches. In the rare event of 100mph gusts, this height structure could move up to two feet, the New York Times reported.

New York City’s Empire State Building, with a roof height of 1,250ft, is supposed to move approximately one inch in rapid winds, per Discovery. Chicago’s Willis Tower, with a roof height of 1,450ft, has an average sway of six inches from its “true center”, but is designed to move a maximum of three feet.

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“We’ve been following the safety concerns of supertalls for a long time,” Sean Khorsandi, executive director of the preservation group Landmark West!, told the Guardian. “I was in architecture school on 9/11. We watched the towers fall. There were all sorts of symposiums and public statements that we’re never going to build [that] tall again” he said. “All we’ve done in the 20 years since is build even taller.”

Architect Stephen B Jacobs, president and founder of Stephen B Jacobs Group PC has worked on a wide variety of projects since starting his firm in 1967 – ranging from historic preservation to large-scale residential design. Some have exceeded 50 storeys and his firm is presently working on a slender, 800ft building on Manhattan’s East Side that has spurred its own controversies over height.

Although Jacobs is no stranger to height, he said of supertalls: “They’re totally irrational.”

• 1. “I was convinced it would be the best building in New York,” Sarina Abramovich, an early 432 Park resident, complained to the newspaper. “They’re still billing it as God’s gift to the world, and it’s not.”
• 2. “They put me in a freight elevator surrounded by steel plates and plywood, with a hard-hat operator,” she reportedly remarked of 432 Park, the design of which was inspired by a designer trash can. “That’s how I went up to my hoity-toity apartment before closing.” The problems worsened, and included “a number of floods”. In one instance, water rushed into Abramovich’s apartment from several floors above, allegedly resulting in some $500,000 in damage.