A part of Billionaires' Row, 432 Park Avenue has some of the most expensive residences in the city, with the median unit selling for tens of millions of dollars.

The tower is segmented into 12-story blocks separated by open double-story mechanical spaces that allow wind gusts to pass through the building.

[25] The tower's exterior is a lattice of poured-in-place concrete made from white Portland cement that forms a regular grid of 10-foot-square (3.0 m) apertures.

[12][27] To finalize the structural design prior to construction, engineers performed a dynamic analysis for stresses, deflections, and horizontal movements to revise the tower's lateral force resisting system against wind and seismic motion.

[33] When 432 Park Avenue was being designed, structural engineer Derek Kelly created a model of Midtown Manhattan to determine the wind forces that the tower would receive.

Viñoly's team decided to install the TMDs after simulating the tower's projected wind forces at the Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[38] A sample medium-sized unit, #35B, covers 4,000 square feet (370 m2) with three bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths, facing south and west with views of Central Park to the northwest.

Shortly after the agreement was reached, Fauchon sued Macklowe in New York Supreme Court claiming that the developer was harassing the store to leave by blocking their entrance with scaffolding and threatening to cut off air conditioning and access to the hotel's bathrooms.

These holdouts meant Macklowe was unable to connect the other buildings he owned on East 57th Street, depriving Nordstrom of the space needed for the store's ground floor entrance.

[57] In May 2008, hotelier Kirk Kerkorian and investment company Dubai World reportedly considered purchasing the site for $200 million in addition to assuming the existing debt on the property.

[58] The bank sued in August 2008 to begin foreclosure on the loan (which had amortized down to $482 million at the time) and take control of the development site.

[62] In late 2007, Joseph Sitt, founder of Thor Equities, introduced Macklowe to an investment firm named CMZ Ventures.

Specifically, Tymoshenko stated that Firtash had used CMZ as a front organization for funds that he skimmed unlawfully from RosUkrEnergo, the natural gas company that he jointly controlled with Russian state-owned enterprise Gazprom.

[65] Another CMZ Ventures investor was Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and leader of the world's second-largest aluminum company Rusal, who was sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2017.

[70] In January 2010, CIM Group agreed to pay $305 million for the complete development site including 434 Park Avenue and 38, 40, 44 and 50 East 57th Street while keeping Macklowe involved as a partner.

The building was master-leased to a real estate investment company, Sovereign Partners, who in turn had subleased the ground floor and mezzanine space to Franck Muller until 2018.

[101] The film also featured famed French high-wire artist Philippe Petit dangling from a helicopter, music by Cass Elliot, references to Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion and the Pantheon, and depictions of King Kong, Le Corbusier, Al Capone, and Anna May Wong.

[109] Several months later, it was announced that boutique watch store Richard Mille would occupy part of the ground-floor retail space.

[116] Joanne Podell, broker for Cushman & Wakefield, stated in 2019 that she had to promise lower rents in order to attract retail tenants.

As part of the divorce proceedings, she filed a lawsuit in September 2017 claiming that Harry illegally shrunk a condo on the building's 78th floor that Linda had agreed to purchase for $14.4 million.

[118] The divorce court judge ordered the tower's developers to give Linda until December 21, 2017, to decide whether to purchase the downsized unit.

Linda instead chose to remain at the couple's penthouse in the nearby Plaza Hotel and dropped her lawsuit over the unit's shrinkage in exchange for the return of her $2.2 million deposit.

[120] Following his subsequent marriage to Patricia Landeau, Macklowe installed a 1,008-square-foot (93.6 m2) portrait of the couple taken by Studio Harcourt on the northwest corner of the tower's retail space in March 2019.

[123] Other complaints have included high wind trapping a resident inside an elevator and causing "creaking, banging and clicking noises", which, according to structural engineers, are issues that have been affecting multiple supertall skyscrapers.

[136] There were 18 apartments on sale by May 2024, including one that the sponsors had never managed to sell,[126] although CIM and Macklowe ultimately found a buyer for the final unsold unit that July.

[139] By the end of 2015, close to 90 percent of the apartments had been sold, with almost half of those owned by a foreign citizen, "part of a global elite that collects residences like art.

[34] Notable residents include Lewis A. Sanders, Bennett LeBow, Ye Jianming, David Chu, Hely Nahmad, Jennifer Lopez, and Alex Rodriguez.

[123] After the structural issues at 432 Park Avenue were publicized, Alhokair placed his apartment for sale in June 2021 with an asking price of $169 million;[159][160] this unit had still not been sold by the end of the next year.

[169] Bianca Bosker wrote for The Atlantic magazine that some New Yorkers had given 432 Park the nickname of "Awful Waffle", saying that New York City's supertall buildings were "an eyesore" at best and a symbol of wealth inequality at worst.

[34] 432 Park's association to wealth inequality was also remarked upon by the building's own architect, Viñoly, who commented that "There are only two markets, ultraluxury and subsidized housing.