| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
|
| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
| [英文] [中文] [双语对照] [双语交替] [] |
| The nearly 1,400-foot tower at 432 Park Avenue, briefly the tallest residential building in the world, was the pinnacle of New York’s luxury condo boom half a decade ago, fueled largely by foreign buyers seeking discretion and big returns. | 公园大道432号大楼高度近1400英尺，一度是世界上最高的住宅楼，也是五年前纽约豪华共管公寓热潮的顶峰——这股浪潮主要由寻求谨慎和高额回报的外国买家推动。 |
| Six years later, residents of the exclusive tower are now at odds with the developers, and each other, making clear that even multimillion-dollar price tags do not guarantee problem-free living. The claims include millions of dollars of water damage from plumbing and mechanical issues; frequent elevator malfunctions; and walls that creak like the galley of a ship — all of which may be connected to the building’s main selling point: its immense height, according to homeowners, engineers and documents obtained by The New York Times. | 六年后的现在，这栋高端大楼的居民与开发商发生了争执，而且自己内部也存在分歧，这表明即使是动辄数百万美元的价签，也不能保证生活不出现问题。根据业主、工程师的描述和《纽约时报》获得的文件，这些索赔包括管道和机械故障造成的数以百万美元计的漏水损失；电梯故障频繁；以及像奴隶划桨船一样吱吱作响的墙壁——所有这些可能都与这座建筑的主要卖点有关：它那耸入云霄的高度。 |
| Less than a decade after a spate of record-breaking condo towers reached new heights in New York, the first reports of defects and complaints are beginning to emerge, raising concerns that some of the construction methods and materials used have not lived up to the engineering breakthroughs that only recently enabled 1,000-foot-high trophy apartments. Engineers privy to some of the disputes say many of the same issues are occurring quietly in other new towers. | 纽约出现了一连串打破纪录、达到新高度的公寓塔楼，然而不到十年，第一批关于缺陷和投诉的报告开始出现，这让人担心，其施工时使用的方法和材料，不足以支撑令这些彰显身份的千尺公寓成为可能的工程突破。了解其中一些纠纷的工程师表示，许多同样的问题正在其他新建大楼悄然发生。 |
| The disputes at 432 Park also highlight a rarely seen view of New York’s so-called Billionaire’s Row, a stretch of supertall towers near Central Park that redefined the city skyline, and where the identities of virtually all the buyers were concealed by shell companies. | 纽约的所谓“亿万富翁街”是中央公园附近一排重新定义城市天际线的超高大厦，公园大道432号的纠纷也凸显了这里鲜为人知的景象，几乎所有买家的身份都被空壳公司掩盖着。 |
| The building, a slender tower that critics have likened to a middle finger because of its contentious height, is mostly sold out, with a projected value of $3.1 billion. The 96th floor penthouse at the top of the building sold in 2016 for nearly $88 million to a company representing the Saudi retail magnate Fawaz Alhokair. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez bought a 4,000-square-foot apartment there for $15.3 million in 2018, and sold about a year later. | 这座细长的大楼因其高度争议，被批评人士比作竖起的中指，目前楼盘已基本售罄，预计价值31亿美元。2016年，第96层的顶层公寓以近8800万美元的价格卖给了代表沙特零售巨头法瓦兹·阿尔霍凯尔(Fawaz Alhokair)的一家公司。2018年，詹妮弗·洛佩兹(Jennifer Lopez)和亚历克斯·罗德里格斯(Alex Rodriguez)以1530万美元的价格在那里买了一套4000平方英尺的公寓，大约一年后又卖了出去。 |
| Now, correspondence between residents, some of the richest and most influential people in the world, reveal thorny arguments over how to remedy the problems without tanking property values. | 现在，这些居民——世上最富有和最有影响力的一群人——之间的通信往来，披露了如何在房子价值不受重创的情况下解决问题的刺耳争辩。 |
| “I was convinced it would be the best building in New York,” said Sarina Abramovich, one of the earliest residents of 432 Park. “They’re still billing it as God’s gift to the world, and it’s not.” | “我曾坚信这将是纽约最好的建筑，”公园大道432号最早的居民之一萨琳娜·阿布拉莫维奇(Sarina Abramovich)说。“他们至今视它为上帝给世界的礼物，而事实并非如此。” |
| CIM Group, one of the developers, said in a statement that the building “is a successfully designed, constructed and virtually sold-out project,” and that they are “working collaboratively” with the condo board, which was run by the developers until January when residents were elected and took control. (Developers typically control condo boards in the first few years of operation.) “Like all new construction, there were maintenance and close-out items during that period,” they said. Macklowe Properties, the other developer, declined to comment. | 开发商之一CIM集团在一份声明中表示，该建筑物“是一个得到成功的设计、建造且几乎售罄的项目”，并且他们正在与公寓委员会“合作”，直到1月由选出的居民接管前，委员会一直由开发商运营。（开发商通常在大楼投入使用的最初几年控制公寓委员会。）“就像所有新建筑一样，在此期间还存在维护和收尾工作，”他们说。另一家开发商麦克罗威地产(Macklowe Properties)拒绝置评。 |
| The construction manager, Lendlease, said in a statement that they “have been in contact” with the developers, “regarding some comments from tenants, which we are currently evaluating.” | 施工管理公司Lendlease在一份声明中说，他们“一直在与开发商保持联系”，“关于住户的一些意见，我们目前正在进行评估。” |
| There have been a number of floods in the building, including two leaks in November 2018 that the general manager of the building, Len Czarnecki, acknowledged in emails to residents. The first leak, on Nov. 22, was caused by a “blown” flange, a ribbed collar that connects piping, around a high-pressure water feed on the 60th floor. Four days later, a “water line failure” on the 74th floor caused water to enter elevator shafts, removing two of the four residential elevators from service for weeks. | 该建筑多次出现走水问题，包括2018年11月的两次漏水，大楼总经理伦·查纳内奇(Len Czarnecki)在给居民的电子邮件中承认了这一点。第一次漏水发生在11月22日，原因是60楼一根高压上水管的法兰盘“爆裂”，也就是连接管道的一种端部凸起部件。四天后，74楼的“水管故障”导致电梯井道进了水，使四台住宅电梯中的两台停运了数周。 |
| Both events occurred on mechanical floors that have been criticized for being excessively tall — a design feature that allowed the developers to build higher than would otherwise have been permitted, because mechanical floors do not count against the building’s allowable size. | 这两起事件都发生在设备层，这些设备层被批位置过高——这种设计特征允许开发商建造超过可容许高度上限的建筑，因为设备层不计入建筑物的允许尺寸。 |
| Reached by phone, Mr. Czarnecki said he was “not at liberty to comment.” | 在通过电话联系到查纳内奇后，他表示“不便发表评论”。 |
| After the first incident, water seeped into Ms. Abramovich’s apartment several floors below the leak, causing an estimated $500,000 in damage, she said. | 阿布拉莫维奇说，在第一次事故发生后，水流到距离渗漏处几层的她的公寓，造成了约50万美元的损失。 |
| One of the most common complaints in supertall buildings is noise, said Luke Leung, a director at the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. He has heard metal partitions between walls groan as buildings sway, and the ghostly whistle of rushing air in doorways and elevator shafts. | SOM建筑设计事务所主任卢克·梁（Luke Leung，音）说，在超高层建筑中最常见的投诉之一是噪音。他听到建筑物摇摆时墙壁之间的金属隔板吱嘎作响，以及风吹入门口和电梯井道中的幽灵般的哨声。 |
| Residents at 432 Park complained of creaking, banging and clicking noises in their apartments, and a trash chute “that sounds like a bomb” when garbage is tossed, according to notes from a 2019 owners’ meeting. | 根据2019年业主会议的记录，公园大道432号的居民抱怨他们的公寓里发出吱吱作响的声音、敲打声和咔嗒声，以及将垃圾扔进垃圾道时“听起来像炸弹”。 |
| Problems at the building were coupled with significant new expenses. Annual common charges jumped nearly 40 percent in 2019, according to management emails that cited rising insurance premiums and repairs, among other costs. | 建筑物中的问题带来大量新的支出。来自管理处的电子邮件提到，由于保险费和维修费等费用的上涨，2019年的年度普通费用增长了近40％。 |
| Eduard Slinin, a resident who was elected to the condo board late last year, wrote a letter to neighbors in 2020 reporting that the building’s insurance costs had increased 300 percent in two years. The insurance hike was partly because of a sprinkler discharge and two “water related incidents” in 2018 that cost the building about $9.7 million in covered losses, according to a letter from the residential board of managers. | 公寓居民爱德华·斯林宁(Eduard Slinin)在去年年底当选管委会董事，他在2020年发送给邻居的信件里报告该建筑的保险费用已在两年内增加了300％。管委会发出的一封信函表示，保费暴涨的部分原因是消防喷淋系统的一次触发，以及2018年发生的另外两次“与水有关的事故”，使该建筑的承保损失约达970万美元。 |
| Some residents also railed against surging fees at the building’s private restaurant, overseen by the Michelin-star chef, Shaun Hergatt. When the building opened in late 2015, homeowners were required to spend $1,200 a year on the service; in 2021, that requirement jumps to $15,000, despite limited hours of operation because of the pandemic. And breakfast is no longer free. | 一些居民还就该建筑由米其林星级厨师肖恩·赫加特(Shaun Hergatt)掌勺的私家餐厅涨价提出了抗议。大楼于2015年底投入使用时要求房主每年在该餐厅花费1200美元；到2021年，尽管由于大流行而导致营业时间有限，但这一要求跃升至1.5万美元。早餐不再免费。 |
| The residents, many of whom live elsewhere most of the year, have splintered into groups. In a letter to fellow residents, Mr. Slinin, the president of Corporate Transportation Group, said he was working with about 40 “concerned unit owners,” out of about 103 units, not including staff apartments, to rein in costs and address possibly dangerous conditions in the building. | 居民分成了小组，他们许多人在一年中的大多数时间都住在别处。身为公司运输集团(Corporate Transportation Group)总裁的斯林宁在一封给居民的信里写到，他正在与103个公寓单位（不包括员工公寓）中的40位“利益相关业主”一起，尝试控制建筑的维护费用以及潜在的危险状况。 |
| The group commissioned SBI Consultants, an engineering firm, to study mechanical and structural issues. Initial findings showed that 73 percent of mechanical, electrical and plumbing components observed failed to conform with the developers’ drawings, and that almost a quarter “presented actual life safety issues,” Mr. Slinin wrote. | 这些业主委托了工程公司SBI咨询来研究机械和结构的问题。初步发现显示，观察到的机械、电气和卫生设备组件中有73%不符合开发商的图纸，并且有近四分之一“存在实际的生命安全问题”，斯林宁写道。 |
| SBI did not respond to email or calls for comment. Mr. Slinin, in a phone call, subsequently downplayed the SBI findings, saying that the mechanical issues “were minor things.” | SBI没有回复请求置评的电子邮件或电话。斯林宁随后在电话中表示不需要过分在意SBI的发现，称设备问题“是小事情”。 |
| Residents have been divided on how to address the building’s problems. Jacqueline Finkelstein-Lebow, the principal of JSF Capital, a real estate investment firm, and a homeowner who recently won a seat on the board, called other residents’ attempts to “lawyer up” against the developers misguided, in a letter to residents. She also denied claims that she might have a conflict of interest in running for the board. She is married to Bennett Lebow, the chairman of Vector Group, a holding company that controls Douglas Elliman Real Estate — the brokerage that led sales at 432 Park. Howard Lorber, the executive chairman of Douglas Elliman, is also a resident. | 居民在如何解决该建筑的问题上存在分歧。房地产投资公司JSF资本(JSF Capital)的负责人、最近获得董事会席位的房主杰奎琳·芬克斯坦-勒博(Jacqueline Finkelstein-Lebow)在给居民的一封信中称，有居民试图“找律师”告开发商，这是不明智的。她还否认她的管委会董事竞选可能存在利益冲突。她的丈夫是维克多集团(Vector Group)董事长贝内特·勒博(Bennett Lebow)，维克多集团是道格拉斯·埃利曼地产公司(Douglas Elliman Real Estate)——公园大道432号的销售经纪公司——的控股公司。道格拉斯·埃利曼的执行主席霍华德·洛伯(Howard Lorber)也是大楼居民之一。 |
| Ms. Finkelstein-Lebow did not respond to requests for comment. | 芬克斯坦-勒博未回应置评请求。 |
| The tension in the building has been simmering for years, Ms. Abramovich said. | 阿布拉莫维奇说，这座大楼里的紧张状态已经持续了好几年了。 |
| “Everybody hates each other here,” she said, but, for the most part, residents want to keep the squabbling out of the public eye. | 她说：“这里的每个人都互相讨厌。”但是，在大多数情况下，居民都希望让争吵远离公众的视野。 |
OK阅读网 版权所有(C)2017 | 联系我们