Time Warner Center and Central Park

[Edward]

The views of AOL Time Warner Center from Central Park.



Wollman Rink, Central Park South, and AOL Time Warner Center on 2 February 2002.





The view of AOL Time Warner Center from Central Park on 2 February 2002.





The gilded bronze figures of Maine Monument at the Merchant's Gate of Central Park and AOL Time Warner Center on 20 January 2002.





The Maine Monument at the Merchant's Gate of*Central Park and AOL Time Warner Center on 20 January 2002.

[Fabb]

Beautiful pictures, as usual.
AOL Time Warner and Random House will have an enormous impact on central park south.

[Kris1]

I can see Foster's gem fitting in quite nicely as well...

[Fabb]

It's a gem, sure.
But I'm afraid 40 stories would make its presence unobtrusive.

[Kris1]

It will certainly be very visible from the first point of view.

[MikeV]

It will make a very nice corner to the Central Park South and Central Park West skylines.

[Edward]

The Merchants' Gate of the Central Park and AOL Time Warner Center on 20 January 2002.





The Merchants' Gate of the Central Park and AOL Time Warner Center on 2 February 2003.

[Fabb]

That specific picture makes me wish the cladding had been a little warmer.
Of course, during summer time, the impression will be very different.

[Kris]

I like the cool sharpness.

[Edward]

The view on AOL Time Warner Center across Central Park's Pond on 29 March 2002.





The view on AOL Time Warner Center across Central Park's Pond on 8 April 2003.

[JerzDevl2000]

Edward - the April 8th picture is nothing less that brilliant. The glass, sky, and angle are just...I really like this project! Too bad about the fire.

[Kris]

April 9, 2003

Fire Is Latest Setback at AOL Time Warner Tower

By MICHAEL BRICK


Fire did minor damage on the fourth to seventh floors of the AOL Time Warner Center under construction at Columbus Circle.

Early yesterday morning, in a city blanketed by rain and sleet and snow, the AOL Time Warner Center, a 53-story building rising on Columbus Circle, briefly caught fire.

Injuries were minor, and damage was confined to a few floors, but this latest setback underscored the project's rotten luck.

Any construction venture of such magnitude — when finished, the building is to cover 2.1 million square feet and include television studios, condominiums, shops, restaurants, theaters and AOL headquarters — is bound to suffer some mishaps. But the frequency of accidents, some deadly, suggests that this building has more than its share of curses.

People have fallen within the building, a construction worker was killed by flying debris and a forklift driver was killed while driving on the eighth floor — all within the past year. And three contractors have been fined a total of $177,000 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The four-alarm fire, reported at 12:37 a.m., eventually drew 200 firefighters to the east side of the northern tower of the complex overlooking Central Park.

Twelve firefighters were hurt, including 7 who were treated at New York Weill Cornell Center for minor burns and smoke inhalation, fire officials said.

Another man was treated for injuries at the scene. He was described by Buildings Department officials as a security guard and by fire officials as an elevator operator.

Fire officials said the flames reached from the fourth to seventh floors and were under control by 2:35 a.m.

Fires in unfinished towers are much harder to attack than those in finished buildings, said Firefighter Sean Johnson.

"With a building that's existing, we already know the layout, we already know what's in it and we know what to expect," he said. "With a building like this, you don't know whether construction crews are working at night. Are stairs properly labeled? There's just a lot of variables, and the building changes, day by day, week by week."

Fire marshals were still investigating the cause last night. Passersby could see at least nine broken windows and a little charring, but not much other damage.

Buildings Department inspectors who were at the tower yesterday said the source of the fire appeared to be either a space heater or a device known as a salamander, which is used to harden concrete, according to Sid Dinsay, a spokesman for that department. Buildings Department inspectors who entered the tower did not observe any structural damage, according to Mr. Dinsay.

Bruce L. Warwick, the president of Columbus Centre L.L.C., a unit of the Related Companies that is developing the project for AOL Time Warner, said shanties built to house construction materials were located in the area where the fire broke out.

The sixth floor, the center of the fire, will house a performance and rehearsal complex for Jazz at Lincoln Center. The space, to be called Frederick P. Rose Hall, was designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects to include a 1,100-seat theater, a 300- to 600-seat performance space and the 140-seat Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola.

The $128 million, 100,000-square-foot jazz complex is a centerpiece of the overall project, which is expected to cost $1.7 billion. Mary Fiance Fuss, a spokeswoman for Jazz at Lincoln Center, said she did not know whether the fire would delay the planned opening of the theater and clubs in the fall of 2004.

"We're just moving forward as we always do," Mrs. Fuss said. "It's not something you think is ever going to happen to you, and then it does."

Mr. Warwick, the developer, said that the hotel, retail and residential portions of the center remained on schedule to open in mid-September.

"This is the largest and most complex mixed-use project in the country, and unfortunately, unexpected accidents and events do occur on projects of this magnitude and scale," he said.

AOL Time Warner issued a brief statement noting that its own floors were undamaged.

Asked whether the project is cursed, Mia Carbonell, a spokeswoman for AOL Time Warner, said, "Let me get back to you."



Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[NYguy]

NY Post...

HOT NIGHT PUTS JAZZ CENTER IN A JAM

By JEANE MacINTOSH

April 9, 2003 -- Jazz at Lincoln Center's future home was damaged in yesterday's early-morning fire at the beleaguered AOL Time Warner site on Columbus Circle.

Officials at the center were unsure how much damage was done to their 100,000-square-foot complex housed on the building's sixth and seventh floors.

"In bad times, we listen to jazz, and that's what we're doing today," said jazz center spokeswoman Mary Fiance Fuss. "For us, this was like our house burning down. But whatever the damage, we'll get through it. We will build it and they will come."

The jazz "campus" will include a 1,200-seat concert theater; a 300- to 600-seat performance space with 50-foot windows overlooking Central Park; Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, a 140-seat jazz club named for legendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie; a 3,500-square-foot education center and the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame installation.

The four-alarm blaze sent eight firefighters to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation; a construction worker was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.

FDNY officials yesterday were still investigating the cause of the fire, which tore through the fourth through seventh floors.

The fire started at 12:37 a.m. and roared for two hours, until the 170 firefighters called to the scene contained it at 2:35 a.m., a department spokeswoman said.

Mary Castello, spokeswoman for Bovis Lend Lease, the project's construction company, said she didn't think the building's opening, scheduled for late this year, would be delayed.

In addition to the AOL Time Warner headquarters and the jazz facility, the $1.7 billion, 21- million-square-foot building soaring over the southwest corner of Central Park will also boast a hotel, 191 residences, a parking garage and seven-level shopping mall.

Bovis broke ground on the project in November 2000. Last year, AOL Time Warner's plummeting stock price moved shareholders to criticize the lavish outlay, with one stockholder accusing the communications behemoth of "replicating Taj Mahal on Columbus Circle."

From the start, the site has been plagued with problems, including 48 violations and three deaths.

"It has had its share of mishaps and violations," said Fink. "But given the scope of the building - it's the size of a small town and the largest project in the city since the first World Trade Center - the problems haven't really been that outrageous."

[Edward]

The view on AOL Time Warner Center across Central Park's Pond on 20 May 2003. The crane on the north tower is gone.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Beautiful shot.

Compared to the one you took on April 8, except for the crane (and the weather) there is no difference.