Few know more about deceptive appearances than the team producing the world's first high-strength, white-concrete, exposed-perimeter structure for the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere. On the face of it, Manhattan's 1,397-ft 432 Park Avenue—the first supertower designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects PC—looks straightforward. The upended spaghetti box, enclosed and 74% complete, has no bedeviling setbacks, twists or swoops. Columns and spandrel beams form a consistent checkerboard pattern. The white color never changes. Every window is the same size.
But it is the very regular, repetitive—and white—perimeter columns and spandrel beams that had the contractors, who already were stressed by the challenges inherent in building a supertower, climbing the walls. "It looks very simple," says Justin Peters, project executive for the construction manager-at-risk, Lend Lease (LL). "It isn't."
