NY skyline set to change with rise of pencil towers

New York

IT'S not a tourist attraction yet, but when hard-hatted construction workers journey down from the summit of 432 Park Avenue at 57th Street they proudly rattle off sky-high statistics - 1,396 feet (425.5 metres) and 96 stories tall - that will make the luxury condominium tower in midtown the tallest habitable building in the city.

It's already an eye-popping distraction for miles out into the suburbs and surrounding countryside as it soars up, way up, from Manhattan's signature skyline.

Get used to the rise of what are called pencil towers. There will be more, with a dozen or so planned in the next several years in mid-Manhattan, as the city's silhouette yields to a new era of Slim Jim buildings with small footprints that build straight up, not out, as 432 Park does from a base of only 93 feet by 93 fee…