4 Times Square (also known as 151 West 42nd Street or One Five One; formerly the Condé Nast Building) is a 52-story
skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
at
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
in the
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 ...
neighborhood of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Located at 1472
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, between
42nd
4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures.
In mathematics
Four is the smallest c ...
and 43rd Streets, the building measures tall to its roof and tall to its antenna. The building was designed by
Fox & Fowle
FXCollaborative is an American architecture, planning, and interior design firm founded in 1978 by Robert F. Fox Jr. and Bruce S. Fowle as Fox & Fowle Architects. The firm merged with Jambhekar Strauss in 2000 and was renamed to FXFOWLE Architec ...
and developed by the
Durst Organization
The Durst Organization is one of the oldest family-run commercial and residential real estate companies in New York City. Established in 1915, the company is owned and operated by the third generation of the Durst family. As of 2014, it owns and ...
. 4 Times Square, and the
Bank of America Tower to the east, occupy an entire
city block
A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design.
A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...
.
Fox & Fowle planned a masonry facade facing south and east, as well as a glass facade facing west and north. The northwest corner of the building's base contains the eight-story cylindrical facade of
Nasdaq MarketSite, which includes a large LED sign. The top of 4 Times Square includes an antenna mast and four large illuminated signs on each side which read ‘
H&M’. The building contains of floor space, much of which was originally taken by publishing company
Condé Nast
Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan.
The company's media ...
and law firm
Skadden Arps
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1948, the firm consistently ranks among the top U.S. law firms by revenue. The company is known for its wo ...
. The lowest three stories contain retail space while the fourth story has a food hall for tenants, originally designed by
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions.
His works are considered ...
for Condé Nast. 4 Times Square is an early example of
green design
Environmentally sustainable design (also called environmentally conscious design, eco-design, etc.) is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of ecological sustainability ...
in commercial skyscrapers in the United States.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Park Tower Realty and the
Prudential Insurance Company of America
Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both retail and institutional customers t ...
had planned to develop a tower for the site as part of a wide-ranging redevelopment of West 42nd Street. After long opposing a tower there,
Douglas Durst
Douglas Durst (born December 19, 1944) is an American real estate investor and developer. He is the president of the Durst Organization, which he has been in charge of since 1992.
Early life and education
Durst was born in New York City in 1944< ...
proposed an office building on the site in late 1995. Condé Nast and Skadden Arps leased the majority of the building in 1996, and the structure was finished in 1999. After Condé Nast and Skadden Arps moved out of the building during the 2010s, a variety of office tenants have occupied 4 Times Square. Several modifications have been made to the building after it opened, including an expansion of the antenna mast atop the building in 2003, as well as a renovation in the late 2010s.
Site
4 Times Square is on the eastern side of
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, between
42nd Street and 43rd Street, at the southern end of
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
in the
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 ...
neighborhood of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
The
land lot
In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the same thing) in ...
is trapezoidal and covers . The site has a
frontage
Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...
of on Broadway and a depth of .
4 Times Square, as well as the
Bank of America Tower and
Stephen Sondheim Theatre
The Stephen Sondheim Theatre, formerly Henry Miller's Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 124 West 43rd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Owned by the Durst Organization and managed by the Roundabout Theatre C ...
to the east, comprise the entire
city block
A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design.
A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...
. Other nearby locations include the
Town Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
theater and the
Lambs Club
The Lambs, Inc. (also known as The Lambs Club) is a social club in New York City for actors, songwriters, and others involved in the theatre. It is America's oldest theatrical organization. "The Lambs" is a registered trademark of The Lambs, Inc ...
to the northeast,
1500 Broadway
1500 Broadway is a skyscraper located in Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The skyscraper was completed in 1972 by Arlen Realty & Development Corporation, with a height of , and has 34 floors. 1500 Broadway is famous for the seven ...
to the north,
1501 Broadway
1501 Broadway, also known as the Paramount Building, is a 33-story office building on Times Square between West 43rd and 44th Streets in the Theater District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Rapp and Rapp, it was erect ...
to the northwest,
One Times Square
One Times Square (also known as 1475 Broadway, the New York Times Building, the New York Times Tower, or simply as the Times Tower) is a 25-story, skyscraper on Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by ...
and
3 Times Square
3 Times Square, also known as the Thomson Reuters Building, is a 30-story skyscraper at Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located on Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Street, the building measures to it ...
to the west,
Times Square Tower
Times Square Tower, also known as 7 Times Square, is a 48-story office skyscraper at the southern end of Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located on the city block bounded by Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, ...
and
5 Times Square
5 Times Square is a 38-story office skyscraper at the southern end of Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located on the western sidewalk of Seventh Avenue between 41st and 42nd Street, the building measures ...
to the southwest, and
The Knickerbocker Hotel
The Knickerbocker Hotel is a hotel at Times Square, on the southeastern corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Built by John Jacob Astor IV, the hostelry was designed in 1901 and opened in 1 ...
and
Bush Tower
The Bush Tower (also the Bush Terminal Building, the Bush Terminal International Exhibit Building and formerly the Bush Terminal Sales Building) is a skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, just east of Times Square. ...
to the south.
An entrance to the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
's
Times Square–42nd Street station
The Times Square–42nd Street station is a major New York City Subway station complex located under Times Square, at the intersection of 42nd Street, Seventh Avenue, and Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan. The complex allows free transfers betw ...
, served by the , is across 42nd Street. There is also an entrance to the
42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue station
The 42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue station is an underground New York City Subway station complex, consisting of stations on the IRT Flushing Line and IND Sixth Avenue Line. Located at 42nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue ...
, served by the , less than a block east.
3, 4, and 5 Times Square and the Times Square Tower comprise a grouping of office buildings that were developed at Times Square's southern end in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The northern portion of 4 Times Square's site had been occupied by
George M. Cohan's Theatre
George M. Cohan's Theatre was a Broadway theatre at Broadway and West 43rd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was built in 1911 and demolished in 1938.
History
The theatre was designed by George Keister, and ope ...
and the Fitzgerald Building before 1938, then by the
Big Apple Theatre
Big or BIG may refer to:
* Big, of great size or degree
Film and television
* ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks
* ''Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show
* ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show presente ...
and a
Nathan's Famous
Nathan's Famous, Inc. is an American company that operates a chain of fast food restaurants specializing in hot dogs. The original Nathan's restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of the Bro ...
.
The southern portion of the site had contained the
Longacre Building.
The Nathan's space was originally a Toffenetti's restaurant,
which opened in 1940.
Designed by
Walker & Gillette
Walker & Gillette was an architectural firm based in New York City, the partnership of Alexander Stewart Walker (1876–1952) and Leon Narcisse Gillette (1878–1945), active from 1906 through 1945.
Biographies
Walker was a native of Jersey ...
, the Toffenetti's restaurant had 1,000 seats;
the Nathan's opened in the Toffenetti's building in 1968.
Architecture
The building was designed by
Fox & Fowle
FXCollaborative is an American architecture, planning, and interior design firm founded in 1978 by Robert F. Fox Jr. and Bruce S. Fowle as Fox & Fowle Architects. The firm merged with Jambhekar Strauss in 2000 and was renamed to FXFOWLE Architec ...
and developed by the
Durst Organization
The Durst Organization is one of the oldest family-run commercial and residential real estate companies in New York City. Established in 1915, the company is owned and operated by the third generation of the Durst family. As of 2014, it owns and ...
.
WSP Cantor Seinuk was the structural engineer, while
Tishman Construction
Tishman Realty & Construction Co., Inc. is an American corporation founded in 1898 that owns and develops real estate. The company is known for being the contractor that built the original World Trade Center in New York City. Tishman Constructio ...
was the main contractor.
Other companies involved with the project included wind consultant CPP Wind Engineering and Air Quality Consultants, elevator contractor
Otis Worldwide
Otis Worldwide Corporation ( branded as the Otis Elevator Company, its former legal name) is an American company that develops, manufactures and markets elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and related equipment.
Based in Farmington, Connec ...
,
mechanical engineer
Cosentini Associates
Cosentini Associates is an engineering firm that provides consulting engineering services for the building industry.
Company history
Cosentini Associates was founded in 1952 by William Randolph Cosentini as W.R. Cosentini and Associates. Wil ...
, photovoltaic contractor Kiss + Cathcart Architects, lighting contractor Fisher Marantz Renfro Stone, and cladding contractor Heitmann & Associates.
The
New York City Economic Development Corporation
New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is a nonprofit corporation whose stated mission is to "leverage the city’s assets to create beneficial jobs that drive growth. This ensures equitable and sustainable development across al ...
owns the structure.
4 Times Square has 48 usable floors above ground, as well as two basement floors.
Including mechanical stories atop the building, 4 Times Square is 52 stories tall.
The building measures to its architectural tip and to the top of the antenna mast.
The main roof is only high.
4 Times Square is one of the first examples of
green design
Environmentally sustainable design (also called environmentally conscious design, eco-design, etc.) is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of ecological sustainability ...
in commercial skyscrapers in the United States.
The design incorporates many environmentally efficient features.
In particular, Fox & Fowle had been chosen for its experience designing ecologically sustainable buildings.
One of the building's original major tenants, publisher
Condé Nast
Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan.
The company's media ...
, had committed to designing its space to environmentally efficient standards (the other major tenant, law firm
Skadden Arps
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1948, the firm consistently ranks among the top U.S. law firms by revenue. The company is known for its wo ...
, did not make a similar commitment). The building's high energy usage limits the extent of the energy savings; Suzanne Stephens wrote for ''
Architectural Record
''Architectural Record'' is a US-based monthly magazine dedicated to architecture and interior design. "The Record," as it is sometimes colloquially referred to, is widely-recognized as an important historical record of the unfolding debates in a ...
'' that the inclusion of such features was "a little like opening up a smoke-enders clinic on a tobacco farm".
Form
The building is part of the 42nd Street Development Project and, thus, could bypass many city
zoning
Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...
rules such as those relating to
floor area ratio
Floor area ratio (FAR) is the ratio of a building's total floor area (gross floor area) to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built. It is often used as one of the regulations in city planning along with the building-to-land ratio. The ...
(FAR).
Bruce Fowle
Bruce Fowle is an American architect. He co-founded Fox & Fowle Architects in 1978 and is now Founding Principal Emeritus at FXCollaborative.
Fowle's work ranges from high-rise, multi-use complexes to cultural institutions and private homes. Fowl ...
of Fox & Fowle estimated that the building had a FAR of 35,
while ''The New York Times'' stated that the FAR was only 31. The
massing
Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building.
Massing in architectural theory
Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
of the building contains several
setbacks, which were not mandated by zoning ordinances but were included to make the building's design fit in with its setting.
The 43rd story contains a glass setback with a
cavetto
A cavetto is a concave moulding with a regular curved profile that is part of a circle, widely used in architecture as well as furniture, picture frames, metalwork and other decorative arts. In describing vessels and similar shapes in pottery, ...
-shaped cornice. Stephens wrote that the building contained a combination of neo-Modernist and traditional design elements. While the building is divided into a base, shaft, and pinnacle similar to older skyscrapers, the design of the
facade was more varied.
Antenna mast
If the building's antenna mast is included, the structure's total height is .
The original antenna mast measured and was built primarily for Clear Channel Communications (now
iHeartMedia, Inc.
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
) as a backup transmitter site. After the broadcast equipment atop the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
's towers was
destroyed
Destroyed may refer to:
* ''Destroyed'' (Sloppy Seconds album), a 1989 album by Sloppy Seconds
* ''Destroyed'' (Moby album), a 2011 album by Moby
See also
* Destruction (disambiguation)
Destruction may refer to:
Concepts
* Destruktion, a ...
during the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
in 2001, the main transmitters for radio stations
WKTU
WKTU (103.5 FM) is a rhythmic adult contemporary formatted radio station licensed to Lake Success, New York, a suburb of New York City. WKTU is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighbo ...
,
WNYC-FM
WNYC-FM (93.9 MHz) is a non-profit, non-commercial, public radio station licensed to New York City. It is owned by New York Public Radio along with WNYC (AM), Newark, New Jersey-licensed classical music outlet WQXR-FM (105.9 MHz), New J ...
, and
WPAT-FM
WPAT-FM (93.1 FM) – branded "93.1 Amor" – is a radio station that programs a Spanish CHR radio format. Licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, the station is owned by the Spanish Broadcasting System and serves the New York metropolitan area. I ...
and the backup transmitter for
WSKQ-FM
WSKQ-FM (97.9 MHz), known on-air as "La Mega 97.9", is a radio station licensed to New York City and is owned and operated by Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS). The station has a tropical format, which consists of such musical styles as salsa, ...
were transferred to 4 Times Square.
In 2003, the original installation was replaced with a mast.
This allowed WKTU, WNYC-FM, and WPAT-FM to build main transmitters at the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
without disrupting existing FM tenants there.
The topmost antenna, designed for
Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
's
WFUT-TV
WFUT-DT (channel 68) is a television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving as the UniMás outlet for the New York City area. It is one of two flagship stations of the Spanish-language network (the other being WAMI-DT in ...
,
was removed in 2015 and replaced with a
very high frequency
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves ( radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
(VHF) antenna for television station
WJLP
WJLP (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Middletown Township, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting the classic television network MeTV to the New York City area. It is owned and operated by network parent Weigel Broadcasting alon ...
, bringing the mast to tall.
The mast includes five antennas. The topmost one is used by WJLP.
The second-highest tier contains two antennas for
ultra high frequency
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequency, radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one ten ...
(UHF) broadcasts; the antenna serving UHF channels 40–60 is above that serving channels 24–45.
Below that are two antennas for VHF broadcasts: one for low-VHF broadcasts and the other for
FM radio stations.
The antenna systems and mast were constructed by
Andrew Corporation
Andrew Corporation, a formerly independent manufacturer of hardware for communications networks, was founded by Victor J. Andrew and established in Orland Park, Illinois in 1937. Founder, Dr. Floyd L. English, turned his acumen for physics in ...
, Dielectric Communications, Shively Labs, and Electronics Research Inc.
, the mast at 4 Times Square is used as a primary site by FM radio stations
WBGO
WBGO (88.3 FM broadcasting, FM, "Jazz 88") is a Public broadcasting, public radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. Studios and offices are located on Park Place in downtown Newark, and its transmitter is located at 4 Times Square in Manh ...
,
WKCR
WKCR-FM (89.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to New York, New York, United States. The station is owned by Columbia University and serves the New York metropolitan area. Founded in 1941, the station traces its history back to 1908 with the fir ...
,
WNYE, and
WBAI
WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music. ...
. In addition, the mast has been used as a backup site for FM stations such as WKTU, WNYC, WPAT, WSKQ,
WHTZ
WHTZ (100.3 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial contemporary hit radio, top 40/CHR station city of license, licensed to Newark, New Jersey and broadcasting to the New York metropolitan area. Owned by iHeartMedia, WHTZ is the Flagship (broadcasti ...
,
WAXQ
WAXQ (104.3 FM) is a classic rock- formatted radio station licensed to New York City. WAXQ is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan; its transmitter is located ...
,
WWPR,
WLTW
WLTW (106.7 FM) is an adult contemporary radio station licensed to New York City and serving the New York metropolitan area. WLTW is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighborhood of ...
, and
WCAA.
Facade
![Times Sq Sep 2021 28](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Times_Sq_Sep_2021_28.jpg)
Fox & Fowle planned a masonry facade, largely oriented south toward 42nd Street and east toward
Bryant Park
Bryant Park is a public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Privately managed, it is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas ( Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The e ...
, as well as a glass facade, largely facing west toward Broadway and north toward 43rd Street.
The arrangement was meant to fit in with the livelier character of Broadway and the more restrained character of 42nd Street and Bryant Park.
This led multiple media sources to compare the facade to the two-faced god
Janus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ( ; la, Ianvs ) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janu ...
.
In general, the lower stories have low-reflective glass to increase transparency, while the upper stories have highly reflective glass that deflects heat.
The masonry facade wraps around much of the north, east, and south
elevations
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
.
In a 1996 press release, Fox & Fowle described the character of the masonry facade as presenting "a more composed personality appropriate to the context of Midtown Manhattan".
The offices are accessed from an entrance on 42nd Street,
which is named One Five One after its street address of 151 West 42nd Street.
The main entrance has a recessed glass wall and originally had an angled glass canopy, which complemented the curving ceiling of the lobby.
The entrance originally contained glass doors and was flanked by stone blocks.
The masonry facade has windows measuring , larger than in typical office buildings.
The large windows were meant to reduce the amount of electricity required for illuminating the offices.
The glass facade, which wraps around the west elevation and part of the south elevation, is designed to blend in with the surrounding signage.
The glass facade contains green panels and is divided by vertical steel
mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
s.
The west elevation on Broadway was designed with video screens,
which cover and are mandated by the zoning law.
There are ten signs, which could be rented to advertisers; when the building was constructed, the signs were projected to earn $7 million per year. The signs were included as part of
Robert A. M. Stern
Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern (born May 23, 1939), is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, also known as ...
's 42nd Street Now! master plan,
which required a variety of lighting and signage for facades along Times Square.
The 37th through 43rd stories of the south and east elevations have
photovoltaic
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...
(PV) panels. These were installed in place of some of the
spandrel
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
s that separate windows on different floors.
There are 208 panels covering , half a percent of the facade's total area. While the panels can generate enough power for five or six houses, they only supply one-half of a percent of the total power needs of 4 Times Square.
The PV modules are placed on a thin glass pane that is then laminated on both sides. The PV panels were included because they were inconspicuous and only cost more than conventional spandrels. Originally, the architects had planned for of PV panels.
Before deciding to use PV panels, Fox & Fowle had considered installing solar panels on the roof, as well as wind turbines.
Douglas Durst
Douglas Durst (born December 19, 1944) is an American real estate investor and developer. He is the president of the Durst Organization, which he has been in charge of since 1992.
Early life and education
Durst was born in New York City in 1944< ...
of the Durst Organization said the panels were intended to indicate the building's energy-saving features, as the PV panels could be upgraded when the technology was more advanced.
Nasdaq MarketSite
The eight-story cylindrical facade of 4 Times Square's northwest corner, on Broadway and 43rd Street, contains
Nasdaq MarketSite.
The facade was part of the building's original design and was included before Nasdaq had leased the space. At street level is a three-story glass facade, which contains a view of the studio inside.
Above the studio, the facade consists of a giant LED display, variously cited as measuring
or .
The display was the world's largest at the time of its completion.
The display is allowed because 4 Times Square is exempt from the zoning rules regarding signs.
The LED sign over the studio cost $37 million.
The display can show information at a
computer display standard
Computer display standards are a combination of aspect ratio, display size, display resolution, color depth, and refresh rate. They are associated with specific expansion cards, video connectors and monitors.
History
Various computer display ...
of 1280x1824, and it has over 18 million LEDs.
The display is made of about 8,200
or 8,400 panels,
manufactured by Saco Smart Vision.
It is thick and is interrupted by thirty square windows.
The windows are arranged into five rows, which illuminate a portion of Condé Nast's space.
There is a catwalk and a ventilation space behind the display,
creating a gap of about between the sign and the actual facade.
At 4 Times Square's opening, Nasdaq leased the sign space from Durst for $2 million a year.
Top-story signs
The top of the building was originally ornamented with four signs, each measuring and displaying the address 4 Times Square.
Unlike the signs at the base, the top stories' signs are not required by zoning.
While modern New York City building code prohibits logos from being more than above the curb or occupying over on a blockfront, the top-story signs are protected because they are in the 42nd Street Development Project.
The panels were originally vacant, though Durst had sought to market them to tenants at $1 million a year. In 2000, after the building opened, panels with the name of wireless provider
Teligent Telecom
Teligent Telecom is a company based in Nynäshamn Sweden, which produces and markets Value Added Services for Telecommunication operators, such as Voicemail, Mobile Office, IN services, IMS Service Brokers and Real-time Charging Gateways. It is ...
were installed on the top stories, measuring .
The signs were subsequently replaced by the number "4" during the mid-2000s.
Since 2013, the top of the building has contained four illuminated panels with the name of clothing retailer
H&M, a retail tenant at the base.
Mechanical and environmental features
Fuel cells
![Condé Nast Building Times Square](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Cond%C3%A9_Nast_Building_Times_Square.jpg)
The building is partially powered by two
fuel cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...
s that are capable of each.
They are installed on the fourth floor. The two cells could provide 50 percent of the exterior signs' nighttime power needs but a minuscule amount of the daytime needs.
They could generate eight percent of the building's total electricity.
The fuel cells cost $1 million and were made by
United Technologies Corporation
United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, aerospace systems ...
. As part of an agreement with
Consolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 b ...
(Con Ed), which operates much of New York City's power-supply system, the cells must be turned off during a power failure, such as the
Northeast blackout of 2003
The Northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, and most parts of the Canadian province of Ontario on Thursday, August 14, 2003, beginning just after 4:10 p.m. ...
.
Fox & Fowle originally planned to include eight fuel cells, which would have been capable of generating of power annually, including all of the exterior signs' power needs.
Along with the photovoltaic panels on the facade, the fuel cells would have been able to provide most of the power for 4 Times Square, with building managers purchasing power from the city's electrical grid from Con Ed only as needed.
The fuel cells would have to run continuously to operate efficiently, since they could not be turned off or on easily, but the building's power needs were much lower at night during the day.
Furthermore, each cell cost $600,000.
Consequently, plans for six of the eight fuel cells were discarded in 1997.
Air delivery
Fox & Fowle and Durst decided to use
chiller
A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid coolant via a vapor-compression refrigeration, vapor-compression, adsorption refrigeration, or absorption refrigerator, absorption refrigeration cycles. This liquid can then be circulated th ...
s powered by
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
to provide cool air to the offices.
At the time, many buildings still used
fossil fuel
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...
s for power generation, and natural gas created much less pollution than fossil fuels.
Gas was used instead of electricity because gas could be stored for later use, while electricity had to be used when it is produced.
According to
Bruce Fowle
Bruce Fowle is an American architect. He co-founded Fox & Fowle Architects in 1978 and is now Founding Principal Emeritus at FXCollaborative.
Fowle's work ranges from high-rise, multi-use complexes to cultural institutions and private homes. Fowl ...
of Fox & Fowle, the firm had contemplated using electric chillers, which could create and store ice at night, then use the ice to chill the offices during the daytime. Fowle said the firm had decided against using ice storage because it was more expensive than natural gas-powered chillers.
After an upgrade in 2003, the building had of air conditioning.
The air-delivery system provides 50 percent more fresh air than is required by New York City building code.
It can also be used to ventilate polluted air from specified floors; a separate exhaust shaft was designed for employee smoking areas.
The air-circulation system was built so air on any set of three floors could be replaced every 24 to 48 hours.
Sensors on each floor are used to monitor air quality, and the building's management team could adjust the air-delivery and ventilation systems as needed.
Tenants could also independently adjust the heating and air-conditioning systems in their offices.
The building's climate control system was designed to operate in tandem with the wastewater system, further reducing energy use.
Other features
The building is also served by recycling chutes.
There are dedicated shafts for paper recycling and trash,
which lead to storage bins in the basement.
There is mechanical equipment on the 49th floor and on two mezzanines above it. These stories contain three diesel generators, which power the antenna mast and are capable of a combined . In addition, the 51st floor has FM
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...
s and
combiner
Power dividers (also power splitters and, when used in reverse, power combiners) and directional couplers are passive devices used mostly in the field of radio technology. They couple a defined amount of the electromagnetic power in a transmiss ...
s while the 52nd floor has TV combiners.
Interior
The
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
is made of both concrete and steel, though the structural core is made of concrete.
The steel columns are embedded in
shear wall
In structural engineering, a shear wall is a vertical element of a system that is designed to resist in-plane lateral forces, typically wind and seismic loads. In many jurisdictions, the International Building Code and International Residential Co ...
s made of reinforced concrete.
The building uses demolition debris that was recycled from the previous structures on the site, and the previous foundations were also reused.
Where newer foundations were installed, deep-rock
caissons
Caisson (French for "box") may refer to:
* Caisson (Asian architecture), a spider web ceiling
* Caisson (engineering), a sealed underwater structure
* Caisson (lock gate), a gate for a dock or lock, constructed as a floating caisson
* Caisson (pe ...
and
deep foundation
A deep foundation is a type of foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a vertical structural element ...
s were used to minimize damage to neighboring buildings and subway tunnels.
The building's core and external columns rise to the top of the building.
The four large signs on the roof conceal the "hat truss" that connects the core and external columns.
Behind the truss is mechanical space, which doubles as a damper.
Inside, 4 Times Square has of space.
Lower stories
![H&M (38161134321)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/H%26M_%2838161134321%29.jpg)
The lobby is on the east side of the ground floor and is accessed from both 42nd and 43rd Streets.
The ceiling contains aluminum and fiberglass panels, which curve downward from both entrances toward the center of the space.
The lobby has an exhibit of the Durst Organization's history. There are also
architectural model
An architectural model is a type of scale model made to study aspects of an architectural design or to communicate design intent. They can be made from a variety of materials such as paper, plaster, plastic, resin, wood, glass and metal. They ...
s of various projects developed by the Durst Organization, such as the
VIA 57 West
VIA 57 West (marketed as VIΛ 57WEST) is a residential building located at 625 West 57th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. The pyramid shaped tower block or "tetrahedron", designed by the Danis ...
residential development on Manhattan's West Side, as well as brochures of buildings owned by the company.
There are also security checkpoints with turnstiles.
The building was designed with of retail space on the lowest three stories.
When the building opened, the retail space was occupied by a three-story
ESPN Zone
ESPN Zone was a theme restaurant and entertainment center chain in the United States that included arcades, TV studios, and radio studios, operated by the Disney Regional Entertainment subsidiary of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts using the Disne ...
entertainment restaurant, operated by
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
.
The ground floor had an American grill called the Studio Grill; the second floor had the Screening Room, a sports-viewing area with television screens; and the third floor had the Sports Arena, which included a small practice facility and an
arcade video game
An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arca ...
area.
Part of the ground floor and basement was also occupied by 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 ...
.
Since 2013, the old ESPN space has contained a three-story H&M clothing store.
Einhorn Yaffee Prescott designed Nasdaq MarketSite's space at the northwest corner of the building.
The space had a 72-seat auditorium, a public exhibit area, and a pair of broadcast studios below the large LED sign.
The ground floor of the MarketSite contains a broadcast studio with a wall of 96 monitors, measuring tall and broadcasting information about stocks and the market. It is visible from the windows that overlook Times Square.
An exhibit on the second floor was designed as the "MarketSite Experience", displaying items about MarketSite's history.
Condé Nast cafeteria
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions.
His works are considered ...
designed an employee cafeteria on the fourth floor for Condé Nast.
The cafeteria was Gehry's first New York City project since, prior to designing the space, Gehry had had difficulty gaining any major commissions. Gehry had been friends with Condé Nast CEO
Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr.
Samuel Irving "S.I." Newhouse Jr. (November 8, 1927 – October 1, 2017) was an American heir to a substantial magazine and media business. Together with his brother Donald, he owned Advance Publications, founded by their late father in 1922, wh ...
, who offered to hire Gehry for the interior design of Condé Nast's offices, a role that Gehry declined.
When the cafeteria opened in 2000, it was directed by
Sean J. Killeen
Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angliciz ...
and a staff of 53. The space was given several nicknames, such as "the Commissary" and "the Aquarium".
The main cafeteria covered
and could fit 260 people.
Next to the main cafeteria were four smaller dining rooms
and an auditorium with 85 seats.
The private dining rooms could fit 70.
The ''New York Daily News'' said that James Truman, Condé Nast's editorial director, "spent months thinking about nothing else" during the design of the cafeteria. The cafeteria reportedly cost $30 to $35 million.
The main cafeteria measures tall.
It was originally decorated with serpentine blue-titanium walls, as well as a ceiling with blue-titanium panels and hanging white shapes.
The floor was made of plywood,
but it was resurfaced in linoleum by 2002 because Condé Nast editors' high heels kept damaging the floor.
Most of the seats were initially in 39 upholstered-leather booths with yellow elliptical wooden tables.
The booths were slightly lifted on concrete podiums clad with wood, and the pathways through the cafeteria varied in elevation depending on the booths' height.
Each booth is divided by angled glass partitions that measure tall, wide, and about thick and weighing apiece.
The panes are held in place by metal grommets at the top and bottom.
It took one year for Gehry and the glass workers to determine how to bend the glass into a three-dimensional shape.
Gehry used
CATIA
CATIA (, an acronym of computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application) is a multi-platform software suite for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), 3D modeling and Product lif ...
software to modify the glass.
The partitions in the private dining rooms were sandblasted and were designed with overlaps.
A model of part of the dining area was fabricated in Italy before being shipped to New York City.
After Condé Nast moved out during 2014, the cafeteria was unused for five years.
Studios Architecture renovated the dining room, which reopened in 2018 as a tenant-only food hall operated by
Claus Meyer
Claus Meyer (born 27 December 1963) is a Danish entrepreneur, cook and television host. He is often accredited as the founder of the New Nordic Cuisine philosophy.
Projects
Claus Meyer has been engaged in a plethora of projects and has been ...
.
The floors were resurfaced in white oak; the leather seats and tables were replaced; and the titanium walls were covered with curving sheetrock and plaster. A set of test kitchens was turned into a reception area for an adjacent conference room.
The northwestern western section of the cafeteria, which had once contained mechanical space behind the MarketSite sign, was converted into a garden room with a full-height
green wall containing 2,200 plants.
Seating capacity was increased to 300 during the renovation.
Offices
The lowest office floors cover each, while the highest floors cover each.
When designing the building, Fox & Fowle treid to maximize the amount of space illuminated by natural light.
Since natural light could only penetrate about 25 percent of each office story, the office stories contain a flexible
open plan
Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan that makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices. The term can also refer to landscaping of h ...
arrangement. The lighting in the office stories can be controlled by
dimmer
A dimmer is a device connected to a light fixture and used to lower the brightness of the lighting, light. By changing the voltage waveform applied to the lamp, it is possible to lower the luminous intensity, intensity of the light output. Alt ...
s.
Condé Nast's space originally spanned floors 4 to 23
and cost an estimated $100 million.
The Condé Nast offices were designed by
Mancini Duffy
Mancini•Duffy is a New York City-based architecture and interior design firm. Mancini•Duffy was formed by the 1986 merger of Ralph Mancini Associates, Inc. (established in 1981) and Duffy Inc. (established in 1955); in 2011, it acquired certain ...
, though Truman influenced the furnishings in the offices.
The company's flagship magazines
''Vogue'' and
''Vanity Fair'' had their own stories, while ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' had floors 20 and 21; the rest of the space had corporate offices.
Most of Condé Nast's stories were shared by two publications; the elevator lobbies served as a common reception area, with glass doors on either side. Past the glass doors were curved "branding walls" with the logo of the publication that occupied the corresponding office space. Behind the "branding walls" on each floor are rectangular conference rooms with beige or gray decorations, as well as meeting spaces for editorial teams.
Along the outer edges of each story, each publication's offices were connected by an "art corridor" decorated with works of art.
Most of Condé Nast's offices were arranged in an open plan, which was not popular among the publication's employees.
The open-plan workspaces had white-laminate and blue-gray aluminum workstations with wooden accents.
Only five percent of offices were directly adjacent to windows,
but the open plan allowed many lower-ranking employees to have desks next to windows.
Publishers and top editors had their own offices at the corners,
while senior staffers had to work near the building's core.
Some editors customized their offices. For example,
Anna Wintour
Dame Anna Wintour (; born 3 November 1949) is a British journalist based in New York City who has served as editor-in-Chief of ''Vogue'' since 1988 and Global Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast since 2020; she is also the artistic directo ...
of ''Vogue'' used aluminum chairs and potted bulbs to resemble a setting in ''Home and Garden'' magazine, and
Ruth Reichl
Ruth Reichl (; born 1948), is an American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times'', Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and ...
of
''Gourmet'' designed her offices in a contemporary style with red accents.
Graydon Carter
Edward Graydon Carter, CM (born July 14, 1949) is a Canadian journalist who served as the editor of '' Vanity Fair'' from 1992 until 2017. He also co-founded, with Kurt Andersen and Tom Phillips, the satirical monthly magazine ''Spy'' in 1986. ...
of ''Vanity Fair'' redesigned his editorial office so it looked like his previous accommodations.
Test kitchens, two private dining rooms, and a photograph studio were also installed for ''Gourmet's'' recipe editors.
Newhouse's office was on the 11th floor, unlike other executive offices that were generally placed at the top.
History
Planning
The Durst family had started acquiring property on the
city block
A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design.
A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...
bounded by
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, Sixth Avenue, and 42nd and 43rd Streets in 1967, when
Douglas Durst
Douglas Durst (born December 19, 1944) is an American real estate investor and developer. He is the president of the Durst Organization, which he has been in charge of since 1992.
Early life and education
Durst was born in New York City in 1944< ...
's father
Seymour Durst
Seymour Bernard Durst (September 7, 1913 – May 15, 1995) was an American real estate investor and developer. He was the creator of the National Debt Clock.
Early life and education
Durst was born in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Ne ...
bought a building that housed White's Sea Food Restaurant.
Seymour Durst planned to redevelop the area east of Times Square with office skyscrapers, but he canceled these plans in 1973 amid a declining office market. Several other failed proposals followed for the block.
Early plans
![Conde Nast Building New York](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Conde_Nast_Building_New_York.jpg)
The
Empire State Development Corporation
Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the New York Job Development Authority (JDA). T ...
(ESDC), an agency of the New York state government, had proposed redeveloping the area around a portion of West 42nd Street in 1981. Four towers designed by
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...
and
John Burgee
__NOTOC__
John Burgee (born August 28, 1933) is an American architect noted for his contributions to Postmodern architecture. He was a partner of Philip Johnson from 1967 to 1991, creating together the partnership firm Johnson/Burgee Architects. ...
were to be built around 42nd Street's intersections with Broadway and
Seventh Avenue; the largest of those would have been a 56-story building at the northeast corner of 42nd Street and Broadway.
These towers would have been redeveloped by George Klein of
Park Tower Realty
A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. ...
, though the
Prudential Insurance Company of America
Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both retail and institutional customers t ...
joined the project in 1986. Furthermore, as part of the West Midtown special zoning district created in 1982, the New York City government had allowed new buildings in Times Square to be developed with an increased floor area ratio. To ensure the area would not be darkened at nightfall, the city passed zoning regulations that encouraged developers to add large, bright signs on their buildings.
The Durst Organization opposed the redevelopment for 15 years, citing concerns over the subsidies that were to be given to the developers, which in turn would decrease the value of the Dursts' buildings.
Durst himself had acquired a small portion of what would be Park Tower and Prudential's office building, part of 20 lots on the same city block that he owned by February 1990.
However, he was loath to develop his sites on the block until the 42nd Street redevelopment had been finalized. The Dursts' opposition, along with Prudential and Park Tower's inability to secure tenants for the proposed buildings, led government officials to allow Prudential and Park Tower to postpone the project in 1992.
By then, Prudential had spent $300 million on condemning the sites through
eminent domain
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
.
The partners retained the right to develop the sites in the future, and the ESDC's zoning guidelines remained in effect.
Klein ceded decision-making power for the sites to Prudential, which decided to exit the real-estate market altogether, selling off all four sites.
Durst proposal
Seymour Durst ultimately died in mid-1995 before any building was developed on the block.
By November 1995, Seymour's son Douglas Durst was negotiating with Prudential to develop the northeast corner of 42nd Street and Broadway with a larger skyscraper that would use the Durst family's adjacent lots. Durst asked Prudential to postpone the development of the other three sites until Durst had completed his building.
The new building would be the first in the same redevelopment project that the Durst family had once opposed.
Further, Durst planned to claim a 35 percent tax abatement for the project.
Durst acquired a $215 million mortgage loan on three other buildings to fund the proposed skyscraper.
After a slight delay, Prudential's board voted to sell the site to Durst in February 1996.
Klein was opposed to the proposed sale, citing the Durst family's previous objections to the redevelopment. Ultimately, Klein received an unknown amount of compensation for ceding the site's development rights to Durst.
Durst acquired the plot that April,
he combined the newly acquired lot, which covered , with an adjacent lot owned by his family, covering . Durst proposed a skyscraper on the expanded site.
To reduce concerns from community members and civic groups, he showed them his plans.
Fox & Fowle was hired to design the building; at the time, it was one of four companies that were allowed to design green buildings in New York City.
Its plan for limestone and glass facades was generally well received by civic groups such as the
Municipal Art Society
The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) is a non-profit membership organization for preservation in New York City, which aims to encourage thoughtful planning and urban design and inclusive neighborhoods across the city.
The organization was ...
.
Before construction started, the state required a commitment from a large tenant.
This led media sources to debate whether the building was a
speculative development
Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. ...
.
Though Durst had intended the building to be developed without an anchor tenant, similar to speculative buildings, the state would not approve the project unless a tenant was secured.
The author Matthew Wells characterized the building as "the first speculative office block to be completed in Manhattan for over a decade".
At the time of the sale, Durst denied rumors that Condé Nast would occupy the building for its headquarters.
That May, Condé Nast leased ,
taking up floors 4 to 23,
with an option for an additional .
The building was consequently named after Condé Nast.
The publisher had wanted to consolidate the operations of 17 of its magazines, which then occupied six separate buildings,
and many of its leases were set to expire in 2000. Condé Nast had selected 4 Times Square because of the environmentally-efficient features planned for the structure.
Construction
Preliminary work for 4 Times Square, as the building was known, began in September 1996.
At the time, it was the first speculative office development to be built in Midtown Manhattan in fifteen years, and its construction prompted the development of other office buildings in the area. 4 Times Square and its three neighboring developments would collectively add almost of office space. All four projects were being marketed with a Times Square address, which until the early 1990s had not been popular in the city's real estate market. The project was to receive $10.7 million in tax relief and Durst was to receive a $4 million tax exemption every year.
That October, law firm
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1948, the firm consistently ranks among the top U.S. law firms by revenue. The company is known for its wor ...
agreed to move its headquarters to 4 Times Square,
with on the top 21 stories.
Skadden Arps's commitment was part of an increase in leasing in buildings around Times Square.
By March 1997, though the building's site had not been fully excavated, 87 percent of the office space had already been leased.
Rainforest Cafe
Rainforest Cafe is a jungle-themed restaurant chain owned by Landry's, Inc., of Houston. It was founded by Steven Schussler. The first location opened in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, on February 3, 1994. By 1997, the chain co ...
tentatively agreed to lease a storefront in the street level and basement that July.
![ESPN Zone in New York (4702626143)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/ESPN_Zone_in_New_York_%284702626143%29.jpg)
Since most of the office space had been taken by Condé Nast and Skadden Arps, the Durst Organization decided to distribute
CDs
The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...
to promote the retail space and the signs atop the building. The promotional CD contained a photo gallery of Times Square's history, details of 4 Times Square's green-building features, and a map of planned hotels and stores nearby. The Durst Organization received a $340 million construction in mid-1997.
The loan was issued by a syndicate of banks led by the
Bank of New York
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, commonly known as BNY Mellon, is an American investment banking services holding company headquartered in New York City. BNY Mellon was formed from the merger of The Bank of New York and the Mellon Financ ...
.
The site was cleared by that August 1997. The superstructure had risen to 30 stories by the February 1998,
though steel construction was delayed by the rainy weather. Around that time, Nasdaq was considering leasing a marketing center and TV studio at 4 Times Square. By mid-1998, it had agreed to lease the space and add an LED sign around the cylindrical northwest corner. Disney leased three stories of retail later that year for the ESPN Zone entertainment restaurant.
Several incidents occurred during construction, leading the city's tabloid newspapers to describe the construction site as "jinxed".
A construction crane fell onto a building on 43rd Street in January 1998,
and a piece of aluminum dropped from the northern facade that April, though no one was hurt in either incident. That June, a carpenter was crushed to death by an elevator. The most severe incident occurred on July 21, 1998, when a construction elevator fell onto the nearby Woodstock Hotel, killing an 85-year-old woman and injuring twelve other people.
The surrounding area was closed to the public and many residents and businesses were displaced; the area could not be reopened until netting was installed around the collapsed scaffold. After the scaffold was disassembled, the surrounding segment of 43rd Street was reopened a month after the collapse, though Woodstock Hotel residents did not return until that October.
The July 1998 construction collapse delayed construction by two months.
Following an investigation, U.S. government officials said in early 1999 that the scaffold had collapsed because it had lacked crucial support beams. The construction crane was being disassembled by February 1999; at the time, it was the eighth-tallest structure in Manhattan. The next month, as the building was being completed, falling debris from the construction site injured three pedestrians.
Usage
Opening
![Times Sq Sep 2021 24](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Times_Sq_Sep_2021_24.jpg)
The first Condé Nast employees began moving into the building on June 21, 1999, when almost 200 employees from
''Brides'',
''House & Garden'', and ''Women's Sports and Fitness'' moved to the structure.
The relocations continued over the two following months. The overall reaction among Condé Nast employees was positive, though some were critical of the building; one editor would not preview the building prior to the move, while another expressed concern about the construction incidents.
Furthermore, many staff members of ''The New Yorker'' were reluctant to move to 4 Times Square, though this was more heavily influenced by the fact that ''The New Yorker'' previously occupied a different building from the other Condé Nast publications.
Many Condé Nast staff arrived at the building in limousines, which created congestion on nearby streets, prompting the city government to create a limousine-dropoff area nearby.
At the building's opening, Durst also faced two class-action lawsuits from nearby business owners as a result of the construction incidents in 1998. These were both dismissed in July 1999 because the business owners did not suffer physical damage. In addition, Nasdaq and Condé Nast had disagreed over the proposed LED sign since the beginning of 1999, leading the two companies to seek an
arbitration
Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...
proceeding. Condé Nast claimed that the sign would block the windows of its art department and that it protruded too far from the facade. In response, Nasdaq said the sign was within the terms of its own lease and that, in any case, Condé Nast's graphic-arts department did not need natural light.
An arbitrator ruled in favor of Nasdaq in August 1999,
and the Nasdaq MarketSite sign started illuminating that December.
By the end of 1999, Durst was looking to refinance the building to replace the construction loan from the Bank of New York.
2000s
The building's fourth-floor cafe opened in April 2000
and was renovated two years afterward.
Meanwhile, the signs atop the building remained unused through early 2000.
Teligent was the first company to pay $500,000 a year for the signs, but it went bankrupt a year after the signs were installed. By late 2001, Nasdaq was contemplating relocating its offices (which had been damaged in the September 11 attacks) to 4 Times Square, where only of office space was vacant. Several radio stations had also been forced to move to 4 Times Square after the attacks, prompting the addition of an FM antenna for WNYC in March 2002. The
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 ...
pharmacy chain leased the remaining ground-floor space and part of the basement in mid-2002.
After the September 11 attacks, Durst was unable to refinance 4 Times Square because his insurer had dropped terrorism coverage from its policy.
A judge issued a restraining order preventing mortgage holder
Cigna
Cigna is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Its insurance subsidiaries are major providers of medical, dental, disability, life and accident insurance and related products and se ...
from declaring the building in
default
Default may refer to:
Law
* Default (law), the failure to do something required by law
** Default (finance), failure to satisfy the terms of a loan obligation or failure to pay back a loan
** Default judgment, a binding judgment in favor of ei ...
until April 2002. The restraining order was extended to May; a few minutes before the extension was set to expire, it was extended again to September.
In the meantime, a New York state judge ruled that Cigna could force Durst to carry terror insurance.
The lack of insurance led
Moody's Investors Service
Moody's Investors Service, often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its historical name. Moody's Investors Service provides international ...
to reduce the
credit rating
A credit rating is an evaluation of the credit risk of a prospective debtor (an individual, a business, company or a government), predicting their ability to pay back the debt, and an implicit forecast of the likelihood of the debtor defaulting.
...
of the loan on 4 Times Square. Following the passage of a terror-insurance law in November 2002, Durst said he was amenable to buy a cheaper terror-insurance policy. Cigna and Durst had reached a settlement by late 2003, when the credit rating of the property loan was upgraded after Durst obtained terror insurance.
Meanwhile, in November 2002, Durst announced that he would construct a antenna mast atop 4 Times Square as a backup facility for radio stations that had broadcast from the World Trade Center. The original antenna mast was designed for four stations but was serving eight stations, while the new antenna mast would be designed to serve 18 stations. The old mast was disassembled and the new mast was constructed starting in March 2003.
Univision signed an agreement to build an antenna on the building. During construction, a temporary one-bay antenna was mounted atop 4 Times Square.
The work, costing $25 million, included adding structural reinforcements. The new mast was finished on October 2, 2003, with the first broadcast occurring on October 30 of the same year.
During the mid-2000s, Durst spent $300,000 to install repeaters and antennas that could operate the core mechanical systems in case of an emergency.
The equipment was completed in 2006.
By then, the signs atop the building were not being used by any advertiser and contained the number "4".
In the late 2000s, Durst developed the Bank of America Tower on the eastern side of the block, obscuring views from 4 Times Square's eastern facade.
2010s to present
![Condé Nast Building 001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Cond%C3%A9_Nast_Building_001.jpg)
The ESPN Zone restaurant closed in June 2010 following the
financial crisis of 2007–2008
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
. Around that time, Condé Nast signed a lease to relocate to the new
One World Trade Center
One World Trade Center (also known as One World Trade, One WTC, and formerly Freedom Tower) is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Mer ...
when that building was completed. The retail space remained vacant for over two years and, following a failed negotiation with
Express, Inc.
Express, Inc. is an American fashion retailer that caters mainly to young men and women. The company is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Express operates 500+ stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and ...
, H&M agreed to lease the majority of the retail space in late 2012. H&M announced in August 2013 that it would install panels with its logo atop the building,
and the H&M store opened that November.
Condé Nast moved to One World Trade Center between November 2014 and January 2015. After the relocation, preservationists expressed concern that the Condé Nast cafeteria would be destroyed, since Skadden Arps had its own cafeteria.
In early 2015, the Durst Organization indicated it would preserve the cafeteria but would have to find a tenant for it.
Skadden Arps itself planned to move out of Four Times Square by 2020, having signed a lease at
One Manhattan West
One Manhattan West is a 67-story office skyscraper in the Manhattan West development. It was completed in 2019 and will serve as the second tower completed in the development after 3 Manhattan West.
History
In July 2018, Wells Fargo provided a ...
. The building's two major tenants had occupied nearly all the office space, and their departure would leave the building almost vacant.
In the five years after Condé Nast's departure, Durst secured tenants for the publisher's former space.
Among the later tenants was Nasdaq, which in February 2018 moved its global headquarters to the building and extended the MarketSite lease.
Nasdaq planned to expand MarketSite over the following three years; the expansion included a 10th-story event space with a terrace that would be able to accommodate 400 people.
During the late 2010s, the Durst Organization renovated the building's main entrance and lobby for $140 million.
In addition, the fourth-floor dining room was renovated for $35 million.
After the renovation, 4 Times Square had of amenity space.
By April 2019, all of the old Condé Nast space had been leased. Durst then refinanced the building with $900 million from
JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...
and
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
. The refinancing came after $650 million of
commercial mortgage-backed securities
Commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) are a type of mortgage-backed security backed by commercial and multifamily mortgages rather than residential real estate. CMBS tend to be more complex and volatile than residential mortgage-backed ...
, issued by
UBS
UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...
, had matured.
The Durst Organization also planned to market the building as 151 West 42nd Street.
Tenants
Most of the space at 4 Times Square was occupied by Condé Nast and Skadden Arps prior to 2015. Afterward, their former spaces have been occupied by a variety of companies:
*
SS&C Technologies
SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (known as SS&C) is an American multinational holding company headquartered in Windsor, Connecticut, that sells software and software as a service to the financial services industry. The company has offices in the ...
, a
financial technology
Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are ...
company, signed for in January 2016. The company added in 2019, taking up all of floors 5, 6, and 7.
* Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, a law firm, leased on one full floor in September 2016.
* ICAP, a financial securities company, leased on floors 13 and 14 in September 2016.
*
RSM US
RSM US LLP is an audit, tax, and consulting firm focused on the middle market in the United States and Canada and is a member of the global accounting network RSM International. It is the fifth largest accounting firm in the United States and emp ...
, an accounting firm, signed a lease to take the entirety of floors 10 and 11, as well as part of floor 12, in January 2017.
* HedgeServ Corporation, a financial technology firm, signed for on floor 8 in August 2017.
* National Cable Communications signed for on floor 11 and part of floor 12 in January 2019.
It then expanded by on the remainder of floor 12.
* Analysis Group, an economic consulting firm, leased on floor 23 and part of floor 22 in January 2019.
*
BMO Capital Markets
BMO Capital Markets is the investment banking subsidiary of Canadian Bank of Montreal. The company offers corporate, institutional and government clients access to a range of financial services. These include equity and debt underwriting, c ...
leased on floors 9 and 29 in April 2019.
* Nasdaq leased for its headquarters in February 2018,
then expanded to in May 2019 by leasing the entirety of floor 28.
*
Vevo
Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...
, a video hosting service, leased on floor 25 in June 2019.
* Vidaris, a consulting firm, leased on floor 24 in July 2021.
*
Mitsubishi International, a conglomerate, leased on floors 34 and 35 in July 2021.
*
Venable LLP
Venable LLP is an American law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is the largest law firm in the state of Maryland. Founded in 1900 by Richard Venable in Baltimore, today Venable has 10 offices across the United States and 800 attorneys w ...
, a law firm, leased on floors 48 to 52, as well as on a concourse, in October 2021.
* Varagon Capital Partners, an asset management firm, leased in March 2022.
* Chicago Trading Company leased in July 2022, occupying the last full-floor spaces available.
Critical reception
![Times Sq Sep 2021 19](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Times_Sq_Sep_2021_19.jpg)
When construction of 4 Times Square began in 1996,
Paul Goldberger
Paul Goldberger (born in 1950) is an American author, architecture critic and lecturer. He is known for his "Sky Line" column in ''The New Yorker''.
Biography
Shortly after starting as a reporter at ''The New York Times'' in 1972, he was assign ...
wrote for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
,'' "While the building is far from modest in size,
ox & Fowle's designis significantly improved from the original plans by Philip Johnson and John Burgee." For the same newspaper,
Herbert Muschamp
Herbert Mitchell Muschamp (November 28, 1947 – October 2, 2007) was an American architecture critic.
Early years
Born in Philadelphia, Muschamp described his childhood home life as follows: "The living room was a secret. A forbidden zone. ...
wrote that the building "is not monstrously out of scale" with other contemporary developments.
Muschamp said it looked like a custom design for Condé Nast, "whose stock in trade is the knowing mix of high style and popular culture".
Karrie Jacobs Karrie is an English and Swedish feminine given name that is an alternate form of Carrie and a diminutive form of Caroline and Carol. Notable people referred to by this name include the following:
Given name
*Karrie Delaney (born 1978), American ...
of ''
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'' magazine also considered Fox & Fowle's design to be better than Johnson and Burgee's plan, adding that "It's the perfect building for a culture that consists of nothing but fragmented references to what has come before".
The building was pictured in the August 1998 issue of ''Vogue'' magazine, which was published as scheduled despite the fatal construction collapse the previous month.
After the building was completed, Suzanne Stephens wrote that the decorative elements on the glass facades "seem unnecessary" from a purist point of view, though she added that decorative features in the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
and
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
were similarly criticized upon their respective completions.
Muschamp said of the different facades of the building: "it wants to be at once a background building and a foreground building, both star and chorus".
Jacobs called the building "better as a piece of social commentary than as architecture" with its contrasting facades.
4 Times Square also received awards from the
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
and AIA's New York state chapter.
The Condé Nast cafeteria was largely praised, with Muschamp referring to the cafeteria as "an underwater hypostyle hall".
Brent Richards wrote in the book ''New Glass Architecture'' that Gehry was able to create a "seemingly impossible fluidity" with the partitions,
while ''Arcspace'' magazine said of the cafeteria, "Gehry's formalism has produced an informality that encourages chance encounters of the friendly, and even romantic, kind."
The Nasdaq MarketSite facade on Broadway and 43rd Street was also critiqued; Jacobs described it as a "glowing 140-foot-high soda can".
Muschamp said the cylindrical facade would "make a dandy giant soda can, film spool, aerosol spray, or a current issue of ''House and Garden''".
See also
*
List of buildings and structures on Broadway in Manhattan
This list contains buildings and structures on Broadway in Manhattan, New York City.
1-599 (Battery Place - W. Houston Street)
600-1499 (W. Houston St. - Times Square)
1500-1800 (Times Square - Columbus Circle)
North of Columbus Circle
* ...
*
Buildings and architecture of New York City
The building form most closely associated with New York City is the skyscraper, which has shifted many commercial and residential districts from low-rise to high-rise. Surrounded mostly by water, the city has amassed one of the largest and most ...
*
List of tallest buildings in New York City
New York City, the most populous city in the United States, is home to over 7,000 completed high-rise buildings of at least , of which at least 95 are taller than . The tallest building in New York is One World Trade Center, which rises ...
*
List of tallest freestanding structures in the world
This is a list of tallest freestanding structures in the world past and present. To be freestanding a structure must not be supported by guy wires, the sea or other types of support. It therefore does not include guyed masts, partially guyed tow ...
*
List of tallest freestanding steel structures
This is a list of tallest freestanding steel structures in the world past and present. To be a freestanding steel structure it must not be supported by guy wires, the list therefore does not include guyed masts and the main vertical and lateral str ...
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
{{Broadway (Manhattan), state=collapsed
1999 establishments in New York City
Broadway (Manhattan)
Condé Nast
Modernist architecture in New York City
Nasdaq
Office buildings completed in 1999
Radio masts and towers in the United States
Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan
Times Square buildings
Towers in New York City
42nd Street (Manhattan)