Woolworth Building

 The Woolworth Building is one of the oldest skyscrapers in New York City. More than a century after the start of its construction, it remains, at 57 stories, one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the twenty tallest buildings in New York City. Since 1966 it has been a National Historic Landmark and a New York City landmark since 1983

Recent history

The building was owned by the Woolworth company for 85 years until 1998, when the Venator Group (formerly the F. W. Woolworth Company) sold it to the Witkoff Group for $155 million.[10] Until recently, that company kept a presence in the building through a Foot Locker store (Foot Locker is the successor to the Woolworth Company).

Prior to its 2001 destruction, the World Trade Center was often photographed in such a way that the Woolworth Building could be seen between 1 and 2 World Trade Center.[citation needed] After the September 11, 2001 attacks a few blocks away, the building was without electricity, water and telephone service for a few weeks and had broken windows and the top turret was damaged by falling rubble. Increased post-attack security restricted access to most of the ornate lobby, previously a tourist attraction.[11]

The structure has a long association with higher education, housing a number of Fordham University schools in the early 20th century. Today, the building houses, among other tenants, TTA Inc., Control Group Inc. and the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies' Center for Global Affairs.



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Bloomberg Tower

Bloomberg Tower is a 1,400,000 sq ft (130,000 m2) glass skyscraper on the East Side of Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It houses the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P., retail outlets, restaurants and 105 luxury condominiums. The residences are known as One Beacon Court and are served by a separate entrance.[1] The tower is the 15th tallest building in New York City and the 46th tallest in the United States. It stands at 55 stories tall, reaching 806 ft (246 m).





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MetLife Building

 History

The MetLife Building (formerly Pan Am Building) was the largest commercial office building in the world when it opened on March 7, 1963.[3] It is a recognizable part of the Manhattan skyline and one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States. It faced huge unpopularity when it was first built, and was described as an 'ugly behemoth', due to its lack of proportion and huge scale - it dwarfed the New York Central Building to the north and the Grand Central Terminal to the south.[citation needed]

The MetLife Building as seen from the Empire State Building

Pan American World Airways was the building's owner for many years. Its logotype was depicted on signs placed on the building's north and south faces and its globe logo was depicted on signs placed on the building's east and west faces. The MetLife Building was the last tall tower erected in New York City before laws were enacted that prevented placing corporate logos and names on the tops of buildings.[4]

Pan Am originally had 15 floors in the Pan Am Building. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company bought the Pan Am Building from Pan Am in 1981; Pan Am's headquarters remained in the building. In 1991 Pan Am had 4 floors left; during that year Pan Am moved its headquarters to Miami. Shortly afterwards the airline ceased operations. On Thursday September 3, 1992, MetLife announced that it would remove Pan Am signage from the building. Robert G. Schwartz, the chairman, chief executive, and president of MetLife, said that the company decided to remove the Pan Am sign since Pan Am ceased operations. At the time MetLife was headquartered in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower.[5]

In 2005, MetLife sold the building for $1.72 billion, the record price at the time for an office building in the U.S. The buyer was a joint venture of Tishman Speyer Properties, the New York City Employees' Retirement System, and the New York City Teachers' Retirement System

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Condé Nast Building

The Condé Nast Building, officially 4 Times Square, is a modern skyscraper in Times Square in Midtown Manhattan. Located on Broadway between 42nd Street and 43rd, the structure was finished in January 2000 as part of a larger project to redevelop 42nd Street. The building stretches 48 stories to 809 ft (247 m) making it the 12th tallest building in New York City and the 41st tallest in the United States. The size of the tower raised concerns from the city about what impact this sized tower would have on Times Square. The major office space tenants are magazine publishing company Condé Nast and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, a prominent U.S. law firm. Duane Reade is a major retail tenant.

4 Times Square is owned by The Durst Organization. The architects were Fox & Fowle who also designed the Reuters Building as part of the larger project. The building contains 1,600,000 square feet (150,000 m2) of floor space. In 1995, 4 Times Square was the first speculative office building to be developed in New York City in almost a decade, but it was fully leased and occupied almost immediately after completion.[1] The City Hall chose Fox & Fowle architectural firm to design the building because they were known as the designers of ecologically sustainable buildings.

NASDAQ's MarketSite is located at the northwest corner of the building. It is a seven-story cylindrical tower with a high-tech electronic display, providing market quotes, financial news and advertisements. The ground floor of the MarketSite contains a television studio with a wall of monitors and an arc of windows looking out onto Times Square. Including the antenna, its height is 1,143 ft (348 m), making it the third tallest structure in New York City, behind the Empire State Building and the Bank of America Tower.

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Green design

4 Times Square is one of the most important examples of green design in skyscrapers in the United States. Environmentally friendly gas-fired absorption chillers, along with a high-performing insulating and shading curtain wall, ensure that the building does not need to be heated or cooled for the majority of the year. The air-delivery system provides 50% more fresh air than is required by New York City Building Code,[2] and a number of recycling chutes serve the entire building. The building uses solar and fuel cell technology. Being the first project of its size to undertake these features in construction, the building has received an award from the American Institute of Architects, as well as AIA New York State.
 

One Chase Manhattan Plaza

One Chase Manhattan Plaza is a banking skyscraper located in the downtown Manhattan Financial District of New York City, between Pine, Liberty, Nassau, and William Streets. Construction on the building was completed in 1961. It has 60 floors, with 5 basement floors, and is 248 meters (813 ft) tall, making it the 11th tallest building in New York City, the 43rd tallest in the United States, and the 200th tallest building in the world.[1]

The building is built in the International style, with a white steel facade with black patterns just below the windows. Designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the building echoes the Inland Steel Building in Chicago.


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History

One Chase Manhattan Plaza (right) and 40 Wall Street (center)

The Chase Manhattan Bank president of that time, David Rockefeller, the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family, was the prime mover of the construction and the building's location, notably because many corporations had moved uptown, and the Financial District had languished as a result. One Chase Manhattan Plaza is currently occupied by the successor to the "Rockefeller Bank", JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Originally, its major tenants included the white shoe firms Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy (then the bank's main outside counsel), Davis Polk & Wardwell and Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Davis Polk and Cravath moved to midtown in the eighties, but Milbank remains.

"The building is an enormous steel-framed rectangle, 813 feet (248 m) high, containing about 1,800,000 square feet (170,000 m2) above ground level, with another 600,000 square feet (55,742 m²) below grade for a truck entrance, mechanical equipment rooms, vaults, a branch bank, and a cafeteria. On the facade are anodized aluminum panels, mullions, and column cladding. Aluminum was chosen because it was cheaper than stainless steel, and the manufacturer offered a long performance guarantee. The columns, nearly 3 x 5 feet (0.9 x 1.5 m) in size, stand 29 feet (8.8 m) apart on the long axis and project from the long façades of the building; on the short sides, floors are cantilevered beyond the columns."

"...When seen from a distance, the bank looks bulky among the slender towers of pre- Depression skyscrapers. Its surface can also appear obtrusive because the earlier building surfaces of brick and stone absorb light while Chase's aluminum and glass reflect it. Seen from ground level, especially from its principal plaza, the building is a commanding presence."Chase's tall rectangle is asymmetrical in plan, with the elevator and service core shifted off center to allow a 45-foot (14 m) wide clerical pool on the south and individual offices and a corridor 29 feet (8.8 m) wide on the north. These broad spaces are uninterrupted by columns, adding to the cost but producing about 6 percent more continuous space for desks.
 

CitySpire Center

 The CitySpire Center is the tallest mixed-use skyscraper in New York City, located on the south side of West 56th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Midtown Manhattan. Finished in 1987, it is 248 meters (814 ft) tall and has 73 floors, with a total area of 359,000 square feet (33,400 m2). The building is owned by Tishman Speyer Properties.

Designed by Helmut Jahn, it is the eleventh-tallest building in New York City and the 42nd tallest in the United States. The bottom 23 floors of the tower are for commercial use and above it are luxury apartments, which increase in size the higher they are.

Soon after the building's completion, residents of nearby buildings complained of hearing a loud whistling noise which, it later turned out, came from the wind blowing through the decorative dome at the building's top. The city threatened daily fines for the noise, which lasted for more than a year. Developers silenced the whistle by removing every other louver in the cooling tower, thereby widening the narrow channels through which the wind whistled.
The Moorish-inspired dome, which is an homage to the adjacent New York City Center on West 55th Street, is illuminated at night with a white light. The building has an unusual octagonal shape.

CitySpire Center is very close to two skyscrapers on 57th Street, Carnegie Hall Tower (which mimics the design of its famous namesake concert hall) and Metropolitan Tower.

Some time around completion, it was revealed that the building exceeded its height limit by around 14 feet (4 m). The developers compensated for this violation by agreeing to build dance studio space for the city's Department of Cultural Affairs on an adjacent site.
When completed, the CitySpire Center was the second tallest concrete tower in the world.


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