The Hearst Tower is a building at the southwest corner of
57th Street and
Eighth Avenue, near
Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South ( West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the so ...
, in
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 ...
in
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 ...
. It is the world
headquarter
Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...
s of media conglomerate
Hearst Communications
Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televi ...
, housing many of its publications and communications companies. The Hearst Tower consists of two sections, with a total height of and 46 stories. The six lowest stories form the Hearst Magazine Building (also known as the International Magazine Building), designed by
Joseph Urban
Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872 – July 10, 1933) was an Austrian-American architect, illustrator, and scenic designer.
Life and career
Joseph Urban was born on May 26, 1872, in Vienna. He received his first architectural commission at age 19 wh ...
and
George B. Post & Sons, which was completed in 1928. Above it is the Hearst Tower addition, which was completed in 2006 and designed by
Norman Foster
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
.
The building's main entrance is on Eighth Avenue. The original structure is clad with stone and contains six pylons with sculptural groups. The tower proper contains a glass and metal facade arranged in a
diagrid
A diagrid (a portmanteau of diagonal grid) is a Framing (construction), framework of diagonally intersecting metal, concrete, or wooden Beam (structure), beams that is used in the construction of buildings and roofs. It requires less struct ...
, which doubles as its structural system. The original office space in the Hearst Magazine Building was replaced with an atrium during the Hearst Tower's construction. The tower is certified as a
green building
Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...
as part of the
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a
green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...
(LEED) program.
The Hearst Magazine Building's developer,
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
, had acquired the site for a theater, in the belief that the area would become the city's next large entertainment district, but subsequently changed his plans to allow a magazine headquarters there. The original building was developed as the base for a larger tower that was postponed due to the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. A subsequent expansion proposal during the 1940s also failed. The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
designated the facade of the original building as a city landmark in 1988. Hearst Communications, having considered expanding the structure again in the 1980s, finally developed its tower during the first decade of the 21st century.
Site
The Hearst Tower is on the border of the
Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the eas ...
and
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 ...
neighborhoods 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 ...
, two blocks south of
Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South ( West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the so ...
. It is bounded by 56th Street to the south,
Eighth Avenue to the east, and
57th Street to the north. The building faces
Central Park Place
Central Park Place is a residential condominium building in the Hell's Kitchen and Midtown Manhattan neighborhoods of New York City. The building is at 301 West 57th Street, at the northwest corner with Eighth Avenue. Davis Brody Bond designed ...
to the north, 3 Columbus Circle to the northeast, and
Random House Tower
The Random House Tower, also known as the Park Imperial Apartments, is a 52-story mixed-use tower in Manhattan, New York City. It is owned by real estate companies SL Green Realty and Ivanhoé Cambridge, with the office portion leased as the hea ...
to the east. It is also one block south of
Time Warner Center
Deutsche Bank Center (also One Columbus Circle and formerly Time Warner Center) is a mixed-use building on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City. The building occupies the western side of Columbus Circle and straddles the border between ...
and
2 Columbus Circle. The base of the Hearst Tower carries the alternate addresses 951–969 Eighth Avenue, 301–313 West 56th Street, and 302–312 West 57th Street.
The site is a nearly square lot covering , and measuring . Entrances 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
59th Street–Columbus Circle station, served by the , are within the base of the tower.
The Hearst Tower is near an artistic hub that developed around a two-block section of West 57th Street between
Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
and
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 ...
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, following the opening of
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
at Seventh Avenue in 1891.
The area contained several headquarters of organizations such as the
American Fine Arts Society
The Art Students League of New York Building (also the American Fine Arts Society and 215 West 57th Street) is a building on 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh in the Frenc ...
, the
Lotos Club
The Lotos Club was founded in 1870 as a gentlemen's club in New York City; it has since also admitted women as members. Its founders were primarily a young group of writers and critics. Mark Twain, an early member, called it the "Ace of Clubs". ...
, and the
ASCE Society House.
Although the original Hearst Magazine Building was just outside the artistic hub, its proximity to these institutions was one factor in the selection of its location.
Architecture
The original six-story structure, known as the Hearst Magazine Building or the International Magazine Building,
was designed by architect
Joseph Urban
Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872 – July 10, 1933) was an Austrian-American architect, illustrator, and scenic designer.
Life and career
Joseph Urban was born on May 26, 1872, in Vienna. He received his first architectural commission at age 19 wh ...
and architecture firm
George B. Post & Sons. It was completed in 1928 as the base of a future tower.
The Hearst Magazine Building was designed in an early form of the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style.
Henry Kreis
Henry Kreis (1899–1963) was an American sculptor.
Life
He studied at the State School of Applied Arts in Munich. In 1947, he created the Wise virgins and Foolish virgins medal for the Society of Medalists.
In 1935 Kreis designed the Connect ...
designed six sculptural groups at the third story.
The Hearst Magazine Building is the only survivor of an unbuilt entertainment complex that its developer,
Hearst Communications
Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televi ...
founder
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
, had envisioned for Columbus Circle in the early 20th century.
The tower, designed by
Norman Foster
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
, was completed in 2006, almost eight decades after the base was built.
The
Hearst Corporation
Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...
and
Tishman Speyer
Tishman Speyer Properties is an American company that invests in real estate.
History
The firm was founded in 1978 by Robert Tishman and Jerry Speyer.
In March 1988, the company announced its first project in Europe, the construction of a 70-s ...
developed the tower, while
WSP Global
WSP Global Inc. is a Canadian company with American and British roots, providing management and consultancy services to the built and natural environment. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. After the purchase of New York-headquartered ...
was the structural engineer and
Turner Construction
Turner Construction is an American construction company with presence in 20 countries. It is a subsidiary of the German company Hochtief. It is the largest domestic contractor in the United States as of 2020, with a revenue of $14.41 billion in ...
was the main contractor.
The two sections of the Hearst Tower are a combined tall, with forty-six stories above ground.
The base occupies nearly the whole lot and originally contained floors arranged in a "U" shape, flanking a courtyard to the west.
Along much of the base, the third through sixth stories are slightly
set back from the lowest two floors.
The original building's roof was above ground.
The tower stories are more deeply set back from the lowest six floors on the north, east, and south sides.
The tower contains a smaller footprint of , the longer dimension extending from east to west.
The setbacks above the sixth floor contain a skylight wide.
The Hearst Tower has of office space.
According to the
New York City Department of City Planning
The Department of City Planning (DCP) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for setting the framework of city's physical and socioeconomic planning. The department is responsible for land use and environmental review, p ...
, the building has a
gross floor area
In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...
of .
The tower received a zoning bonus that enabled its maximum floor area to be expanded by six floors or , a twenty percent increase from the previous maximum allowed floor area of . In exchange, the Hearst Corporation agreed to improve access to the subway station directly underneath, adding three elevators and reconfiguring the subway station's circulation areas.
Without the zoning amendment, the Hearst Corporation might have had to pay up to $10 million for additional
air rights
Air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by others.
This legal ...
, as the company had already utilized all the unused air rights above the Hearst Magazine Building.
Facade
Base
![W 57th St Nov 2020 160](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/W_57th_St_Nov_2020_160.jpg)
The cast limestone facade of the Hearst Magazine Building, now the base, is a New York City designated landmark with of surface area.
It is divided horizontally into the two lowest stories, three intermediate stories, and a sixth-story attic.
The base's northeastern and southeastern corners are
chamfer
A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces.
Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...
ed.
A balustrade runs in front of the third-story windows, supported by a shelf with notches, and interrupted by the chamfered corners. A parapet runs above the fifth story, except in the
bays above the entrance arches on Eighth Avenue and 57th Street, and at the chamfered corners.
With the construction of the Hearst Tower, the base's existing facade was retrofitted to meet updated city seismic codes.
Because the original office space was replaced with the atrium in the Hearst Tower's construction,
the windows on the third through sixth stories of the facade illuminate the atrium.
The main entrance, at the center of the Eighth Avenue
elevation
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 ...
, contains a large archway flanked by a pair of smaller rectangular doorways. The archway has gray granite panels at its base, and
voussoir
A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.
Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...
s and a beveled
keystone at its top, overlapping with a balcony. The
barrel-vaulted
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
vestibule inside the archway contains embossed octagonal
coffer
A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault.
A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also c ...
s. The far western end of the vestibule contains an entrance with a bronze frame and four glass doors beneath a bronze-and-glass
transom
Transom may refer to:
* Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar
* Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet
* Operation Tran ...
. There is a subway entrance on the right (north) side of the Eighth Avenue entrance vestibule.
On either side of the entrance arch, the Eighth Avenue elevation contains glass and metal storefronts at ground level, and seven sash windows at the second stories.
On 57th Street, there was formerly a secondary entrance, which was altered to create a storefront topped by a window. There is another subway entrance to the left of the original doorway. The remainder of the ground-story facades at 57th and 56th Streets also contain glass and metal storefronts, although there are loading docks on the far western section of the 56th Street facade.
The base contains six pylons, which are supported by stone pedestals with sculptural groupings at the third story, and are topped by sculpted urns above the sixth story. The pylons are indicative of the fact that the building was originally planned as a theater structure.
The centers of the Eighth Avenue and 57th Street facades each contain two pylons and are identical. The left pylon on both entrances contains sculptural groups of "Comedy and Tragedy", while the right pylon contains sculptural groups of "Music and Art".
Similar pylons rise in front of the northeast and southeast corners of the base. The northeast-corner pylon contains a group representing "Printing and the Sciences", while the southeast-corner pylon contains a group representing "Sport and Industry".
Between the pairs of pylons on Eighth Avenue and on 57th Street, at each of the third through sixth stories, is a tripartite window with fluted stone
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.
The Eighth Avenue and 57th Street elevations contain seven bays on either side of the vertical bay, which are set back above the second story. The windows on the third through fifth stories of these elevations are sash windows, slightly recessed behind the main facade, while the sixth-story windows are flush with the cast stone facade. The setback and window arrangement are carried around to the easternmost eight bays on 56th Street.
The westernmost two bays on 57th Street, and the westernmost twelve bays on 56th Street, do not set back above the second story, and do not contain third-story balustrades. On the western section of the 56th Street facade, the third through fifth stories are grouped into six pairs, which are separated by pilasters.
The pilasters were designed to emphasize the long-unbuilt upper stories.
Tower
![Hearst Tower window cleaning incident in 2013](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Hearst_Tower_window_cleaning_incident_in_2013.jpg)
A
clerestory
In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both.
Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
wraps around the seventh through tenth floors, atop the base,
structurally separating the tower stories from the base.
Above the tenth floor, the tower's facade uses a triangular framing pattern known as a
diagrid
A diagrid (a portmanteau of diagonal grid) is a Framing (construction), framework of diagonally intersecting metal, concrete, or wooden Beam (structure), beams that is used in the construction of buildings and roofs. It requires less struct ...
, which serves as the structural support system for the tower stories.
The diagrid divides the tower's sides horizontally, into segments of four stories, and diagonally, into alternating upright and inverted triangles, which intersect at "nodes" along various points of the facade.
There are no vertical columns within the tower's footprint.
The arrangement of the diagrid creates chamfered "birds' mouths" at the tower's corners at the 14th, 22nd, 30th, and 38th floors.
According to ''The New York Times'', the beams and "birds' mouths" run at a 75-degree angle to the horizontal floor slabs,
though another author cites the beams as running at a 65-degree angle.
The structural system, similar to the
Commerzbank Tower
Commerzbank Tower is a 56-story, skyscraper owned by Samsung of Korea since September 2016 in the banking district of Frankfurt, Germany. An antenna spire with a signal light on top gives the tower a total height of . It is the tallest build ...
in Frankfurt
and
30 St Mary Axe
30 St Mary Axe (previously known as the Swiss Re Building and informally known as the Gherkin) is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. W ...
in London, was developed in conjunction with
Ysrael Seinuk
Ysrael Abraham Seinuk (December 21, 1931 – September 14, 2010) was an engineer who designed the structure for many landmark skyscrapers in New York and around the world. He also taught structural engineering at New York's Cooper Union and w ...
.
The triangles comprising the diagrid are prefabricated panels, manufactured by the Cives Steel Company at two plants in New York and Virginia.
Each of the triangles are tall.
The diagonal beams are typically long by wide.
The columns are bolted, rather than welded, to each other at the nodes.
The diagrid required of structural
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
,
twenty percent less than what would have normally been required for a building of similar size.
More than ninety percent of the steel in the diagrid is recycled.
The exterior
curtain wall was constructed by Permasteelisa, which mounted 3,200 glass panels on the facade.
The panels are typically tall by wide,
although 625 of the panels were built to a custom specification.
Because of the facade's intricate design, the tower's
window cleaning
Window cleaning, or window washing, is the exterior cleaning of architectural glass used for structural, lighting, or decorative purposes. It can be done manually, using a variety of tools for cleaning and access. Technology is also employed and ...
rig took three years and $3 million to plan.
The resulting design incorporates "a rectangular steel box the size of a
Smart car
Smart (stylized as smart) is a German automotive marque. Smart Automobile Co., Ltd. is a joint venture established by Mercedes-Benz AG and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2019 and aimed at producing Smart-badged cars in China to be marketed glob ...
" on the roof, which hoists a mast and a hydraulic boom arm. Sixty-seven sensors and switches are housed in the box. A window cleaning deck hangs from the hydraulic boom arm, supported by six wire-rope strands.
The device was installed in April 2005 on of elevated steel track looping the roof of the tower.
The rig snapped in a 2013 incident that trapped two window cleaners.
Features
Structural features
The Hearst Magazine Building is supported by steel columns at its perimeter.
The original framework was intended to support at least seven additional stories.
Urban's original plans for the tower no longer exist
but, by some accounts, would have been up to 20 stories tall.
The Hearst Magazine Building also had six elevator shafts, double or triple the expected number of elevators for a building of its size. As completed, there was a white-brick penthouse above the sixth story for the future expansion of the elevators.
The Hearst Magazine Building's entire original framework was removed when the Hearst Tower was constructed in the 2000s.
The existing structure was hollowed out to create the atrium for the expanded building, and new columns were installed behind the existing facade.
Large "mega columns" extend downward from the perimeter of the tower addition. The existing frame and new columns are connected with beams at the third and seventh stories.
Additionally, there are eight "super-diagonals" sloping from the third floor to the tenth floor.
The Hearst Tower contains twenty-one elevators in total.
The stairways and elevators are placed in a service core along the western portion of the tower, the only side that does not face a street.
The original plan had called for the core to be at the tower's center, but it was redesigned after 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, as a security precaution against possible attacks from the street.
The offset core also enables the office floors to contain an
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 ...
without interior columns.
To accommodate the offset service core, and to compensate for the lack of interior columns, the tower's weight is supported by the exterior diagrid, which is braced with the service core.
The underlying layer of bedrock beneath the Hearst Tower varies in depth, so the Hearst Tower's
foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
was built using two methods. Beneath half of the site, the rock layer is a few feet beneath the basement, and
spread footings are used. Under the other half of the site, where the rock layer descends a maximum of beneath the basement, twenty-one
caissons were installed.
Interior
![Hearst Tower Lobby October 2006](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Hearst_Tower_Lobby_October_2006.jpg)
The Hearst Magazine Building initially contained office space with ceilings,
which was replaced with a atrium when the tower was built.
The atrium has a volume of .
The lobby, accessed by escalators from the Eighth Avenue entrance, was placed inside what had been the third story of the original building.
The escalators run through a waterfall called ''Icefall'', which uses recycled water from the building's
green roof
A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...
. The waterfall is complemented by a fresco painting, ''Riverlines,'' by artist
Richard Long.
Also within the atrium are two mezzanines; one contains a 380-seat cafeteria and the other houses an exhibition area.
The cafeteria, called Cafe 57, is used by Hearst employees and visitors.
On the northern side of the atrium is a screening room.
At ground level are two storefronts beneath the atrium: an
anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...
space with about , as well as another space with about .
The tower stories start with the tenth story, which is high, slightly above the roof of the atrium.
Each of the tower stories covers
and contains ceilings.
The floors were designed to contain many of Hearst's publications and communications companies, including ''
Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Food and drink
* Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo"
History
* Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953
Hotels and resorts
* Cosmopoli ...
'', ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'', ''
Marie Claire
''Marie Claire'' is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937, followed by the United Kingdom in 1941. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on wo ...
'', ''
Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...
'', ''
Good Housekeeping
''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good House ...
'', and ''
Seventeen
Seventeen or 17 may refer to:
*17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18
* one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017
Literature
Magazines
* ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine
* ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...
''.
Besides Hearst offices, the tower contains a fitness center for staff on the 14th floor.
There are also executive rooms on the 44th floor.
The tower has several design features that are intended to meet
green building
Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...
standards as part of the
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a
green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...
(LEED) program.
The limestone-clad floor slabs of the atrium and office floors contain
polyethylene
Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...
tubes that can carry heated or chilled water to regulate temperature and humidity. A tank in the basement collects rainwater from the building's roof, some of which is pumped through ''Icefall'' in the lobby. The furniture and lights were also designed to be energy-efficient.
Two executive stories have daylight dimming systems, which dim when there is sunlight, while the other office stories have daylight switching systems, which turn off when there is sunlight.
Furthermore, about 85 percent of the material from the old building's interior was recycled for use in the tower's construction.
History
W. R. Hearst moved to New York City in 1895 and became a successful magazine magnate over the following three decades.
Almost immediately upon moving to the city, Hearst had envisioned the creation of a large Midtown headquarters around Columbus Circle, in the belief that the area would become the city's next large entertainment district. From 1895 to the mid-1920s, Hearst bought several large plots around the circle for his headquarters.
Hearst had also envisioned that Manhattan's
Theater District A theater district (also spelled theatre district) is a common name for a neighborhood containing several of a city's theatres.
Places
*Theater District, Manhattan, New York City
*Boston Theater District
*Buffalo Theater District
*Cleveland Theater ...
would be extended to Columbus Circle, having become interested in theater in part because of his mistress, actress
Marion Davies
Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...
. During the early 20th century, Hearst had hired Joseph Urban for several theater projects, and the two men became close friends.
Original development
By early 1924, Hearst had obtained an option to acquire a 200-by-200-foot site along Eighth Avenue from 56th to 57th Street, close to the 57th Street art hub. That April, he acquired the property title to the site. Hearst gradually acquired large amounts of land around the intersection of Eighth Avenue and 57th Street, though none of the other sites were developed.
Simultaneously with Hearst's purchases,
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
director
Otto Hermann Kahn
Otto Hermann Kahn (February 21, 1867 – March 29, 1934) was a German-born American investment banker, collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. Kahn was a well-known figure, appearing on the cover of ''Time'' magazine and was sometimes ...
had started planning a new
opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets.
While some venues are constructed specifically for o ...
to replace an
existing building at 39th Street and Broadway, spending $3 million in late 1925 to acquire the site immediately west of Hearst's lot.
Plans for the 57th Street opera house were made public in January 1926. but the Met abandoned these plans two years later.
![HearstMagazineBuilding](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/HearstMagazineBuilding.JPG)
In conjunction with the canceled opera house, Hearst had originally planned to construct a two-story office and retail building with a 2,500-seat theater, designed by Michael Bernstein.
This was subsequently changed to a six-story office and theater building, to be designed by
Thomas W. Lamb
Thomas White Lamb (May 5th, 1870 – February 26th, 1942) was a Scottish-born, American architect. He was one of the foremost designers of theaters and cinemas in the 20th century.
Career
Born in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom, Thomas W. La ...
.
Hearst's magazines were slated to be published three blocks west, on a block bounded by 11th and 12th Avenues between 54th and 55th Streets. By August 1926, the 11th Avenue site was abandoned, and Hearst had replaced Lamb, hiring Urban to design a magazine headquarters on the Eighth Avenue site.
Excavation of the Hearst Magazine Building had started by June 1927.
At the time, the section of Eighth Avenue between 42nd and 59th Streets was seeing rapid development, with surrounding realty values having increased 200 percent since the beginning of the decade. This was, in part, due to the development of the
Independent Subway System
The Independent Subway System (IND or ISS), formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System (ICOSS) or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad (ICORTR), was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of th ...
's
Eighth Avenue Line and zoning regulations that allowed for the development of skyscrapers on that part of Eighth Avenue.
By January 1928, the Hearst Magazine Building was nearly completed. The Hearst Magazine Building ultimately cost $2 million (equivalent to $ million in ).
Hearst Magazine Building
Shortly after the Hearst Magazine Building's completion, Urban and Post drew up plans for a new 1,000-seat concert hall to be built at street level, with a 600-seat secondary auditorium in the basement, to be completed by 1929. The Hearst Corporation acquired the land under the building in 1930 for $2.25 million or $2.5 million. However, with the onset of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
shortly after the Hearst Magazine Building's completion, planning for its upper stories stalled for over a decade.
The
New York Evening Journal
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
Inc., one of Hearst's newspapers,
transferred ownership of the building to Hearst Magazines Inc. in 1937, at which point the building was valued as being worth $3.253 million. This was part of a reorganization of properties owned by the Hearst Corporation. By that point, Hearst owed $126 million (equivalent to $ billion in ) and was in the process of selling off his holdings.
Hearst considered issuing $35.5 million debt, in part to repurchase the Hearst Magazine Building, but ultimately withdrew his proposal.
In 1945, George B. Post and Sons prepared plans for nine additional stories.
Plans were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings the following year, at which point the tower was slated to cost $1.3 million. However, the additional stories were never completed.
The Hearst Magazine Building remained largely untouched throughout the 20th century, except for the replacement of the storefronts at ground level in 1970.
The Hearst Corporation resumed planning for a tower atop the Hearst Magazine Building in the early 1980s.
At the time, the building had just been restored. During much of that decade, the Hearst Corporation rapidly acquired media concerns such as magazines, publishers, and television stations. In 1982, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC) started considering city-landmark designation for the Hearst Magazine Building. Further discussions of landmark status occurred in 1987, and the LPC finally granted landmark status to the building's facade the next year.
The landmark designation meant that the LPC had to approve any proposed changes to the Hearst Magazine Building's exterior.
Beyer Blinder Belle
Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP (BBB) is an international architecture firm. It is based in New York City and has an additional office in Washington, DC. The firm's name is derived from the three founding partners: John H. Beyer, Ri ...
proposed a 34-story green-glass tower during the late 1980s, but this plan did not progress.
Tower addition
![Nueva York7042](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Nueva_York7042.JPG)
The Hearst Magazine Building was ultimately too small to house all of the Hearst Corporation's divisions, despite being the company's headquarters.
By the beginning of the 21st century, the building contained the ''Good Housekeeping'' offices, corporate offices, and Hearst's media division, while Hearst's other magazines were published in several buildings nearby. Accordingly, in 2000, the Hearst Corporation announced plans to consolidate all its divisions by completing its long-delayed tower.
Planning for the tower had been fueled in part by the development of other media headquarters nearby,
such as the planned
New York Times Building
The New York Times Building is a 52-story skyscraper at 620 Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eighth Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets, on the west side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Its chief tenant is the New York Times Company, publis ...
and the
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 ...
Building at
4 Times Square
4 Times Square (also known as 151 West 42nd Street or One Five One; formerly the Condé Nast Building) is a 52-story skyscraper at Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located at 1472 Broadway, between 42nd and ...
.
Hearst supposedly met with
Polshek Partnership
Ennead Architects LLP (/ˈenēˌad/) is a New York City-based architectural firm. The firm was founded in 1963 by James Polshek, who left the firm in 2005 when it was known as Polshek Partnership. The firm's partners renamed their practice in mi ...
early in the planning process.
In February 2001, the Hearst Corporation announced that it had hired Norman Foster to design a tower addition.
Foster's selection, which followed his failed bid to design the New York Times Building, led one architect to say: "My guess is Hearst wanted to outdo the ''Times''."
In spite of the September 11 attacks later that year, the Hearst Corporation decided to proceed with the project. Foster said that the board felt that, "If we don't do anything,
he terroristshave won".
However, as a result of the attacks, Foster and Hearst decided to restrict visitor access to part of the atrium and relocate the tower's core away from the street.
Other parts of the design were also reviewed, but the glass facade was retained. Foster's team ultimately designed more than one hundred plans for the tower.
Foster filed plans for the construction of the Hearst Tower that October,
and the LPC approved the tower one month later.
Hearst had consulted with the community to allay any concerns and opposition, so the approval took a relatively short three hours.
The only major opponent was the
Historic Districts Council
The Historic Districts Council (HDC) is a New York City-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that serves as the advocate for New York City's historic buildings, neighborhoods, and public spaces. HDC'YouTube channelprovides a large catalog of free w ...
, whose executive director said the tower "does not respond to, respect, or even speak to its landmark base".
The Hearst Tower was the first major skyscraper in Manhattan to be built after the September 11 attacks.
Prior to the start of construction, ''Good Housekeeping'' moved to another Hearst Corporation structure, and two thousand employees were relocated.
Work on the Hearst Tower started on April 30, 2003. The Hearst Magazine Building's interior was demolished during mid-2003.
The original framework was left intact until new steel beams were installed,
while the landmark facade was preserved and cleaned for $6 million.
Steel construction began in March 2004.
The floor slabs were erected at an average rate of one floor every four days, while the curtain wall was installed at a rate of one floor every six days.
The Hearst Tower
topped out
In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...
on February 10, 2005.
Although the first employees moved into the tower in the last week of June 2006, it was not officially completed until that October. In total, the Hearst Tower had cost $500 million.
Shortly after completion, the Hearst Tower became the first New York City building to receive a LEED Gold certification for its overall design.
Because of the building's environmental features, its operating costs were 25 percent lower than in a typical skyscraper of the same size.
The LEED certification was upgraded to Platinum in 2012.
Reception
Prior to the Hearst Tower's construction, the Hearst Magazine Building was regarded as an indication of unexecuted plans. One witness, writing to the LPC in 1982, said that the structure was designed "an unusual style, by an unusual
nd unusually talenteddesigner". Architectural writer Eric Nash wrote in 1999 that the Hearst Magazine Building, as it stood before the Hearst Tower's completion, was "a tantalizing vision of what might have been".
Two years later, in 2001,
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. ...
of ''The New York Times'' characterized Urban's original building as having a "peculiar pastiche", saying, "Urban, himself a hybrid of architect and stage designer, should have been an ideal choice to bridge the two areas. The result, however, was leaden."
Christopher Gray
Christopher Stewart Gray (April 24, 1950 – March 10, 2017) was an American journalist and architectural historian,Schneider, Daniel B (August 27, 2000)"F.Y.I. Hell's Kitchen in the Raw" ''The New York Times''. March 4, 2010. noted for his week ...
, also for the ''Times'', wrote that "the Hearst building looked as much like some Wagnerian funerary monument as the headquarters of a publishing empire." William Randolph Hearst, the building's developer, left little indication about what he thought the Hearst Magazine Building represented, stating in a 1927 telegram that it was "an account of conspicuous architectural character".
Critics also highlighted the newer tower's contrast with the older base. A writer for ''Newsday'' stated that the tower demonstrated "the effect of one era's modern architecture giving birth to another's", saying that Foster's tower "seems to float above and behind the original shell."
''
The Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikk ...
'' wrote, "There is no attempt to harmonise or grow organically from Urban's oddity
..On the other hand the old building has not been ignored—quite the opposite."
Nicolai Ouroussoff
Nicolai Ouroussoff (russian: Николай Владимирович Урусов; born October 3, 1962) is a writer and educator who was an architecture critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times''.
Biography
Born in Cambridg ...
of ''The New York Times'' said, "Past and present don't fit seamlessly together here; they collide with ferocious energy", characterizing the Hearst Tower's design as "deeply comforting". Architectural writer
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 ...
, in ''
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 ...
'', praised the Hearst Tower as the "most beautiful skyscraper to go up in New York" since
140 Broadway
140 Broadway (formerly known as the Marine Midland Building or the HSBC Bank Building) is a 51-story International Style (architecture), International Style office building on the east side of Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway between Cedar and Li ...
was completed in 1967.
Not all critics were positive: Robert Campbell wrote in ''
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 tower was designed "as if
the Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...
, with its usual deftness of touch, had confused its maps and located this chunk of military hardware in Manhattan instead of Florida." Muschamp, of the ''Times'', said the new building resembled a "glass square peg in a solid square hole".
The Hearst Tower addition received the 2006
Emporis Skyscraper Award
The Emporis Skyscraper Award was an award for architectural excellence regarding the design of buildings and their functionality.
The award was presented annually by Emporis, a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany ...
, citing it as the best skyscraper in the world completed that year. In addition, the tower received a
British Construction Industry Award in 2007 and was a runner-up for the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
' Lubetkin Prize.
In 2016, the Hearst Tower received the 10-Year Award from the
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is an international body in the field of tall buildings and sustainable urban design. A non-profit organization based at the Monroe Building in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States ...
, which cited the tower's "structural complexity" as a consideration in its value and performance.
See also
*
Art Deco architecture of New York City
Art Deco architecture flourished in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s, before largely disappearing after World War II. The style is found in government edifices, commercial projects, and residential buildings in all five boroughs. The arc ...
*
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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External links
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{{Authority control
1928 establishments in New York City
2006 establishments in New York City
Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)
Foster and Partners buildings
Hearst Communications
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
High-tech architecture
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certified buildings
Mass media company headquarters in the United States
Modernist architecture in New York City
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
Office buildings completed in 1928
Office buildings completed in 2006
Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan
Skyscrapers on 57th Street (Manhattan)