The CBS Studio Building is a seven-story office building at 49 East

52nd Street 52nd Street is a -long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance from the 1930s to the 1950s. Jazz center Following the repeal of ...

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

, New York City. It has had various uses at different times, including serving as a

Vanderbilt family The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthr ...

guest house, the first graduate school of the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...

studios, and

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

studio. It is currently owned by the

Fisher Brothers Fisher Brothers is a real estate firm in New York City. It was formed by Martin Fisher in 1915, soon joined by his brothers Larry (born 1907), and Zachary (born 1910). The Fisher family has substantial real estate holdings in New York City and el ...

, who converted it to an office building in conjunction with construction of the 45-story Park Avenue Plaza to its east.

Vanderbilts

It was built in 1908 as a guest house for the Vanderbilts who had a home a block away at

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

and 52nd. It was designed by

Warren and Wetmore Warren and Wetmore was an architecture firm in New York City which was a partnership between Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles Delevan Wetmore (June 10, 1866 – May 8, 1941), that had one of the most extensive practices of its time and w ...

.Gray, Christopher
"STREETSCAPES: CBS Studio on 52d; At One Time, the 'Last Word in Broadcasting Design'"
''The New York Times'', August 7, 1988

Juilliard

In 1924 the Vanderbilts sold it to the Juilliard Musical Foundation where it became Juilliard's first graduate school.

CBS Radio

In 1939,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, which had its corporate headquarters around the corner at 485 Madison Avenue, bought the building at 49 East 52nd Street, to move its radio operations, except for the main network newsroom. Architects Fellheimer & Wagner extensively renovated the building—including eliminating the earlier Vanderbilt ornate external features and eliminating windows for soundproofing—and carved up the building into seven studios, including one which could accommodate audiences of 300 as well as symphony orchestras that could broadcast.

Arthur Godfrey Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname The Old Redhead. At the peak of his success, in the early-to-mid 1950s, Godf ...

broadcast from Studio 21 in the building and had his main office there.

Columbia Records

With the advent of television, large radio studios that could accommodate audiences were no longer needed. Radio operations moved to the

CBS Broadcast Center The CBS Broadcast Center is a television and radio production facility located in New York City. It is CBS's main East Coast production hub, similar to CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles as the West Coast hub. The Broadcast Center is one of tw ...

at 524 West 57th Street. By 1966 the facility had become recording studios for

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers List ...

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

Laura Nyro Laura Nyro ( ; born Laura Nigro; October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums ''Eli and the Thirteenth Confession'' (1968 ...

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

(in spring 1970 for part of his

New Morning New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

album), Heylin, Clinton
''Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions 1960-94''
Penguin. UK; St Martin’s Press, US, 1995. . Cf. p.84 on use of Studio B and Studio E in New York City in 1970 which were at the Columbia Studio Building.

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

and

Mahavishnu Orchestra The Mahavishnu Orchestra were a jazz fusion band formed in New York City in 1971, led by English guitarist John McLaughlin. The group underwent several line-up changes throughout its history across its two periods of activity, from 1971 to 1976 a ...

(

Birds Of Fire ''Birds of Fire'' is the second studio album by jazz fusion band the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was released on January 3, 1973, by Columbia Records and is the last studio album released by the original band line-up before it dissolved. As with th ...

) recorded music there. The facility contained Columbia's "Studio B" on the second floor and "Studio E" on the sixth floor. From 1974 until 1982,

CBS Radio Mystery Theatre ''CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' (a.k.a. ''Radio Mystery Theater'' and ''Mystery Theater'', sometimes abbreviated as ''CBSRMT'') is a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS Radio Network affiliates from 1974 to 1982, a ...

was recorded in Studio 27, renamed Studio G in honor of

Fisher Brothers

In 1979 the Fisher Brothers acquired the land under the building in conjunction with construction of the Park Avenue Plaza building to its east. However, CBS retained ownership of the building itself. In 1988 the building was leased to Sony, which had purchased CBS Records, and a

Duane Reade Duane Reade Inc. ( ) is a chain of pharmacy and convenience stores owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance. Its stores are primarily located in New York City, and known for high-volume, small store layouts in densely populated Manhattan locations. In 2 ...

store opened on the ground level and second floor. For several years CBS used studio space as offices. CBS eventually sold the building to Fisher Brothers in 1993, and in 1996 Fisher Brothers undid the 1930s Art Moderne style, replacing the windows and replicating the original Vanderbilt appearance.

Vanderbilts

Juilliard

CBS Radio

Columbia Records

Fisher Brothers

See also

References

Further reading