I rode the East River ferry to get a view of the infamous 58-story NYC skyscraper that’s leaning 3 inches to one side — here’s what it looks like

• An unfinished 58-story skyscraper in New York City is tilting 3 inches to the north.
• The tower’s contractor is suing the developer, saying it allowed for the tower to be built on a shoddy foundation.
• The developer says there’s no safety issue and that the “misalignment” can actually be fixed.
• I went to see the leaning tower for myself, and I couldn’t tell that it was tilted.
• Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

A New York City skyscraper that’s leaning to one side has sparked a legal dispute between the building’s contractor and the developer.

The 58-story tower, known as One Seaport or 161 Maiden Lane, is tilting three inches to the north, Business Insider’s Aria Bendix previously reported.

Read more: Hudson Yards, NYC’s $25 billion neighborhood, was financed with more than $1 billion that was meant for ‘distressed’ urban areas. Here’s a look inside the glitzy development

The contractor of the building, Pizzarotti, sued the tower’s developer on March 22 after a subcontractor discovered the building was askew. Pizzarotti alleges that the developer allowed for the tower to be built on a shoddy foundation. The developer, Fortis Property Group, says Pizzarotti filed the suit to distract from its inability to complete the project.

Fortis also says there's no safety issue and that the "misalignment" can actually be fixed.

I went to go look at the 670-foot tower - here's what it looked like.

A 58-story skyscraper in Manhattan is reportedly leaning three inches to the north. The tower, which sits in lower Manhattan along the East River, is known as One Seaport or 161 Maiden Lane.

Source: Business Insider

The contractor is suing the developer, saying the developer allowed the tower to be built on a shoddy foundation. But the developer, Fortis Property Group, says Pizzarotti filed the lawsuit to draw attention away from its inability to finish the project.

Source: Business Insider

I went to go get a look at the 670-foot tower, which reached its full height in September 2018, to see if the tilt was visible to the naked eye.

Source: Bisnow

This is a view of the tower's East Side, so according to the contractor, it should be leaning to the right, which is north.

Source: Business Insider

To get a better view, I headed over to a pier jutting out into the East River. A spokesperson for the developer told Business Insider that two engineering firms assessed the building and found no safety issue with the tilt. And in fact, the leaning is "a misalignment issue" that, the spokesperson said, can actually be fixed with a "slight redesign of the building's curtain wall, which is already being installed."

Source: Business Insider

So, the tilt will apparently not be an issue for much longer. But this isn't the first time the unfinished One Seaport has been at the heart of a scandal.

Source: Bisnow, Business Insider

In September 2017, a 36-year-old construction worker fell to his death and construction was delayed after the city's Department of Buildings found "numerous immediately hazardous conditions" on the site. The building's previous contractor pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Source: Bisnow, Business Insider

I thought a wider view from the East River ferry might make the three-inch tilt at One Seaport visible to my eye, but I still couldn't see it. While the building does stand out from the ones surrounding it, it’s primarily because of its height — not because of the angle at which it stands.