Midtown’s Nordstrom tower is set to beat out 1 World Trade Center as the city’s tallest building

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Monday, May 11, 2015, 1:17 PM

Updated: Tuesday, May 12, 2015, 10:50 AM

COURTESY OF NEW YORK YIMBY

The new tower on 57th Street's "Billionaire's Row" will be taller than One World Trade Center.

Freedom's just another word for . . . the nation’s second-tallest building.

One World Trade Center — the so-called Freedom Tower, which has been the tallest in the city since 2012 — would no longer hold that lofty designation under a developer’s plan to supersize his existing design for a 57th St. residential skyscraper.

Gary Barnett wants to raise the top of the spire at his Nordstrom Tower to 1,795 feet — 19 feet taller than the one atop 1 World Trade Center, according to new renderings obtained by New York YIMBY, a prodevelopment blog.

A rep for Barnett declined to comment on the new design Monday, which shows a roof and spire that are high enough to earn the bragging rights. But early Tuesday, his representative "categorically" denied YIMBY's claims, saying the building would not rise above the World Trade Center. 

Either way, the developer of the World Trade Center was being a bigger person, if not a taller tower, on Monday.

NEW YORK YIMBY

The Nordstrom Tower is slated to be the city’s tallest

“There isn’t a lot of sleep being lost over here,” Durst Organization spokesman Jordan Barowitz told the Daily News.

Any move to upstage 1 World Trade Center is seen by some as a PR play.

“Developers are all trying to edge out their competition in the race for high-net-worth buyers,” said Robin Schneiderman of Halstead Property Development Marketing.

Barnett’s plan would indeed help cement the reputation of W. 57th St. as Billionaires’ Row. Barnett has already built One57, a luxury tower between Sixth and Seventh Aves., and the new property a block away is expected to draw wealthy investors from around the globe.

COURTESY OF NEW YORK YIMBY

The planned building will have a giant seven-floor Nordstrom department store on the lower levels.

The bottom of the building aims to be as impressive as the top, with a seven-floor Nordstrom department store.

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, a firm associated with some of the world’s tallest buildings, is reportedly involved in Barnett’s project. The firm is also designing what will be the world’s tallest building, the 3,281-foot-tall Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The 57th St. building is one in a string of giant structures planned just south of Central Park. Park advocates have long been opposed to the spate of new towers, saying that it will cause long shadows over the park.

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