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T HINK B IG

we agreed to pay John Smith for his air rights, and we are offering
you the same deal.”
Having assembled air rights from seven adjoining parcels, we ap-
plied to the building department for a building permit to build a
towering 677,000-square-foot building with 376 condominium
units—the tallest residential building in New York City. We showed
the City that we were in full compliance with the zoning resolutions
and were entitled to the issuance of a building permit. We would be
building as “a matter of right” meaning we didn’t need any special
permission from the zoning board. The building department of the
City of New York agreed. Some representatives said, “We might not
like the proposed building, but it’s perfectly legal to build it.” They
felt that if they denied issuing a building permit, their denial would
be overturned in court and possibly lead to a huge damage award.
So, the building department issued the permit. Trump immediately
began construction. He did this to gain the advantage of having al-
ready broken ground, in the event a lawsuit was filed seeking an in-
junction against construction.
As the scope of the building as the tallest residential building in
New York City and maybe the entire world became evident, a num-
ber of prominent residents in the community decided to oppose it.
They tried to use political pressure but were told Trump was acting
well within the law. A group of wealthy residents in the area, includ-
ing Walter Cronkite, filed a lawsuit to stop construction, arguing that
“the zoning in this neighborhood was intended to permit something
completely different; you can’t build a 90-floor monster right in front
of the U.N.” We explained that it wasn’t 90 floors, it was 72 floors (it
was 90 stories high because of higher than normal ceiling heights
(ceiling heights did not affect permitted square footage). The opposi-
tion didn’t like that fact either, but what we did was entirely within
the law.

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