New York Times Tower - 620 Eighth Avenue

[Just Rich]

An attempt at showing the NY Times Tower in a shot with the BoA rendering.

http://homepage.mac.com/rigrij/.Pictures/New%20York%20Stuff/BofA_1.jpg

[dbhstockton]

Fantastic work! Thank you very much.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Very nicely done once again, Just Rich. 8)

[NYguy]

May they both rise!

[JonY]

I like that building, but NY Times Tower will be better :wink: (did that face work?)Pilaro, that wasn't the point of my posting of Sydney's Aurora Tower (see previous page of this thread). It was to give an idea of how The N.Y. Times Tower HQ may end up in its final construction esp. with the white laminated glass and the different shaped enclosers which seem to be in vogue with many towers enclosing their crowns across the U.S., in different laminated glass or other glass materials. ...and yes Pilaro, the :wink: face worked.

BTW I'm just a dumb Sydney-sider, like derrr...http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/nut.gif. However I have done numerous searches over the last hour to find out what the proposed BoA rendering that was done by Just Rich in his New York skyline rendering, along with the NY Times Tower.

My question is what does BoA stand for?


Thanking you all in advance,

JonY

[RandySavage]

'BoA' is usually called 'BofA' for Bank of America - among the largest banks in the world. There is a great thread dedicated to its planned Bryant Park tower: http://forums.wirednewyork.com/viewtopic.php?t=979

[Eugenius]

BoA, also known as BofA is short for Bank of America, currently the third largest American bank.

[TLOZ Link5]

It's also the name of a popular Japanese music group. J-pop has totally invaded NYU.

[NYguy]

APRIL 9, 2004
41st Street, demolition site


http://www.pbase.com/image/27777674.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/image/27777682.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/image/27777693.jpg

[TomAuch]

I feel like the process for the NYT tower has been going on forever. It's been two years since WNY first posted pics of the site.

[krulltime]

Probably it has been slow because of the severe winter that just past by. Alot of developments in NYC also looked very slow to me. But once nice weather regains in NYC I expect things to move quickly! :wink:

[NYguy]

Tallest tower is half gone now...


40th Street

http://www.pbase.com/image/26607854/large.jpg


Going, going....soon to be gone....(April 10)

http://www.pbase.com/image/27834342.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/image/27834347.jpg

[krulltime]

From The NYPOST

April 20, 2004


Consulting giant McKinsey & Co. has apparently decided to stay at 55 E. 52nd St., disappointing developer Bruce Ratner and the owners of several tenant-starved Midtown office buildings. Sources said a "document was out," although no new lease has yet been signed.

With McKinsey's 330,000-square-foot lease coming up in the Fisher Bros.-owned building, it had entered talks with Ratner about anchoring his half of The New York Times headquarters tower, planned for Eighth Avenue at 40th Street.

Ratner has said he can't obtain financing for the project until he has secured a commitment for the upper portion, which he will own. The Times will own the bottom half.

In the absence of a tenant, Ratner has sought Liberty Bond financing from the state and city - originally $400 million worth, a request later reduced to $150 million. All parties remain mum as to where those talks are.

Meanwhile, although Ratner has yet to start excavation, things appear to be moving in that direction: As demolition of condemned buildings picks up steam, the site now resembles a full-bore construction job.

McKinsey is said to have also kicked the tires at several Midtown buildings, but Ratner is the only landlord with whom the firm is known to have conducted a negotiation.

John Whelan, the Fisher organization's agent for 55 E. 52nd St., declined to comment.

[NewYorkYankee]

Where can I find mor einfo on that Boa building that I seen in a post compared to the Times tower?????

[TLOZ Link5]

There's a thread. Look for "One Bryant Park."

[NYguy]

The site will be completely clear in a couple of weeks.
More of the incredible shrinking building....


April 23, 2004

http://www.pbase.com/image/28249160.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/image/28249161.jpg


A comparison of the past few weeks...


http://www.pbase.com/image/26607854/medium.jpg http://www.pbase.com/image/27834347/medium.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/image/28249160/medium.jpg

[Procurator]

Well that's proceeding a lot faster than I expected.

[NY-SAILOR]

Apparently this seems to be a dream come true for an addition of another fine skyscraper in the NYC skyline...I can't wait to see it when completed. :)

[Edward]

Demolition of the buildings on the site of New York Times Tower (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/default.htm). 25 April 2004.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/images/new_york_times_tower_25apr04.jpg (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/default.htm)



http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/images/nytt_garage_25apr04.jpg (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/default.htm)

[Kris]

A Day In The Light (http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0504/nyt/index.html)
To test the groundbreaking scheme for its new headquarters, the New York Times has launched an elaborate building study: a 24-hour experiment in lighting design.

[Kris]

Jewels on the horizon

New midtown skyscrapers for Hearst and The Times aim to rise above the ordinary.

BY JUSTIN DAVIDSON
STAFF WRITER

May 2, 2004

The towers that make up the midtown Manhattan skyline are a motley bunch. In among the elegant needle of the Empire State Building, the twinkling chrome cap of the Chrysler Building and the runaway-truck ramp of Citicorp is a chorus line of undistinguished slabs. The ensemble changes constantly, yet the stars remain the same.

Two projects that for now exist mostly on paper hold promise as high-rise heartthrobs: Renzo Piano's New York Times Tower, poised for the corner of Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street, and Norman Foster's Hearst Tower, already going up at Eighth and 56th. Both will one day reach out to passersby and demand a strong opinion rather than just a glazed nod.

The Times Tower, a glass-skinned beauty sheathed in a see-through veil of ceramic tubes, is designed to disappear. An actual 52-story skyscraper rarely looks as gossamer as it does in models and renderings, but here, lightness is both a metaphoric and an architectural goal.

Structural symbolism

The Times wants a symbol of its journalistic values and the qualities of an ideal democracy: openness, integrity, transparency. Piano wants a structure that doesn't glower behind dark glass like a highway patrolman wearing shades. Instead, he has imagined a self-effacing edifice that will shimmer and dissolve as it rises to a slender needle.

To achieve that mistiness, Piano decided to enclose each floor in untinted, ultraclear, low-iron glass, then wrap it in a coat of white rods, which will deflect heat and glare. The veil of rods continues upward well beyond the top story, making it look as though the shroud were being plucked skyward by a heavenly hand.

Theatrical illusion

The Hearst Tower spins another kind of theatrical illusion: the effect of one era's modern architecture giving birth to another's. Foster's crystal rocket will rise out of a squat, six-story structure built in 1928 for the corporation founded by William Randolph Hearst. The architect and set designer Joseph Urban gave the International Magazine Building, as it was grandiosely called, a wanly heroic touch with columns that reach past the roofline, topped with precarious Art Deco urns. It looked unfinished, and it was: The Depression squelched Hearst's plan to erect a high-rise on top of it.

"I wanted something which had qualities of the theater and where sculpture was an important factor," Hearst cabled Urban in 1927. His headquarters should display "conspicuous architectural character" that would reflect "the public character of our publications." What he wanted, in other words, was a work of architectural branding - which his namesake corporation still desires.

More than 70 years later, Foster has responded to Hearst's cravings for boldness and modernity with a crystal box supported not, as in traditional skyscrapers, by a load-bearing concrete core, but by an external honeycomb of steel, which the architect calls a "diagrid" of beams.

The relationship between the new and the old is one of polite separation. Foster has eviscerated Urban's building, and the new 42-story palace seems to float above and behind the original shell. The setback pleased the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which amiably waved the project on when it came up for approval in 2001.

The original has become all facade; the new one consists of naked structure. Where Urban emphasized the corners with exclamation points of fluted concrete columns, Foster marks them with geometric gaps, following a rigorous logic of triangles combining into hexagons: Look Ma, no vertical lines! Seen from the inside, these bird-beak corners will appear as breathtakingly canted glass walls. Urban's sidewalk setpiece will be relegated to a character role, while the real drama takes place above.

The power of place

The Hearst and Times projects will fill in a media corridor that runs from the Times Square agglomeration of Reuters, Condé Nast and MTV, among others, to the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle. There's an irony to this concentration of communicators. Even as the industry grapples with a nebulous, digital future, it is still reckoning with its masonry-and-paper past. Hearst and The Times both emerged from the 19th century to become informational behemoths in the 20th. While the millennium was supposed to herald the dispersal of media into cyberspace and suburban office parks, these two companies (like many others) have bet not just on real estate and location but on the galvanizing power of architecture.

Place wasn't supposed to matter, but media architecture shows that place matters more than ever," says Aurora Wallace, an architectural historian at New York University and author of the forthcoming book "The Architecture of News."

"If you're not on the skyline, you don't exist."

The Times and Hearst buildings do more than proclaim the supremacy of their media brands. They also represent a long tradition of magnanimous design, of private architecture as civic gesture. The 16th century palazzos of Florence provide one example, Rockefeller Center another. What makes these two new towers qualify as urban gifts is that they are better than the bottom line demands.

Recent midtown architecture, expensive and flashy though it may be, has not risen to that standard. At Columbus Circle, the Time Warner Center throws open the doors of its luxury shopping mall to the throngs, but it has also crowned the West Side with two large, dark forms, like the shadows of a pair of gangsters in a classic film noir. This building is all business.

A dozen blocks south, a complicated coalition of public officials and private interests has transformed Times Square into a public gathering place at the base of a klatch of busy high-rises that are more collectively hyperactive than individually exhilarating. The most recent of them, Times Square Tower, designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill, will open soon; like its neighbors, it aspires to jazz heat mixed with corporate cool.

Like all skyscrapers, Foster's and Piano's must make economic sense. The Hearst corporation will take over its whole new location, bringing under one roof publications currently scattered across nine midtown addresses. The Times will move from its location on West 43rd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues to just the lower portion of its new tower; the project's developer, Forest City Ratner, is trying to rent out the rest of the building. Yet, these structures are intended not only to squeeze a dollar out of every bolt but to make strong statements of collective aspiration.

Laboratories for design

Both are also architectural research facilities. They have been engineered to withstand our era's new range of nightmare scenarios and allow thousands of people to flee with maximum efficiency. They aim to consume as little energy as possible and set ambitious standards for green design.

Having dispensed with the traditional doughnut of cubicles wrapped around a central elevator core, their layouts strive to distribute soul-nourishing daylight and views to every rank of worker. The communal spaces have a magnificently unnecessary grandeur: The Times boasts a garden cloister on the ground floor; Hearst, a cafeteria in a lofty atrium.

"The architects have made spaces for workers to relax and interact, which is a whole lot different than the American mentality of gathering around the water cooler," says architectural historian Carol Willis, who runs the Skyscraper Museum in Battery Park City. "These buildings are a test case for New York. It's more expensive to build a new paradigm. Will it be attractive enough for tenants to demand it and economical enough for developers to supply it? I don't know, but they're certainly doing a lot of research and development, which is not exactly typical for an office building in New York."

Architectural homage

Designed for old-fashioned companies that perform fundamentally the same tasks they did more than 100 years ago, each tower also pays its own architectural homage. Foster's Hearst dwarves and detaches itself from Urban's, proclaiming how far the art has evolved in 75 years.

And even in all its glittering modernity, the Times Tower gestures toward the 19th century impulse to decorate the city. Its heat-deflecting ceramic tubes recall the elegant terra cotta ornamentation on such civic monuments as the Woolworth Building, says Willis. "Whether Piano was conscious of it or not, it's really part of a New York tradition."

At the moment, that tradition is partly in the hands of an Italian and a British lord, who bring to the Manhattan skyscraper sensibilities forged in Europe and honed around the globe. For years, New York City has watched other megalopoli become skyscraper laboratories while it tolerated towers of modest distinction.

With the planned rebirth of its downtown and this pair of midtown jewels in the offing, Manhattan is once again tending to its skyline silhouette.

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.


Hearst Tower (http://forums.wirednewyork.com/viewtopic.php?t=870)

[NYguy]

Site demolition nearing its completion...(5/9/04)


http://www.pbase.com/image/28821230/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/image/28821233/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/image/28821240/large.jpg


GOING!

http://www.pbase.com/image/26607854/medium.jpg

GOING!

http://www.pbase.com/image/27834342/medium.jpg

GONE!

http://www.pbase.com/image/28821230/medium.jpg

[NYguy]

The Times tower will rise as planned...(NY Post)

RATNER WILL BUILD TIMES TOWER WITHOUT LIBERTY $$

By STEVE CUOZZO

May 11, 2004 -- BRUCE Ratner has dropped his quest for low-interest Liberty Bonds to help finance the $850 million New York Times headquarters tower, and has begun building it with the expectation of a conventional, but pricey, construction loan.

Ratner told The Post, "We struggled for a year to get financing" for the architecturally distinguished tower, which will rise on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st streets, a block once full of porno shops.

"It delayed us 6 months, but we have pretty much completed it," he added. "We've started demolition and digging."

Ratner said "no" when asked if Liberty Bonds would be part of the financing. "It's totally privately financed," he said. "We'll make an announcement in a few weeks."

Last fall, Ratner had sought $400 million in Liberty Bonds - a request later scaled down to $150 million - because, he said, his lack of a tenant for the top half of the Times tower made it impossible to get a construction loan.

But the building's progress is now irreversible, given that the Times-Ratner lease with the state requires that the job be finished within 36 months of the start of construction.

Ratner had sought the bonds to help offset the considerably higher cost of borrowing he will face for his portion of the tower, for which no tenants have yet been signed.

But the state rebuffed Ratner's request for the funding. At the time, he was also seeking Albany's help to build his Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, anchored by a Frank Gehry-designed Nets arena; negotiations over the project are ongoing.

The Times Co. will own the bottom half of the Eighth Avenue tower, but Ratner will own roughly 700,000 square feet in the top half of the 52-story skyscraper, which will be defined by a shimmering curtain wall of transparent glass enveloped in louvered screens.

With construction under way, Ratner's leasing campaign - led by CB Richard Ellis's Mary Ann Tighe - is expected to go into high gear.

The tower, designed by Renzo Piano with Fox & Fowle, joins with Sir Norman Foster's glass-bubble tower for Hearst (now rising at 56th Street) to establish Eighth Avenue as an unlikely corridor for great contemporary architecture.

[krulltime]

:D Alright! I was getting a little worry!

[Kris]

May 13, 2004

Construction of Times Building Is Scheduled to Start in Summer

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

The New York Times Company and its partner plan to begin construction this summer of a long-awaited 52-story skyscraper at Eighth Avenue and 40th Street, where workers are now dismantling the vacant buildings on a two-acre site.

The Times and its partner, Forest City Ratner Companies, have tentatively scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony for late June on what will be an $850 million tower, the newspaper's third home in the Times Square neighborhood over the last century.

Forest City also expects to agree in the next month on about $300 million in financing for the tower from the GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corporation, according to real estate executives and government officials.

"They expect to close within the next 30 days on financing," one executive said. "Then the project will take off."

Under the partnership, The Times has a 58 percent stake in the project and will occupy 825,000 square feet of the 1.5 million-square-foot tower. Forest City and its partner, ING Financial, have the remaining 42 percent. The Times expects to occupy the building early in 2007, more than two years later than planned.

Forest City's pending deal with GMAC ends a degree of uncertainty that arose in October, when The Times announced that it would delay construction until its partner could obtain financing. Last year, Forest City asked the Bloomberg administration for $400 million in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds, which were designated for rebuilding New York after the attack on the World Trade Center.

City officials balked, not wanting to reopen a deal that was struck in 2000. Under the terms of its land lease with the city and the state, The Times and Forest City were required to begin construction by September 2004. Forest City subsequently pared its request to $150 million, but made little progress on the bonds. The developer then turned to GMAC.

The partners took possession of the site, between 40th and 41st Streets, across Eighth Avenue from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, in September 2003, after the 55 businesses there had moved out. Several months ago, demolition began. Only four buildings, all shrouded in black safety netting, remain on the site.

The Times and Forest City posted a $134 million letter of credit covering acquisition of the site, but they are liable for only $85.6 million. Anything above that will be refunded over time as a credit against the land rent paid to the state. Under the deal with the state, The Times also got $26.1 million in tax breaks.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[NYguy]

The Times and its partner, Forest City Ratner Companies, have tentatively scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony for late June

So, in the span of a week or two, we get groundbreakings for both the Times and Freedom towers. Nice! Maybe the Bank of America tower can get in on some of that action...

[NYguy]

Posted at the skyscraper forum...

http://63.135.104.246/greenimages/comm_NYT_green.jpg

[krulltime]

There is more info about the tower with renderings at this site...

http://www.thecityreview.com/timesre.html

(if someone wants to post the renderings on the forum that will be a plus)

[Stern]

At long last the NYTIMES tower is a reality.

[londonlawyer]

NEW YORK RULES!!!

[londonlawyer]

By the way, I read on Piano's website that this building (excluding the antenna) will be about 750 feet tall. Does anyone know if that excludes the crown, which appears to be at least 50 feet tall?

[NYatKNIGHT]

It looks like the glass must go higher than 748' if the top of the pole is 1140'.

http://194.185.232.3/works/064/pictures/30big.jpghttp://194.185.232.3/works/064/pictures/25big.jpg
http://194.185.232.3/works/064/pictures/27big.jpghttp://194.185.232.3/works/064/pictures/38big.jpg

[londonlawyer]

I'd like to see the city condemn Milstein's lot and build a park of plaza on this site. It would be nice to have that open space and views of the NYT tower would be unobstructed, whereas if Milstein builds a 40 story tower, it partially will block the Times tower. The city could then condemn that piece of shit building on the N.W. corner of 42nd and 8th and let Milstein build there.

[Stern]

The New York Times goes transparent

Soon the venerable New York Times will have a new home in the heart of Manhattan – its first new headquarters office building since the current one was completed in 1913. The transparent glass tower, 52 storeys high, will overlook the Times Square Redevelopment area on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets.

Early in 2003, a group of visitors from the New York Times Company and its design and engineering contractors paid a visit to Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) to talk about making the building an energy-efficient, comfortable and productive place to work.

They’ve since launched a co-operative research project to test new technologies aimed at increasing the energy-efficiency of the new building and improving the indoor environment.
Their research focuses on integrated technologies to reduce electric lighting energy use through daylighting while controlling glare and cooling loads in the extensively glazed building.

Alternative hardware and control solutions are being tested in a newly constructed, 418 m2 mockup of a portion of the building.
Pushing the daylighting envelope

“We’ve known since the 1970s that daylighting can reduce lighting energy use,” says Building Technologies Department Head Stephen Selkowitz. “But the mere use of large glass areas is not in itself a guarantee that energy savings or comfort will be achieved, because there are so many trade-offs involved.

“It’s been difficult to make as much progress in the use of daylighting as we have in other areas of lighting and glazing technology for a variety of reasons. For one, daylighting requires a high level of system integration. Designers have to design the building from the start to incorporate daylight into office spaces, there has to be a flexible and responsive control strategy to lower or turn off electric lights when daylight is available, and visual and thermal comfort must be maintained at all times.”

Adds Selkowitz: “The cost of components for successful daylighting – such as dimmable electronic ballasts, which control fluorescent lights – can be high. The systems, with their sensors and controls, also require careful calibration after they are installed – something that is not done very often in buildings today.”

Berkeley Lab research suggests that proper daylighting can reduce perimeter-zone lighting energy consumption by as much as 60 to 70 per cent annually. Overall building energy use can be re-duced by 10 to 30 per cent compared with a similar non-daylit building, depending on such factors as the fraction of total building area that can be effectively daylit.

Additional savings come from reducing building air-conditioning and heating loads through the selection of efficient glazings and automatic shading.
A contribution to civic life

When the Times decided to erect a new building, the creation of a comfortable working environment for its employees was one of its top priorities, together with energy-efficiency.

The transparency imperative was two-pronged: it had to bring in the daylight, and it had to to serve as a reminder of the mission of the newspaper – providing information “transparency” about the civic life of the nation and the world’s most exciting city.

To help create a connection to the community, the building will have an auditorium at the ground floor for civic and cultural events; the newsroom will occupy floors two to seven.

An unusual feature of the building, one more common in Europe than in the US, will be its fully glazed curtain wall. Thin horizontal ceramic tubes placed on a steel framework in front of the glass will screen the double-glazed, spectrally selective, low-emissivity, full-height glass wall around the building, thereby reducing its cooling loads. (Low-emissivity glass is an energy-efficient material that helps reduce heating and cooling use.)

The ceramic tubes provide an aesthetic bonus, taking on the changing colour of the sky during the course of the day as light diffuses through them from different angles. Towards the top of the building, the screen of tubes becomes less dense, and its lace-like appearance will permit a view of roof garden foliage.

The building was designed by architect Renzo Piano, well-known for his design of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Osaka’s Kansai International Airport, and Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, in collaboration with Fox & Fowle Architects. Construction will start later this year and the building is expected to be completed by mid-2006.

It will unite most of the 2 500 Manhattan-based employees of the Times Company, which currently has offices at seven locations in New York City.

“This building is designed from the ground up to reinforce the values of the New York Times Company,” says vice-chairperson Michael Golden.

The paper is 153 years old. It’s time.



Source: Berkeley Lab


This article originally appeared in the May 2004 issue of the South African edition of Popular Mechanics magazine.

[NYguy]

I'd like to see the city condemn Milstein's lot and build a park of plaza on this site. It would be nice to have that open space and views of the NYT tower would be unobstructed, whereas if Milstein builds a 40 story tower, it partially will block the Times tower. The city could then condemn that piece of shit building on the N.W. corner of 42nd and 8th and let Milstein build there.

That site is not big enough for a park or plaza. Besides, its the wrong location for it, and it would probably turn into another homeless encampment overnight...

[NYguy]

It looks like the glass must go higher than 748' if the top of the pole is 1140'.

I think its around 840 ft...

[James Kovata]

1140'...technically the second tallest in NYC.

[Agglomeration]

The top 300 feet of NYT will likely consist of either a solid spire or one that "sways in the wind" :lol: Sorry about the crackup but IMO a TV antenna would be better than a fragile spire. Anyway I'm glad that it's 52 floors and not 32.

[Gulcrapek]

An antenna would be pretty redundant given the fact that there are now two notable antennas in the immediate area and one more on the way. I wonder what watching the "swaying" spire would be like...

[londonlawyer]

The building definitely appears taller than the 750 feet figure set forth on Piano's site. I tend to think that that figure refers to the height of the highest occupied floor, and that the crown (not including the antenna) reaches 850 feet.

[AJphx]

from the article above: he building was designed by architect Renzo Piano, well-known for his design of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris

Wasn't the Centre Pompidou designed by Richard Rogers... not Piano? Why would they even think it was a Piano building...?

[Kris]

Journalists have wild imaginations.

[alejo]

Wasn't the Centre Pompidou designed by Richard Rogers... not Piano? Why would they even think it was a Piano building..

they worked together for that project

[londonlawyer]

Wasn't the Centre Pompidou designed by Richard Rogers... not Piano? Why would they even think it was a Piano building..

they worked together for that project

I think that it was a joint effort. Also, Pompidou has the Rogers trademark of mechanicals outside a la Lloyd's!

[Kris]

http://194.185.232.3/works/064/pictures/40big.jpg
http://194.185.232.3/works/064/pictures/39big.jpg

http://194.185.232.3/works/064/pictures.asp

[TAFisher123]

6-12-04.....Almost nothing left

http://www.pbase.com/image/30065241.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/30065242.jpg

They havent started digging yet....

http://www.pbase.com/image/30065260.jpg

[Archit_K]

Personally in my own opinion this one of the best modern buildings that is going to stand out. I’m guessing that it's going to be remembered just like the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and GE Building which where the three great giants in New York during the early 20th century.

After Thought: Think about New Yorkers wouldn't have a choice because it stands out interms of Architectural esthetics and height. I give kudos to Renzo Piano and Fox and Fowl. :D

[BrooklynRider]

I think it would have to be taller and more distinct from a distance to be added to the Pantheon of skyline giants. The spire "thing" significantly adds to the height and to me is kind of ridiculous looking.

[Stern]

I think its in the league with the Citicorp Center, Trump World Tower, and Bloomberg Tower.

I think it's a league above the MetLife and Conde Nast Building's.

[Edward]

The site of New York Times Tower (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/default.htm). 26 June 2004.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/images/nytimes_26june04.jpg (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/default.htm)

[Stern]

Who says you can't join the mile high club on Eighth Avenue?
ie. NYTIMES Tower.

[krulltime]

They are almost finish. :P

Thanks for the update picture.

[NYguy]

They are almost finish. :P

Thanks for the update picture.

They're finished. What you're looking at in the photo is a hole.

Stern, the corner where that billboard is located is scheduled for a highrise in the Westside redevelopment plan. So maybe they too will join the "mile high" club... :lol:

[Johnnyboy]

what is the mile high club? :?:

[PHLguy]

Sex on an Airplane...

[krulltime]

RATNER, TIMES COULD CLEAN UP


By LOIS WEISS
June 30, 2004

Having been denied Liberty Bonds, developer Bruce Ratner and The New York Times are going after money made available to developers of polluted sites to help them build a 42-story Times Square tower.

Ratner and The Times want $170 million in tax credits, and millions more in property tax exemptions, for the planned Times headquarters at Eighth Avenue and 41st Street.

Ratner's application for the credits says the site once had a 7,500-gallon above-ground fuel-oil storage tank and two 550-gallon underground tanks, and elevators that may have used PCB-contaminated fluids, according to the newspaper City Limits.

The soil also contains some lead contamination typical of urban locations.

Under a new federal law that goes into effect this year, and is administered by the states, businesses that clean up even small amounts of pollution can get 10 years of state tax credits, remission insurance credits and even local property tax exemptions.

"I don't think taxpayers' dollars should be going to fund this," said Laura Height, senior environmental associate with NYPIRG. "When you have a site like Times Square, for crying out loud, it will get redeveloped one way or the other."

She explained that a 600-acre site with less than a one-acre contamination "would still get the tax breaks for the entire site."

The move sets the stage for Ratner's company, Forest City Ratner, to apply for tax credits for a larger site in Brooklyn he is assembling to build an arena, housing, and offices.

Ratner spokeswoman Michele de Milly said the Times Square application was the only one she was aware of and that it would be "premature" to speculate on an application for the arena site.

"We're going to present a set of facts to the government agency and they will have to determine if it is eligible," she added with regard to the Times Tower. "The intention is to clean these up."


Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[krulltime]

New York Times gets headquarters financing


June 30, 2004

The New York Times Co.'s developer has secured a $320 million loan from GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp. to help pay for construction on the company's new Times Square headquarters.

Construction, which had been delayed until developer Forest City Ratner Cos. could find financing, is slated to begin shortly on the Renzo Piano-designed, $850 million project. Forest City had sought as much as $400 million in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds from the city but was rebuffed.

The 1.67 million-square-foot, 52-story tower will be located on Eighth Avenue, between 40th and 41st streets. The building will include a common lobby, a four-story indoor garden, a 378-seat auditorium, and 22,000 square-feet of retail space. The office tower will be 58%-owned by the Times and 42%-owned by Forest City and ING Financial.

Copyright 2004, Crain Communications, Inc

[RS085]

Anything recent on New York Times Tower? New Yorks gonna look even better when all these new towers are completed.

[Johnnyboy]

the tower should start to be build this month right?

[RS085]

I hope they start soon, ive been waiting. Hong Kong is catching up.

[kliq6]

i think evcavation work is stating

[Stern]

According to this months Architectural Record demolition is complete and they are currently doing soil testing. Construction will begin in the fall.

[Stern]

Another thread bump.

http://www.fcrc.com/images%5Cprojects%5Cmainnytimesb.jpg

http://www.fcrc.com/images%5Cprojects%5Cgaltypicalfloorb.jpg

http://www.fcrc.com/images%5Cprojects%5Cgalwestentrancelobbyb.jpg

http://www.fcrc.com/images%5Cprojects%5Cgalskylinepurpleb.jpg

[TLOZ Link5]

I think the height is a bit less than expected. Emporis (the former skyscrapers.com) lists the height as 1,046 feet, matching the Chrysler Building. Hmmmm...

[RS085]

I hope they start building soon. Im more excited about this one than BofA. I wanna see more Bloomberg pics too, its been awhile.

[James Kovata]

The height is in the mast on top of the building. The tops of the screens are, I believe, less than 900 feet.

[Stern]

As construction nears here's a one storey mockup of the facade at sunset:

http://194.185.232.3/works/064/pictures/40big.jpg

Now times by: x52 :shock: :shock:

[krulltime]

This big baby is going to look so good... :D

[Johnnyboy]

Thats what the building is going to have?

[nybboy]

So has the Times tower finally started construction, yet? If so, can anyone take some pics of the site.[/quote]

[yyy]

Here is a good place where you can find information about the building:
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=102109

[Johnnyboy]

i have heard that this building was suppose to start construction last month but, now i hear during the fall. God knows when.

[Stern]

I visited the site the other day; unfortunately I don’t have a place to post my pictures. Anyway the site is fully cleared and excavators are hard at work. The site is just as busy and there is as much progress made as at OBP which is officially under construction. At this rate both should rise toe to toe.

[yyy]

This is going to be one of the most beautiful buildings in NY :) Wish I could see some pictures of what was built until now.

[James Kovata]

This is going to be one of the most beautiful buildings in NY :) Wish I could see some pictures of what was built until now.

I don't believe anything has been built yet....other than clearing and other preliminary work.

[yyy]

Oh, OK. I thought they built something up until now. Probably people here will upload photos of the building's construction when they start building it. Thanks for telling me James Kovata.

[NYatKNIGHT]

You can be sure there will be photos at every stage of construction.

[NYguy]

Went by the site earlier tonight. Work is definitely underway.

[Johnnyboy]

Great :D

[yyy]

You can be sure there will be photos at every stage of construction.

Thanks :D

[Stern]

This photo does not give a good idea of how busy the site really is:

http://image.pbase.com/u42/sternyc/upload/34153759.NYT.jpg

Also to the back of the photo is where the excavations are taking place.

[yyy]

I can't see the photo. Maybe the url is wrong.

[NYguy]

It works. Once again, another large site. Together with the BOA and Freedom Tower, we have 3 of NY's tallest skyscrapers coming to life at the same time. Very exciting...

http://image.pbase.com/u42/sternyc/upload/34153759.NYT.jpg

[yepole]

It was not working again, but looks like this link does
http://www.pbase.com/sternyc/image/34153759
I'll try to make some additional pics if I get there tomorrow

[yyy]

Yes, this one is OK. They really haven't done much in there.

[ube]

At 6:00am when I was heading out out PABT those shovels where working at a frantic pace in the NYT site :)

[Johnnyboy]

good time for new york. Hearst Tower, NYT, BOA, WTC7, Goldman Sach,
Bloomber tower, and to top it all off at the end, the Freedom Tower. Many great , beautifull, and very tall skyscrapers have been rising in New York
at about the same time and many more are to come hopefully like 80 south street, the surrounding buildings at wtc site, and etc. Maybe even Jets Stadium. Great time for new york construction. Can't wait to see the new New York when all these projects are done. Its gonna look so much better than before.

[yepole]

Some pictures of construction on NYT site:
http://pictures.unwiredny.com/Pictures/Constr_NYT/

[Pilaro]

Does anyone know how long it will be before excavation is complete and something begins to rise? Digging is great, but I want to see some steel.

[NYguy]

Oct. 10
Still wide open sky...


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/34971000/large.jpg

[NYguy]

Got a good look at the site yesterday. They are still digging aggressively, so no foundation work yet. I'm not sure how deep they are going...

[Johnnyboy]

exelent

[James Kovata]

Well, at least there is SOME news on this building. I was beginning to wonder what was going on.

[NYguy]

Finally got a look at the site while it was inactive...

Nov 7, 2004

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/36098939/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/36098941/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/36098945/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/36098958/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/36098968/large.jpg


Judging from this shot of the Bank of America tower site a couple of blocks away, (also taken Nov 7, 2004) the NY Times tower still appears to be in the lead...it will be a fun race to watch...


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/36098983/large.jpg

[Kris]

November 9, 2004

The Times Sells Its Headquarters to a Developer of Office Space

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

Tishman Speyer Properties signed a contract Sunday night to buy the current home of The New York Times Company in Times Square for $175 million and convert it to an office building.

The deal for the 15-story building on West 43rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, is expected to close by the end of the year. But The Times will remain in the building, which opened in 1913, until sometime in 2007, when the newspaper plans to move to a new skyscraper across Eighth Avenue from the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Tishman Speyer made a pre-emptive offer for the 750,000-square-foot building last week just as the property was entering the second stage of an auction, according to three real estate executives. The company outmaneuvered about nine other prospective developers, including Vornado Realty Trust, Boston Properties, Arthur Cohen and the Wilf real estate family, by offering more money.

Robert Speyer, a senior managing director of Tishman Speyer, said the building was an extraordinary opportunity, given its location, its landmark facade and the current state of the office market.

"It's obviously a great location," Mr. Speyer said. "Think about all the corporations that have moved into Times Square over the last 10 years. As the economy grows, there'll be spillover requirements."

The other bidders were considering converting the building to a hotel or an apartment house, as well as office space. Mr. Speyer said his company planned to renovate the entire structure, building a new lobby and installing new elevators. The building's loading docks on both 43rd and 44th Streets will be turned into retail stores, he said.

Mr. Speyer said he expected that the property would be owned by a joint venture of Tishman Speyer, the New York City Employees' Retirement System and the New York City Teachers' Retirement System. The three groups also own the "lipstick building" on Third Avenue.

The Times Company and its partner, Forest City Ratner, are in the early stages of building a 52-story skyscraper on the east side of Eighth Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets, that will become the news media company's first headquarters outside Times Square in the past century, if only by a block or two.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Edward]

The site of New York Times Tower (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/). 10 November 2004.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/images/nytimes_10nov04.jpg (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/)

[RS085]

I noticed on Skyscraperpage.com that New York Times Tower is now listed under construction finally. Anyone know anything about that? Go look.

[Gulcrapek]

I set that status, because it's at the same level as BoA which people wanted to classify as u/c. I'd rather wait until foundations but others don't.

[Coleridge]

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/125d-8ny_times_tower_skyline_rendering.jpg

Rendition of the New York skyline with the New York Times Tower illuminating in the middle.

[Johnnyboy]

i don't like that picture. i think it makes NYC look ugly wich is not.

[Coleridge]

http://archrecord.construction.com/innovation/2_Features/0411Green.asp

Here is an article in ArchRecord about New York leading the way in making buildings more environmentally-friendly.

[BrooklynRider]

Interesting article. However, the inclusion of a rendering of "Freedom" Tower shown side by side with Hearst, NYTT, and BOA, reveals just how week thye design is. Truly abysmal.

[Stern]

I love this new model view:

http://archrecord.construction.com/innovation/2_Features/images/0411green1.jpg

[JonY]

^^ Nice Stern :)

Great pics of the foundation being excavated by NYguy (on the previous page) and by Edward above.

BTW Anyone have an idea of how many levels the foundation will go down? The measurement of its depth too?

[Johnnyboy]

Personally, the best picture in that article is between both. Freedom tower and Hearst tower. Both look amaizingly beautifull and advance. Im not too much of a fan of the Freedom Tower but, in that picture with those buildings, it looks amaizing. I hope it comes really close to that picture in view.

[Johnnyboy]

New York Times Tower looks like ill bring bigger beauty to the skyline. Im really exited about these developments. Its going to be awsome the sight of New York when all these projects are done and those are not all. We still are waiting to see renderings and plans of Ratner.

[JonY]

Johnnyboy, just checked the Ratner website @ http://www.ratnerarchitects.com and unfortunately :( still nothing on the NY Times Tower.

BTW Anyone have an idea of how many levels the foundation will go down? The measurement of its depth too?
Anyone? lol http://www.sayhey.co.uk/invboard/html/emoticons/laugh.gif

[JMGarcia]

Here's the official site of the building. Its been around a while but in case you haven't seen it....

http://194.185.232.3/works/064/

[Gulcrapek]

JonY, Ratner is a developer, not an architect... Renzo Piano has the NYT on his site.

[JonY]

JonY, Ratner is a developer, not an architect... Renzo Piano has the NYT on his site.

Not doubting you, however why did I come across ratnerarchitects.com? Obviously different to the Ratner Johnnyboy was referring to.

Of course this is a Piano project, however.....

[Stern]

Not doubting you, however why did I come across ratnerarchitects.com? Obviously different to the Ratner Johnnyboy was referring to.

Of course this is a Piano project, however.....

Ratner is the buildings Developer. Renzo Piano is the buildings architect.

Ratner architects are an architectural firm unrelated to this project.

BTW Ratner, the developer, has the NYTIMES Building on its website:

http://www.fcrc.com/project_main2.asp?id=27&cc=2&rid=27

[Johnnyboy]

That website that Jmgarcia gave us is exelent. Thanks Jmgarcia. I shows many exelent pictures on how the building will look. The op of it looks somewhat like Condenast building. These were the most interesting I found in that website.
http://194.185.232.3/works/064/pictures/29big.jpghttp://194.185.232.3/works/064/pictures/27big.jpg

You can see how tall this building will look by comparing it with the others shown in the picture. Its huge. Going past the Empire State Building top floor thats huge

[Stern]

Going past the Empire State Building top floor thats huge

Its an exageration. Don't forget this building only has 52 floors, the ESB has 102.

[kliq6]

anyone been near the site, are they doing any work there now?

[Johnnyboy]

Going past the Empire State Building top floor thats huge

Its an exageration. Don't forget this building only has 52 floors, the ESB has 102. i was talking about the antena or spiral. whatever that is on top

[NYguy]

Dec 4, 2004
Site of Times tower....less rubble, excavation complete?


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/37188566/medium.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/37188573/medium.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/37188576/medium.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/37188578/medium.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/37188581/medium.jpg

[BrooklynRider]

I was by there on Saturday. Excavation doesn't seem done. They are still shoring up the walls of the site.

[Eugenius]

I would guess that the excavation needs to be 50 to 60 feet below street level. It seems that the site is only about half way there.

[alex ballard]

Are they planning anything special for the ground floor? That Bulding would make a great Dave&Busters.

[ube]

On my way to PABT I always take a peek behind the walls, and that hole seems to get deeper and deeper every day!

[billyblancoNYC]

GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Construction Financing Lines Up for NYT Tower
By Barbara Jarvie
Last updated: January 3, 2005 07:38am
http://www.globest.com/news/191_191/newyork/129986-1.html

NEW YORK CITY-Total construction loan financing in the amount of $322.5 million has been put in place for the development of the 1.7-million-sf New York Times Co. building at 620 Eighth Ave. Just before the year end, Hypo Real Estate Capital Corp., the New York-based subsidiary of Hypo Real Estate Bank International, closed on a $52.5-million participation loan for the project, which is a joint venture of the New York Times Co., Forest City Ratner Cos. and ING Real Estate.

Forest City president and CEO Bruce Ratner previously said he expects there will be a 35-month construction process. In a deal valued at $175 million, a Tishman Speyer Properties-led limited partnership acquired the Times’ current home, the 750.000-sf building at 229 West 43rd St. The Times Co. will stay in that site until its new headquarters is ready for occupancy in early 2007. Ratner estimates that total cost is expected to be between $830 and $850 million with $100 million for the New York Times portion.

Once completed, FCRC will have 700,000 sf of rentable space on floors 29 through 50. The New York Times will occupy floors two through 28 and there will be approximately 20,000 sf of retail space. Italian architect Renzo Piano Building Workshop designed the class A building which will be located in the Times Square submarket.

FCRC has participated in other Times Square-area development projects including the 42nd Street hotel, entertainment and retail development, a 335,000-sf complex that features a 25-screen AMC Cineplex and Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, topped with a 25-story, 455-room Hilton Hotel with sky-lobby restaurant. Other FCRC projects include MetroTech Center, a $1-billion, 6.4-million-sf complex in Downtown Brooklyn.

[Coleridge]

Here is a New York Times article about Renzo Piano's current projects in the city, including the New York Times Tower.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/05/arts/design/05pian.html?pagewanted=1&8hpib

[billyblancoNYC]

A Man About Town, in Glass and Steel
Published: January 5, 2005
NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/05/arts/design/05pian.html?pagewanted=3&8hpib


About the Columbia U. expansion:
"The project is under environmental review and Mr. Piano said that he expected the first phase of the project to begin in about a year."


This is pretty damn cool. Not sure what this means, but didn't think any of this would get off the ground this quickly. This is one of the best and most important projects in the city right now. Good to see it actually moving along.

[Kris]

Can you not be so lazy? Those links don't last.


January 5, 2005

A Man About Town, in Glass and Steel

By ROBIN POGREBIN

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/01/05/arts/05pian2.jpg
Renzo Piano

The elegant, graying man in the tweed jacket and lime-green V-neck sweater looked as if he had lost his way while window-shopping on Madison Avenue and accidentally wandered onto the construction site at East 36th Street without a hard hat.

But Renzo Piano was utterly in his element amid the planks, cranes and dust.

On that morning, Mr. Piano, the Italian-born architect, was overseeing work on the expansion of the Pierpont Morgan Library, which is scheduled to reopen in the first quarter of 2006. Where passers-by in Manhattan see little more than rubble and steel, Mr. Piano pictures a new, naturally lighted reading room, a 280-seat auditorium and underground vaults for the library's rare books.

These days, you might also spot Mr. Piano about 40 blocks up Madison Avenue, where he is working on a design for an expanded Whitney Museum of American Art; across town on West 125th Street, where he is designing a satellite campus for Columbia University; or on Eighth Avenue across from the Port Authority, where ground has broken on a glass tower for the new headquarters of The New York Times Company.

For an architect who had never designed a building in New York before these projects emerged, Mr. Piano is suddenly spending a lot of time here.

So why is an architect celebrated for three decades, starting with his collaboration with Richard Rogers on the Pompidou Center in Paris, finally having his New York moment?

The answer may well lie in the nature of the projects: three of the four commissions (the Times tower excluded) call on Mr. Piano to marry his 21st-century design with one or more existing buildings.

In the case of the Morgan Library, "one of our charges to him was not only to integrate things on the outside," said Charles E. Pierce Jr., the director, "but also to find a modern intellectual idiom that would make the ethos of the interior harmonize with the beauty that was created at the start of the 20th century."

Famous architects have their signatures, of course, and residents might well wonder whether Manhattan will end up with a string of disconcertingly similar Piano designs.

Yet Adam D. Weinberg, director of the Whitney, said that while clear themes run through Mr. Piano's work - public plazas and exterior elevators, escalators or staircases - his buildings are not repetitive.

"There are certain continuities between things, absolutely," he said. "How you get from building to building has been a leitmotif in his work."

He cited three Piano buildings at the Pompidou Center - the museum itself, with its colorful exposed guts, from plumbing to escalators (1977); his reconstruction of Brancusi's spare and pristine white-walled atelier (1996), true to the spirit of that sculptor's original studio, demolished in the late 1950's; and a nine-story extension for Pierre Boulez's Ircam music institute (1990). "Most people wouldn't know they were designed by the same person," Mr. Weinberg said.

If the New York projects have anything in common, it is their direct engagement with the streets around them."The little red line linking all these schemes is the urbanity, trying to build a sense of participation between the street and the building," Mr. Piano said in an interview at the Morgan.

"Buildings normally touch ground in a very hard way and there's very little sense of permeability," he said. "All those schemes are trying to create more of a sense of transparency, a place where people feel part of the community, a sense of participation and interconnection. Taking people inside the institution, enjoying space, making it more public."

The Times building, designed with Fox & Fowle Architects, is clad in glass and features a courtyard. Michael Golden, the vice chairman of The New York Times Company who oversees the project, said Mr. Piano's skyscraper captured the transparency the newspaper wanted to convey. "It's accessible, it's open, you can see what's happening inside," he said.

The $102 million reconstruction of the Morgan, the project that is furthest along, will have a Madison Avenue entrance into a large central court that leads to all other museum and library spaces. "It's going to be like a little town," Mr. Piano said of the new complex, which includes the original 1906 library, designed by Charles McKim as an Italian Renaissance palazzo; a 1928 annex; and the 19th-century Morgan house. The addition will be constructed of glass and steel and scaled to the historic buildings.

When a design competition failed to produce an architect who satisfied the Morgan, it turned to Mr. Piano, whose museums in Houston and in Basel, Switzerland, and his Brancusi atelier had won the admiration of Mr. Pierce.

"He's not a Johnny One Note," Mr. Pierce said. "Yes, there are some similarities. But each is very different, each is very sensitive to the landscape, so I felt he would be able to deal with the challenge we at the Morgan had - three historic buildings with a lot of additions over the years.

"We were looking for someone who would be able to recreate in a modern idiom the elegance of the Morgan," he said.

Fredric M. Bell, executive director of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, said that without resorting to "fireworks," Mr. Piano's many projects had "come up with a way of satisfying very different museum directors, boards and curators."

At the Whitney, Mr. Piano's addition pays respects to Marcel Breuer's hulking cantilevered granite building at Madison and 75th Street, built in 1966, and to the landmarked brownstones nearby. "The Breuer building is a monument to modern architecture," Mr. Piano said. "The brownstones set proportion, they set character."

He designed a modest nine-story tower linked to the current building by a plaza that creates what he likened to "a magnetic field." The design, still in its early stages, will double the museum's space for art, curating and conservation, storage, education and performances.

The Piano plan supplanted a brash design by Rem Koolhaas that the museum had jettisoned in 2003, citing its $200 million cost. Because the Whitney has made two false starts at an addition - it also canceled a Michael Graves expansion in the 1980's - the museum has a lot riding on the project's success.

Some architecture critics saw the Whitney's choice as risk-averse - as a sign that Mr. Piano had cemented a reputation as a safe architect. Writing in The New York Times, the critic Nicolai Ouroussoff offered guarded praise for the piazza, the simple form of the Whitney tower, and the lighting in the top-floor galleries, but added, "The risk is that the building will ultimately be too subdued, as if it is trying too hard to fit in."

Mr. Piano said that he did not feel constrained by the buildings already on the site. "Respect doesn't imply that you don't have courage," he said. "You can have courage in what you make, even as you respect what is already there."

"It's part of my history as a European, as an Italian-born," he added. "I love historical cities. I love those layers of history and modernity coming together. I like complexity."

Mr. Piano was born in Genoa in 1937 into a building family; his grandfather, his father, four uncles and a brother were all contractors. He graduated from the architecture school of the Milan Polytechnic in 1964. As a student he regularly visited his father's building sites, and worked under the architect Franco Albini. During his travels in the late 1960's, Mr. Piano met Jean Prouvé, the French furniture designer and architect, whose emphasis on the link between art and industrial technology profoundly influenced him.

In 1971 he founded a firm with Richard Rogers; in 1977 he joined forces with the engineer Peter Rice. In 1980 he struck out on his own. Among his best-known projects are his museum for the Menil Collection in Houston, a building made of steel, glass and gray cypress into which natural light enters from leafy courtyards and though a louvered ceiling (1982-86); the mile-long Kansai Air Terminal on Osaka Bay in Japan, with its undulating roof and earthquake-proof sliding joints (1988-94); and his reconstruction of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, in which he used glass and terra cotta to give a unified look to the buildings (1992-2000); and the Beyeler Foundation Museum in Basel, with its heavy stone-clad walls and diaphanous glass roof (1992-97).

Clients describe Mr. Piano as warm and likable, a winning blend of urban-planning acumen and artistic exuberance. His English is good, but far from perfect, and his occasionally unorthodox sentence structure is endearing.

"People find him irresistible and want to engage him," said Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia's president. Mr. Pierce said: "He is fun to be with. He's fun to argue with."

The multibillion-dollar Columbia University project - no price tag has been set - spans a 17-acre stretch of Morningside Heights and West Harlem, from Broadway to 12th Avenue and from 125th Street to 133rd Street. The plan, designed in partnership with Skidmore Owings & Merrill, includes a major science lab, a new School of the Arts, and the renovation of the 1907 Prentis Hall, a former factory on 125th Street, and the Studebaker Building on 131st Street. The project, expected to take two decades, could become what the university regards as a link to its health-sciences complex in Washington Heights.

Mr. Piano has set up an office in Prentis Hall, with preliminary models and drawings on display so that visitors from the community can stop by and see what he is up to.

"I love the idea of being in a place because you have to capture things," he said, "to understand the breeze, the wind, the sun and noise and, of course, to understand the people."

"It's an urban university," he explained. "It's not a campus in the middle of nowhere. It's a campus in the middle of the city."

Columbia's expansion has stirred some trepidation in Harlem, where community leaders worry that it may erase some of the neighborhood's history, cut off the light or views from housing projects or lead to the kind of gentrification that prices out longtime residents. To many, it is an unnerving reminder of 1968, when Columbia's doomed plan to build a gymnasium in Morningside Park touched off protests.

"The idea there is not to make a citadel," Mr. Piano said. "One century ago, the only way to design a campus was monumental architecture, giving a sense of security. Today the university is in communication with life, so the story to tell today is completely different. It's more about permeability, more about participation. The model of the university today is more related to reality."

The project is under environmental review and Mr. Piano said that he expected the first phase of the project to begin in about a year.

Mr. Bollinger said that he tapped Mr. Piano for the project because he was an architect who thought about buildings philosophically as well as structurally. "He has very much a tactile sense of building materials," he said. "On the other end is this kind of dreamer who thinks about how communities interact through spaces."

Given that Mr. Piano maintains offices in Paris and Genoa and has so many projects going on at once - he was also recently selected to design a new building for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston - any of these New York clients might worry that Mr. Piano is overextended. But so far, all said, this has not been a concern.

"I've met with him no fewer than 10 times in the last six months," Mr. Weinberg of the Whitney said.

Mr. Pierce said: "He is a highly organized and disciplined man, and he doesn't undertake more than he can produce."

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/01/05/arts/05pian4.jpg
The planned headquarters for The New York Times Company.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company


Pierpont Morgan Library Makeover (http://forums.wirednewyork.com/viewtopic.php?t=686)

New Columbia Campus - Piano and SOM (http://forums.wirednewyork.com/viewtopic.php?t=1235)

Renzo Piano to Design Whitney Expansion (http://forums.wirednewyork.com/viewtopic.php?t=3144)

[Kolbster]

I really enjoy this building, cant wait for it to rise

[RS085]

Whats new with this building? Any pics of the site?

[alex ballard]

This would serve as a great building to put some of the Media and entertainment companies in considering it's close to Times Sq. Anyone thinking promotion?

[Stern]

Construction has really picked up at the NYTIMES site, it will be the first in the sky in respect to Times and BOFA race.

http://n.1asphost.com/anstern/NYTIMES.jpg

Like the BOFA site there is a driveway on the north side of the site where excavations are allowed on either side. However unlike the BOFA site the tower will be skinnier and they have begun foundation work, while excavations continue on the low-rise wing.

http://n.1asphost.com/anstern/NYIMES2.jpg

http://n.1asphost.com/anstern/NYTIMES3.jpg

Close up of foundations.

http://n.1asphost.com/anstern/NYTIMES4.jpg

Not nearly as deep as the BOFA site, it is however a smaller structure.

http://n.1asphost.com/anstern/NYTIMES5.jpg

The big mound is not important, it’s the drive I mentioned earlier, the orange fencing is where foundations for the central core are well underway. The back-hoe is scarping Manhattan bedrock.

http://n.1asphost.com/anstern/NYTIMES6.jpg

Construction workers busy as ants creating crucial structural footings.

http://n.1asphost.com/anstern/NYTIMES7.jpg

More of the same, plus a pile-driver in the background.

http://n.1asphost.com/anstern/NYTIMES8.jpg

Here’s the southern corner of the tower, the concrete walling the general shape of the building is complete while they are still in forms at the BOFA site.

http://n.1asphost.com/anstern/NYTIMES9.jpg

Posted at the site is the revised design, while the glass hasn’t changed, the screens are shorter, as is the spire which is Chrysler inspired, no longer just a pole. The fabulous Westin is in the background.

[antinimby]

Construction has really picked up at the NYTIMES site, it will be the first in the sky in respect to Times and BOFA race.

Grrreat!
We need that building up as quick as possible.
That area is really void of life and at night, it's really dark and depressing.

Go NYTT!!

[Gulcrapek]

Your pictures are rexes. Try attaching them instead.

[NYguy]

Construction has really picked up at the NYTIMES site, it will be the first in the sky in respect to Times and BOFA race.

It's about time we got some real action. I'll just be happy when we get to street level.

[GLNY]

This would serve as a great building to put some of the Media and entertainment companies in considering it's close to Times Sq. Anyone thinking promotion?

Perhaps the National Review, with a separate elevator bank of course.

[Stern]

Your pictures are rexes. Try attaching them instead.

The files are too large for that.

[alex ballard]

How's the selling of the top half of offices going?

[Bob]

I, too, am pleased to see this new building go up. I'm not certain the reason for all the excitement about the design, however. It appears to be yet another glass box. I realize all input, here, is personal and subjective, but for those who really really like this new building, may I ask just what makes it so thrilling?

[alonzo-ny]

What are the new heights for the building if they have been lowered ie. top of building, top of screens, top of spire?

[NYguy]

for those who really really like this new building, may I ask just what makes it so thrilling?

If you don't think the building is "thrilling" already, no amount of explanation would or should change your mind. Its simple, you either like it or you don't.

[BrooklynRider]

I realize all input, here, is personal and subjective, but for those who really really like this new building, may I ask just what makes it so thrilling?

Go back in the thread and read about the curtain wall and see the renderings.

[JonY]

Some of us like glass boxes. Escpecially when it's a Renzo Piano one.

Great to see that construction is underway.

[NYguy]

April 2, 2005

Grabbed a few shots, despite the rain. Foundation work continues...


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41556970/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41556974/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41556977/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41556982/large.jpg

[NYguy]

NY POST

TAX SLAP FOR TIMES TOWER

By SAM SMITH
April 3, 2005


New state guidelines threaten to yank hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits from some of the city's biggest new developments, including the New York Times tower planned for Eighth Avenue in Midtown.

Under the state's 2003 brownfield law, which gives tax breaks for cleaning and building on contaminated land, the Times is in line for up to $170 million in breaks.

But now the Department of Environmental Conservation can reject properties whose cleanup costs are not "significant" compared to the total cost of the project, a criterion written specifically for the Times, observers contend.

"That project certainly focused the issue," said attorney Larry Schnapf, who represents a number of developments applying for tax credits.

"What is unfortunate is when one bad apple ruins it for rest," said Rochester attorney Linda Shaw, who is also representing brownfield projects. "This Times building has gotten such attention, it's going to impact real good projects that should get in."

A spokesperson for Forest City Ratner, the developer of the $850 million Times building, had no comment.

Under brownfield rules, a project receives tax credits based on the total cost of the project, not just the cleanup, which balloons the New York Times credits.

The DEC has received 176 applications from developers statewide. The agency could not say how many applications had been filed from the city.

Critics of the new rules contend the DEC is unfairly curtailing one of the most generous brownfield programs in the country.

Schnapf says another large project — a planned $20 million, 500-unit apartment complex on Roosevelt Island — will probably be rejected because of another new DEC rule that scrutinizes properties only contaminated with fill.

[Kolbster]

Ouch, that isn't fair...can't just institute that halfway into the project...$170 million in tax! that is a crazy amount....i think the NY Times Lawyers will work out a deal though.

[NYguy]

Since I was in the area, I decided to improve upon yesterday's pics. These are easier to see....

APRIL 3 2005

The lowrise section of the NY Times tower:

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597620/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597637/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597673/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597697/large.jpg


Foundation work on the main body of the tower:

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597713/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597749/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597806/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597868/large.jpg


The NY Times tower already has a presence on 8th Avenue, thanks to large renderings on both the 40th and 41st street corners:

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597871/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597877/large.jpg

[NYguy]

A comparison pic, the Bank of America tower site, also taken today. More pics in the BOA thread

APRIL 3, 2005

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/41597477/large.jpg

[Kolbster]

wow, looks like they are 15-20 feet

[Kolbster]

Ahh...still have some work ahead of them...still see the foundation of the preceeding building

[NYguy]

Ahh...still have some work ahead of them...still see the foundation of the preceeding building


The Bank of America tower? Yeah, they're still digging.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Nice updates NYguy - hey, was there a hole in the wall at BOA? I couldn't find any breach for my camera last time I was there. Conversely (and suprisingly), NYTimes seems to have created viewing holes for people to watch construction.

[NYguy]

Nice updates NYguy - hey, was there a hole in the wall at BOA? I couldn't find any breach for my camera last time I was there. Conversely (and suprisingly), NYTimes seems to have created viewing holes for people to watch construction.

The BOA site has openings in the wall large enough to peek through. The Times site does have viewing openings, but it had more at one point.

[ddjiii]

Ouch, that isn't fair...can't just institute that halfway into the project...$170 million in tax! that is a crazy amount....i think the NY Times Lawyers will work out a deal though.

Well, this project was essentially underway by the time the brownfields tax credits appeared. I suspect they were largely gravy for the NYT - which is why there has been such an outcry against them. I doubt very much whether they are losing financing they counted on when they started.

[Phentente]

Hi everybody!

I'm a long time time reader first-time poster. I passed by the site today and noticed that the first steel beams have been anchored to the concrete blocks in the foundation! This building is waaayyy ahead of Bank of America in the race to the sky and I found out why from a construction manager working on the site: Despite the fact that the BoA tower and the Times tower are only a few blocks from each other, the Times constuction people hit bedrock at just over 30 feet (a la Empire State Building) while the BoA people are still wrestling with their massive job since bedrock over there is 70 feet down (a la World Trade Center). I didn't think there were serious differences in the depth of the bedrock over so little area in Manhattan, but I guess we learn a little about geology every day. At this point I'd estimate the gap between the BoA tower and the Times tower as least three months (meaning a not-so-close skyscraper race :( ).

[Stern]

I didn't think there were serious differences in the depth of the bedrock over so little area in Manhattan, but I guess we learn a little about geology every day.

Me neither. Who knew? NYTIMES won the geological lottery in that it will have its grade-A space on the market before BOFA.

To think they have to drill about 200 feet in lower manhattan. Generally excavations are easy and affable for tall structures in midtown, the only obstacles usually being subway and underground rail lines.

[NYguy]

Now the real fun begins, as the tower will begin to climb into the sky..

APRIL 16, 2005


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42158211.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42158212.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42158215.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42158218.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42158220.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42158224.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42158238.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42158241.jpg

[Stern]

They look to be crane footings. Which could also be structural....

[NYguy]

They look to be crane footings. Which could also be structural....

That's the good news! Once we see those cranes rising in the sky, its only a matter of time.

[Stern]

That's the good news! Once we see those cranes rising in the sky, its only a matter of time.

Maybe some of you structural engineers can chime in here, Ninjahege?

But while I'm fairly certain they are crane footings, do they serve a double purpose and hold a structural value? I'm thinking there something like Kangaroo crane's and will rise above these steel footings and the structure will connect to the steel footings?

[NYguy]

Maybe some of you structural engineers can chime in here, Ninjahege?

But while I'm fairly certain they are crane footings, do they serve a double purpose and hold a structural value? I'm thinking there something like Kangaroo crane's and will rise above these steel footings and the structure will connect to the steel footings?


Either way, I didn't expect to see them for another few months. Any construction activity visible from street level is very exciting, I've waited a long time to see this tower rise - from demolition to excavation. Now we have arrived!

[BrooklynRider]

I didn't think there were serious differences in the depth of the bedrock over so little area in Manhattan, but I guess we learn a little about geology every day.

Just thinking out loud here...

NYTT on Eighth Avenue has only the IND Lines running below. BoA sits atop a conglomeration of Times Square Shuttle, IND and the 7 Train (which is embedded extremely deep.) Also, there used to be a street-wide pedestrian tunnel that ran from the Greeley Square Station to 42nd Street under Sixth Ave. BoA does abut the IND and had two station entrances on the SE and NE corners of the project site. There is very intricate reinforcement that must be put in place when working near just one subway line. Tishman has one subway tunnel running north / south on one end of the project site and two running east / west. Tishman built Conde Nast. It also built Reuters and was CM on renovations for the Verizon Building on the SW corner of 42nd Street. They know the area, probably better than anyone.

Although we might be wondering why they are not proceeding apace, same or close "start dates" do not implicitly mean same "completion dates." I don't doubt there are or might be geological differences across Manhattan, but I am pretty confident that Tishman is not being stymied by "surprises in geology" and that they are on or close to schedule.

[NYguy]

APRIL 23, 2005

We now summon forth the New York Times tower. Rise up, and take your rightful place on the skyline.


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42480527/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42480532/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42480534/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42480537/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42480546/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42480562/large.jpg

[TLOZ Link5]

That's a yay. Very exciting.

[hella good]

woooooooo!

*orgasms*

[alex ballard]

Has anyone noticed that these two towers will account for 4 million sq ft of new office space? That's 20,000 new workers (figuring the 200sq ft per worker stat)!

I think it's great when NY can put up 2 buildings and increase it's office space by 1%. That doesn't even count Time Warner Center and the Bloomie tower. Could we be on the verge of another office boom?

[Gulcrapek]

Luverly, very luverly... I loves me some braced core.

[krulltime]

Thanks for the update pics!

I am so happy... Happy , Joy, Joy....

[NYguy]

I'm a little extra excited about this tower, and will watch every move. Must be becaue of the long wait. Now I'm just ready for that Bank of America tower to start rising. I think the two go hand in hand the way the Gehry and Calatrava towers will Downtown.

[macreator]

I can't wait to see this and the Bank of America tower go up all at once. Very exciting.

Now if the Milsteins could just get their act together and fill in the empty lot to the north of Times site, everything would be set.

[Edward]

The site of New York Times Tower (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/). 23 April 2005.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/images/new_york_times_tower3.jpg (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/)



http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/images/new_york_times_tower2.jpg (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/)



http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/images/new_york_times_tower1.jpg (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/new_york_times_tower/)

[alonzo-ny]

This may be a obvious obwervation but the webcam on esb website will be great for watching progress of this building

[NYguy]

APRIL 28, 2005


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42698842.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42698870.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42698873.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42698896.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42698930.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/42698936.jpg

[NYCTowers]

THE CRANES ARE UP :hug: April 28 2005


latest look at the construction site...this summer is gonna be HOT !! :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/DSC00056.jpg




http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/DSC00053.jpg



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/DSC00055.jpg




http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/DSC00052.jpg

[Gulcrapek]

Oooooh excitement... cranes... two cranes...

[Stern]

I see now, the cranes are assembled inside the buildings structural core; the cranes themselves are not structural. The cranes will continue to rise attached to the core as the core and the building around the core rise higher. Once the building is finished the cranes will be disassembled and the core will be replaced with its function whether elevator, mechanical, or otherwise respectively.

[macreator]

I love me some two cranes! I haven't seen a single building site in a while with two cranes. Obviously the TimeWarner center with two buildings had two cranes but this is just ine building. I guess the Times wants to get on the fast track with construction. I have no problem with that :D

[kliq6]

they are 6months to a year behind original schedule so they have to get moving expecially since the Times has sold there current headquaters and have to be out by Mid-2006

[Zoe]

Unloading the steel
http://img102.echo.cx/img102/3347/04290511137jv.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
Getting right to work

[ZippyTheChimp]

I love me some two cranes! I haven't seen a single building site in a while with two cranes. Obviously the TimeWarner center with two buildings had two cranes but this is just ine building. I guess the Times wants to get on the fast track with construction. I have no problem with that :D
Two cranes for Hearst.
Three cranes for 7WTC

[NYguy]

Rise, baby, rise!

[NYCTowers]

Unloading the steel
http://img102.echo.cx/img102/3347/04290511137jv.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us/)
Getting right to work

HA HA I was right here too, while they were hoisting up this huge steel column!! did I miss you Zoe? LOL

[Zoe]

Could be, I was there at 11:30 yesterday

[alex ballard]

Doesn't seem like yesterday that we weren't sure weither this building was going to get built? Boy, how things change...

[Stern]

Doesn't seem like yesterday that we weren't sure weither this building was going to get built? Boy, how things change...

The steel seen sitting in a truck yesterday was fully assembled by this morning. Once the steel starts rising things will really start moving...and it's rising and its moving...

http://img8.echo.cx/img8/4189/1nytimes8js.th.jpg (http://img8.echo.cx/my.php?image=1nytimes8js.jpg)

http://img255.echo.cx/img255/5200/2nytimes9to.th.jpg (http://img255.echo.cx/my.php?image=2nytimes9to.jpg)

http://img129.echo.cx/img129/3074/3nytimes3vt.th.jpg (http://img129.echo.cx/my.php?image=3nytimes3vt.jpg)

http://img251.echo.cx/img251/4030/4nytimes2dj.th.jpg (http://img251.echo.cx/my.php?image=4nytimes2dj.jpg)

http://img251.echo.cx/img251/1834/5nytimes5ff.th.jpg (http://img251.echo.cx/my.php?image=5nytimes5ff.jpg)

[NYCTowers]

YJUDRUDYUHDRYHDRTYSDRT

[NYCTowers]

:)

yes I did !! all these construction sites are so close to eahc other....walking distance really!! :)

[NYCTowers]

where are you??? ^

[NYCTowers]

NC? must be depressing, move to NY !! ")

[NYCTowers]

its like pulling teeth!! HOW OLD ARE YOU?!!?!?!?!?

[macreator]

Yay! They're getting to street level with the framework! Should just be a matter of weeks hopefully until we start going above street level.

[NYCTowers]

LLOLSDGASFASFZASD

[NYguy]

They'll be poking the sky soon...

[NYguy]

The tower is officially above ground.

MAY 14, 2005

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/43376830.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/43376835.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/43376842.jpg

[macreator]

Does anyone know much about what's going on with the PA Bus Terminal Renovation?

I was walking by the Times site the other day and went by the 9th avenue side of the PA and found the building shrouded in wood and closed off as the bus bridge above seemed to be under renovation?

[macreator]

Wonderful pictures by the way! Thank you very much. I can't wait for this tower to rise. Anyone have any renderings of what the building will look like against the skyline?

[Archit_K]

^ yeah click here.
http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3379&page=2&highlight=york+times+tower

[NYguy]

Does anyone know much about what's going on with the PA Bus Terminal Renovation?

I was walking by the Times site the other day and went by the 9th avenue side of the PA and found the building shrouded in wood and closed off as the bus bridge above seemed to be under renovation?

I use the bus terminal a lot, but hadn't noticed anything...

[Derek2k3]

Does anyone know much about what's going on with the PA Bus Terminal Renovation?

I was walking by the Times site the other day and went by the 9th avenue side of the PA and found the building shrouded in wood and closed off as the bus bridge above seemed to be under renovation?

"Triple Bridges"
http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5949&page=2&pp=15

[NYguy]

Bonus pics:

MAY 15, 2005


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/43448062.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/43448067.jpg

[James Kovata]

Anyone willing to guesstimate a topping off date?

[NYguy]

Anyone willing to guesstimate a topping off date?

2006. You heard it here first.

[antinimby]

Yippie!
We might even see :eek: glass before Labor Day (fingers crossed).

[alex ballard]

Just putting 2 and 2 together, could GS take the 1 million sq ft of BoA and the 1 million sq ft of NYT and toghether make a headquarters? Both are on 42st and both are class A space. Also, they could buy the Verizon building which could give them all the space they need. And it's all along 42st. That's pretty convenient.

[macreator]

Just putting 2 and 2 together, could GS take the 1 million sq ft of BoA and the 1 million sq ft of NYT and toghether make a headquarters? Both are on 42st and both are class A space. Also, they could buy the Verizon building which could give them all the space they need. And it's all along 42st. That's pretty convenient.

Citigroup does something quite similar to what you're proposing GS do.

Citigroup has offices located on 53rd street and 5th avenue in 666 Fifth Avenue which now is adorned with the Citi logo, as well as offices on 53rd and Park, their corporate headquarters at 399 Park Ave, and offices in the Citigroup building on 53rd and Lex, and across the river in Long Island City Citigroup has their LIC office building which you can see straight down on 53rd street looking East.

Besides being all on the same street, all of these Citigroup offices are on the E, F, V subway line making them increadiably convenient for workers to be ferried between buildings.

Citigroup was quite smart in how they did they're planning.

[alex ballard]

Citigroup does something quite similar to what you're proposing GS do.

Citigroup has offices located on 53rd street and 5th avenue in 666 Fifth Avenue which now is adorned with the Citi logo, as well as offices on 53rd and Park, their corporate headquarters at 399 Park Ave, and offices in the Citigroup building on 53rd and Lex, and across the river in Long Island City Citigroup has their LIC office building which you can see straight down on 53rd street looking East.

Besides being all on the same street, all of these Citigroup offices are on the E, F, V subway line making them increadiably convenient for workers to be ferried between buildings.

Citigroup was quite smart in how they did they're planning.




Hey hey hey! I might be on to something.


Just curious, since BoA is expanding in the city, does Wachovia have any major operations within the city? Or are they mainly Charlotte based?

[macreator]

They appear to still be mainly Charlotte based in terms of their corporate offices although they are trying to expand in the Northeast as you can see by the many new Wachovia branches that are opening in Manhattan.

From Wachovia's website they appear to have some of their New York offices in the Chrysler building.

[kliq6]

Wachovia has set up a NYC headquaters at the old Seagram Building

[NYguy]

This thing sure is rising fast...

MAY 21, 2005


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/43674213.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/43674215.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/43674218.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/43674219.jpg


__________________________________________________ ____


And a look back at how it all began...


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/26607851/medium.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/26607879/medium.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/26607854/medium.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/27834347/medium.jpg