One skyscraper stands out from the rest in the Manhattan skyline. It’s not the tallest, but it is the skinniest — the world’s skinniest, in fact.

The 84-storey residential Steinway Tower, designed by New York architecture firm SHoP Architects, has the title of “most slender skyscraper in the world” thanks to its logic-defying ratio of width to height: 1-to-23 1/2.

“Any time it’s 1-to-10 or more that’s considered a slender building”  SHoP Architects founding principal Gregg Pasquarelli said.

“1-to-15 or more is considered exotic and really difficult to do.

“The most slender buildings in the world are mostly in Hong Kong, and they’re around 17- or 18-to-1.”

The 60 apartments in the tower range cost well above the million-dollar mark with the cheapest going from $US18 million ($25.9 million) but offer 360-degree views of the city.

It’s located just south of Central Park, along a stretch of Manhattan’s 57th Street known as ‘Billionaires’ Row’.

At 435 metres, the building is the second-tallest residential tower in New York, second to the nearby Central Park Tower at 470 metres.

For comparison, the world’s tallest tower is Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which stands at 828 metres.

Counterbalancing sway

The complex however is so skinny at the top that whenever the wind ramps up, the luxury homes on the upper floors sway around by a few metres.

“Every skyscraper has to move,” Mr Pasquarelli said.

To prevent the tower from swaying too far, the architects created a counterbalance with tuned steel plates.