“Trump Arithmetic” makes his towers taller

Mogul popularized practice of boosting floor counts

Trump Tower and Donald Trump
Trump Tower and Donald Trump

Time will tell if Donald Trump will get the numbers he wants in the presidential election. His buildings in New York City, on the other hand, have already been worked out by the Trump Arithmetic.

With his 68 story – or is it 58 – Trump Tower, the real estate mogul may have popularized the now industry-wide practice of stretching the floor count in residential condominium towers, the New York Times reported.

“The higher your building, the better it is for your marketing purposes,” The Real Deal publisher Amir Korangy told the newspaper. “Nobody’s trying to have the shortest building in the city, so any sort of edge you can get to add a floor here and there, you take it.”

Developer Harry Macklowe [TRDataCustom], whose 78-story Metropolitan Tower actually stands 67 stories tall, credited Trump with the idea. Not surprisingly, so did Trump himself.

“A lot of people have copied me,” he told the times back in 2003.

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“It was considered a novel idea,” when the concept originated, said architect Costas Kondylis, who designed many of Trump’s buildings in the city.

Korangy, who produced a documentary on Kondylis, said that Trump may have gotten the idea from the modern architect Philip Johnson, a frequent collaborator.

At least eight Trump buildings in Manhattan appear to have some difference between the actual number of floors and the number used for marketing purposes, the Times found.

At some buildings, such as the Trump International, buyers were required to sign off and acknowledge the discrepancy.

“People are very happy,” Trump said. “They like to have apartments that have height, the psychology of it.” [NYT]Rich Bockmann