One Vanderbilt is a 93-story

supertall A supertall building is an occupied "supertall" structure higher than and beneath . A form of skyscraper, it falls midway between a common minimum definition of "skyscraper" (a building taller ) and a " megatall" building (taller than ). Diff ...

skyscraper at the corner of 42nd Street and

Vanderbilt Avenue Vanderbilt Avenue is the name of three thoroughfares in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island. They were named after Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), the builder of Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. ...

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 ...

. Designed by

Kohn Pedersen Fox Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) is an American architecture firm that provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors. KPF is one of the largest architecture firms in ...

, the building was proposed by developer

SL Green Realty SL Green Realty Corp. is a real estate investment trust that primarily invests in office buildings and shopping centers in New York City. As of December 31, 2019, the company owned 43 properties comprising 14,438,964 square feet. Notable proper ...

as part of a planned

Midtown East 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 Building ...

rezoning in the early 2010s. The skyscraper's roof is high and its spire is above ground, making it the city's fourth-tallest building after

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 ...

Central Park Tower Central Park Tower is a residential supertall skyscraper at 225 West 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, along Billionaires' Row. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the building rises with ...

, and 111 West 57th Street. One Vanderbilt's facade and design is intended to harmonize with

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

immediately to the east. The building's base contains a wedge-shaped void, and the tower tapers as it rises, with several "pavilions" and a pinnacle at the top. The facade is made mostly of glass panels, while 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 between stories are made of

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

. The superstructure is made of steel and concrete, and the interior spaces are designed to be as high as 105 feet (32 m). The lobby has a bank branch and an entrance to the nearby railroad terminal and the associated subway station, while the second floor contains the Le Pavillon restaurant. Most of the building is devoted to office space, and the top stories contain an observation deck, Summit One Vanderbilt. SL Green acquired the structures on the site between 2001 and 2011, announcing plans to construct a skyscraper there in 2012. After a planned

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 ...

amendment for the neighborhood failed in 2013, One Vanderbilt was delayed for several months.

TD Bank Toronto-Dominion Bank (french: links=no, Banque Toronto-Dominion), doing business as TD Bank Group (french: links=no, Groupe Banque TD), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. ...

signed as the anchor tenant in May 2014 and after the skyscraper was approved one year later, the existing structures on the site were demolished. A

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are o ...

ceremony for One Vanderbilt was held in October 2016, and the 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 September 17, 2019, two months ahead of schedule. Despite delays related to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the building opened in September 2020, and Summit One Vanderbilt opened in October 2021.

Site

One Vanderbilt is in the

neighborhood of

, just west of

. The building takes up the city block bounded by Madison Avenue to the west, the former alignment of

to the east, 42nd Street to the south, and 43rd Street to the north. The building's rectangular land lot covers , with dimensions of . Nearby structures include the Lefcourt Colonial Building and

One Grand Central Place One Grand Central Place, originally the Lincoln Building, is a 53-story, tall neo-Gothic office building at 60 East 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded by Madison Avenue to the west, East 41st Street to the south, an ...

to the south;

to the east; the

MetLife Building The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed in the Internation ...

to the northeast; and 335 Madison Avenue to the north. In addition, the

Grand Hyatt New York The Hyatt Grand Central New York is a hotel located at 125 East 42nd Street, adjoining Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It operated as the 2,000-room Commodore Hotel between 1919 and 1976. Hotel ...

hotel and the

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 ...

are one block east, while the

Pershing Square Building The Pershing Square Building, also known as 125 Park Avenue or 100 East 42nd Street, is a 25-story office building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the eastern side of Park Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets, across fro ...

, the Bowery Savings Bank Building, and the

Chanin Building Chanin is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alabama Chanin, American fashion designer *Irwin Chanin (1891–1988), American architect *Jack Chanin (1907–1997), US-based Ukrainian magician *Jim Chanin (born 1947), American attor ...

are to the southeast. The skyscraper replaced several structures built as part of the Terminal City development around Grand Central in the 20th century. The 18-story Vanderbilt Avenue Building, a

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

-designed structure at 51 East 42nd Street, opened as a six-story office complex in 1902 and expanded in the 1920s. It had a two-story

Modell's Modell's Sporting Goods is an American online sporting goods retailer that had locations in the Northeastern United States. Modell's carries both sporting goods and related apparel. Modell's had more than 150 retail locations in ten states and th ...

store that sold sport-related items. Some of 51 East 42nd Street's ornate facade details, including terracotta porpoises and

cherub A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the u ...

s, were saved by the developer and stored until the

New York Landmarks Conservancy The New York Landmarks Conservancy is a non-profit organization "dedicated to preserving, revitalizing, and reusing" historic structures in New York state. It provides technical assistance, project management services, grants, and loans, to owne ...

found a place for them. The 23-story building at 317 Madison Avenue, on the corner with 42nd Street, was designed by

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was one of the outstanding American Beaux-Arts architecture firms. Located in New York City ...

and opened in 1922 as the Liggett Building. The Prudence Bond & Mortgage Building at Madison and 43rd, where Governor Al Smith once had gubernatorial campaign headquarters, dates to 1923. Two small structures along 43rd Street respectively housed "an Irish pub and a T.G.I. Friday's."

Pedestrian plaza

As part of the construction of One Vanderbilt, the section of Vanderbilt Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets was decommissioned in September 2016 and redesigned as a

pedestrian zone Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...

. Designed by

PWP Landscape Architecture Peter Walker is an American landscape architect and the founder of PWP Landscape Architecture. Early life Peter Walker the plaza covers . It measures long and wide, taking the entire width of the former roadbed of Vanderbilt Avenue. The Vanderbilt Avenue plaza contains five raised planters as well as LED lighting accents. Unlike other plazas in New York City, it lacks dedicated seating because the plaza was intended to facilitate pedestrian traffic rather than act as a meeting area.

Architecture

One Vanderbilt was designed by

Severud Associates Severud is a multinational structural engineering consulting firm headquartered in New York City, with additional offices in London and Paris. The firm has worked on over 12,000 projects around the world. History Severud was founded in the year 1 ...

was the structural engineer, Langan Engineering was the civil engineering consultant, and

Jaros, Baum & Bolles Jaros, Baum & Bolles (JB&B) is an American MEP (Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) and consulting engineering firm founded in 1915 by Alfred L. Jaros, Jr. and Albert L. Baum. The firm is best known for high-rise projects, including One World Trad ...

was the mechanical and electrical engineer. Structural consultant

Thornton Tomasetti Thornton Tomasetti (formerly the Thornton-Tomasetti Group, Thornton Tomasetti Engineers, Lev Zetlin & Associates, LZA Technology and Weidlinger Associates) is a global, 1,500-plus person scientific and engineering consulting firm. Services Tho ...

worked with Severud to create models for the building's superstructure.

Hines Interests Limited Partnership Hines Interests Limited Partnership is a privately held company that invests in and develops real estate. The company has developed, redeveloped or acquired 1,450 properties, comprising over 485 million square feet. The company currently manage ...

was the project manager, and

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 Constructi ...

was the general contractor. The skyscraper's top floor is numbered 73. According to

The Skyscraper Center 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 ...

and building permits, One Vanderbilt has 58 usable stories above ground, while according to

Emporis Emporis GmbH was a real estate data mining company that was headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022. On 12 Sept ...

and Hines, the building has 59 stories. Early plans called for a 67-story skyscraper. One Vanderbilt's roof is high; including its spire, it is tall. A building on the site would normally have been restricted to , but One Vanderbilt's developer

SL Green SL Green Realty Corp. is a real estate investment trust that primarily invests in office buildings and shopping centers in New York City. As of December 31, 2019, the company owned 43 properties comprising 14,438,964 square feet. Notable prope ...

was able to more than double this height with 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 ...

. SL Green had transferred some air rights from the Bowery Savings Building, and it received additional air rights from the New York City government by improving public transit and adding public space to the area. One Vanderbilt is the city's fourth-tallest building after

, 111 West 57th Street, and

. At completion, it was the second-tallest office building in the city after One World Trade Center, rising above the Chrysler Building. , the building is the 27th-tallest in the world. The building cost $3.31 billion in total.

Form and façade

One Vanderbilt is set back from the street to allow better views of Grand Central. On the bottom few floors, the top section of the facade slopes upward, while the bottom section slopes downward, creating a diagonal wedge. As a result, the lobby area on Vanderbilt Avenue (facing Grand Central) has a ceiling sloping from from west to east. Above the wedged base, the building tapers at higher levels. The building's shape allows more sunlight to reach street level compared to alternative designs. Several alternatives were considered before the shape was finalized. The facade consists mostly of a glass curtain wall with panels that extend from the floor to ceiling of each story. The curtain wall was fabricated by the Permasteelisa Group. According to Permasteelisa, the facade is made of 8,743 pieces in 1,060 distinct shapes, covering . Of these, about 660 panels are placed at the corners; they had to be manufactured in different shapes because the building slopes upward. There are two typical shapes of panels used in the facade: vision glass windows, which extend up to high, as well as ventilated

s between each story, which are made of

Boston Valley Terra Cotta manufactured the terracotta cladding. According to Permasteelisa, there are 34,845 terracotta tiles used in One Vanderbilt's facade. Studio Christine Jetten designed glazing for the terracotta tiles. The panels contain gradual concave curves and are pearl-colored. The tiles reference the color and material used in Grand Central Terminal. and alluded to the color of other office buildings on Madison Avenue. There are mechanical stories on the fourth, fifth, and twelfth floors. At these mechanical stories, there are vertical openings for intake and exhaust, which appear as though they are part of the glass curtain wall. The top of One Vanderbilt consists of a group of pavilions at different heights, which taper to the antenna. Between the main roof on the 60th floor and a point just above the 66th floor, there are "C"-shaped screens on the east and west sides, collectively known as "the crown". Diagonally sloped steel beams are visible on the exterior of the crown. The western section of the crown has aluminum accent strips on both the diagonal and horizontal beams. The eastern section of the crown has aluminum strips covering the diagonal beams and terracotta tiles covering the horizontal beams.

Structural features

The building rests on a

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 ...

measuring deep, with of concrete. The foundation contains of rebar and is anchored to the underlying

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

using 83 tiebacks. The underlying bedrock could support loads of . The columns at the perimeter of the foundations are supported on spread footings measuring as much as across and thick. The perimeter walls themselves are up to tall and are composed of concrete with a strength of . About of rock had to be excavated for the foundation. Because the base of One Vanderbilt is directly above the train tracks serving Grand Central, several large box columns had to be custom-designed for the building. One such column at the southeast corner does not contain bracing between the ground and sixth stories, allowing the southeast corner to be

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

ed. The superstructure consists of a steel-and-concrete mechanical core surrounded by a steel frame. The building uses more than of steel, manufactured by Bankers Steel, as well as of concrete. The steel was installed in the core first, with the concrete poured around it, which allowed the skyscraper to be constructed similarly to buildings without any concrete core. By the time Severud had published its "100% construction documents" that finalized the construction details, several stories of the steel frame had been erected. The method of construction allowed the steel inside the core to be erected six to twelve floors ahead of the concrete. At the base, the core walls are thick and can resist forces of . On higher stories, the core walls gradually decrease in strength to with a minimum thickness of . The rebar is made of 90 percent recycled material. One Vanderbilt Progress

Most floors do not contain interior columns, and the steel frame contains beams that span up to from the core. On the three mechanical levels, the concrete

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 around the core are reinforced by steel outrigger trusses. The office space requirements prevented lateral bracing or floor diaphragms from being used throughout much of the building, so many of the structural elements are unbraced for distances of up to . At the building's crown, the diagonal beams have a cross-section of , and the horizontal and vertical beams have a cross-section of . The top of the building is stabilized by a

tuned mass damper A tuned mass damper (TMD), also known as a harmonic absorber or seismic damper, is a device mounted in structures to reduce mechanical vibrations, consisting of a mass mounted on one or more damped springs. Its oscillation frequency is tuned ...

system weighing around or .

Interior

Commercial and office space

The interior spaces in One Vanderbilt are designed to be as high as . Underneath the building is a basement loading dock with a turntable, which is accessed by two truck elevators. The base includes a lobby covering . The interior of the lobby contains a bronze "art wall" and a starburst-shaped bronze installation suspended on metal cables.

was signed as the anchor tenant for the building, operating within a ground-floor space of . There are also of tenant amenities in the building's base, including tenant

valet parking Valet parking is a parking service offered by some restaurants, stores, and other businesses. In contrast to "self-parking", where customers find a parking space on their own, customers' vehicles are parked for them by a person called a ''valet ...

at ground level. On the second floor is

Daniel Boulud Daniel Boulud (born 25 March 1955 in Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu) is a French chef and restaurateur with restaurants in New York City, Palm Beach, Miami, Toronto, Montréal, Singapore, the Bahamas, the Berkshires and Dubai. He is best known f ...

's restaurant Le Pavillon, accessed by its own entrance from ground level. The restaurant space covers and contains a ceiling height of , with a main room and an auxiliary room. On the third floor is an auditorium, a boardroom, and a flexible meeting space known as the Vandy Club. The flexible space has showers for executives as well as pantries. The third-floor amenities were designed by

Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm founded in San Francisco, California, in 1965. In 2021, Gensler generated $1.235 billion in revenue, the most of any architecture firm in the U.S. As of 2021, Gensler operated offices in 49 citi ...

. The subsequent 58 floors contain of office space. There are fewer stories than in other skyscrapers of similar height because each story's ceiling is high. Because of the building's tapering shape, the office space on lower stories is larger than on upper stories. The lower office floors, spanning up to each, were designed for tenants who needed large amounts of open space, such as newsrooms and trading floors. The middle office floors, spanning , were designed for corporate tenants. The upper stories, covering , were designed for smaller firms such as hedge funds. In marketing documents, floors 10 to 15 are labeled as "podium floors", floors 20 to 38 as "executive floors", floors 44 to 55 as "tower floors", floors 60 to 68 as "penthouse floors", and floors 72 and 73 as "sky floors". The mechanical space on the 12th physical story contains a chiller plant and electrical transformers. One Vanderbilt was planned to be environmentally efficient from its inception. The building has its own

cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elec ...

plant capable of daily as well as a rainwater collection system with a capacity of . To reduce energy consumption, One Vanderbilt uses both waterside and airside

economizer Economizers (US and Oxford spelling), or economisers (UK), are mechanical devices intended to reduce energy consumption, or to perform useful function such as preheating a fluid. The term economizer is used for other purposes as well. Boiler, po ...

s, which use the natural temperature of the building's surroundings.

Summit One Vanderbilt

Above floor 73, the top of One Vanderbilt contains an observation deck called Summit One Vanderbilt (branded in all-uppercase letters as SUMMIT One Vanderbilt). Summit One Vanderbilt spans and contains some restaurants. In 2018, Summit One Vanderbilt was projected to cost approximately $35–39 million. , the adult ticket fee is $39, but New York City residents receive a discount. Summit One Vanderbilt consists of four components, the interiors of which are being designed by

Snøhetta Snøhetta is the highest mountain in the Dovrefjell mountain range in Norway. At , it is the highest mountain in Norway outside the Jotunheimen range, making it the 24th highest peak in Norway, based on a topographic prominence cutoff. At , ...

. The first part, "Rise", has three high-speed Schindler 7000 series elevators, which take visitors from the Grand Central Terminal level to the observation area above ground in less than 50 seconds. The second part, "Levitation", is composed of enclosed glass balconies that protrude from the facade. The third part, "Ascent", has two all-glass Cimolai Custom Rack-and-pinion outside elevators which bring visitors to the 100th floor of the skyscraper, the 93rd floor interior features a glass parapet and a bar. One space at Summit is an "infinity room" containing a ceiling tall. The bars are operated by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Events. Summit One Vanderbilt also contains an interactive art exhibit created by Kenzo Digital. According to a press release published in mid-2021, Summit One Vanderbilt also has a green space, advertised as the world's highest urban "alpine meadow".

Grand Central subway improvements

MTA Grand Opening of New Entrances to Grand Central from One Vanderbilt Avenue - 50698857996

One Vanderbilt's construction included improvements that would provide extra capacity for over 65,000 passengers going into 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 ...

Grand Central–42nd Street Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and commun ...

. The

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...

(MTA) mandated the station improvements in exchange for allowing the tower's construction. The improvements included an underground connection between Grand Central Terminal and One Vanderbilt; new mezzanines and exits for the subway station, including an entrance directly to the 42nd Street Shuttle platforms; three new stairways to each of the Lexington Avenue Line platforms (along the ); and reconfiguration of columns supporting the nearby

hotel. The project also includes a waiting room for a new terminal under Grand Central, being built for the Long Island Rail Road as part of the MTA's

East Side Access East Side Access (ESA) is a public works project in New York City that extended the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) from its Main Line in Queens into a new station under Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan's East Side. A project of the Metropol ...

project. A transit hall was created within One Vanderbilt itself to connect to the subway and railroad stations. In 2015,

gave $220 million toward the building's construction, of which two-thirds would be used for station redesign, marking the largest private investment in the subway system to date. The building's subway entrance opened on December 9, 2020. The improvements, which cost over $200 million, allow the subway station to accommodate 4,000 to 6,000 more passengers per hour.

History

Planning

Initial plans

Developer SL Green Realty began looking at sites for a new office tower in Midtown in the early 2000s. The company began buying buildings on the block bounded by Vanderbilt Avenue, 42nd Street, Madison Avenue, and 43rd Street. The first acquisition was in 2001, with 317 Madison Avenue. SL Green initially intended to renovate the building and increase the rents. When two adjacent buildings on the same block were placed for sale in 2007, these were also acquired. According to SL Green managing director Robert Schiffer, this prompted the company to decide on razing these three buildings and replacing them with a larger structure at the address One Vanderbilt Avenue. In 2011, SL Green was able to buy 51 East 42nd Street, the final property on the block. The four buildings themselves had cost $300 million in total, but SL Green still had to acquire over 150 leases in them. SL Green also owned the Bowery Savings Bank Building at 110 East 42nd Street, and it had transferred some

from the Bowery Savings Bank Building to the One Vanderbilt Avenue site in 2010. Under the zoning rules at the time, a structure on the latter block could not be taller than about . The site allowed an "as-of-right"

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) of up to 15, but with the Bowery Savings Bank's air rights and several development bonuses, SL Green could obtain a FAR of up to 20.7. This was not enough for SL Green, which required a FAR of 30 for the skyscraper to be profitable. SL Green and Hines met with 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 ...

(DCP) in late 2012 to determine which features the planned One Vanderbilt Avenue skyscraper could have. The discussions influenced SL Green to include public indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as a distinctive design, as the DCP mandated. SL Green hired

as the planned skyscraper's architect that November. Sketches published early the following month indicated that the skyscraper would be called "One Vanderbilt". In late 2013, the administration of outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought to change

regulations for 73 blocks adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. The plan would allow unused air rights above Grand Central Terminal to be transferred to developments on these blocks, including the proposed One Vanderbilt. Under the proposal, developers of structures on these blocks could deposit money into an improvement fund for East Midtown and, in exchange, receive a FAR of up to 24. Some sites would be eligible for a FAR of up to 30. The zoning provision would permit One Vanderbilt to obtain the desired FAR of 30. Bloomberg withdrew his plans that November because residents, preservationists, and local politicians complained about the prospective influx of office workers to the area. After the rezoning proposal failed, SL Green's CEO Marc Holliday said he was unsure if he would proceed with the development of One Vanderbilt. Despite this, the design features of the planned skyscraper were retained.

Revival of plans

When Bill de Blasio succeeded Bloomberg as mayor in 2014, he wished to implement Bloomberg's Midtown East rezoning proposal. That May,

announced its interest in expanding offices within New York City, focusing in particular on the delayed One Vanderbilt development, where it could be an anchor tenant. The following week, SL Green officially revived its plans for One Vanderbilt. Mayor de Blasio's administration proposed rezoning the area around Vanderbilt Avenue to allow One Vanderbilt to be constructed. Unlike Bloomberg's proposal, which would have converted all of Vanderbilt Avenue to a pedestrian plaza, de Blasio's proposal only called for the conversion of a short section outside One Vanderbilt. Demolition for 1 Vanderbilt at 43 & Vanderbilt jeh

Demolition for 1 Vanderbilt at 43 & Vanderbilt jeh

Since Grand Central Terminal was a

New York City designated landmark 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 ...

, 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) had to endorse development around the terminal. SL Green thus applied to the LPC for a "certificate of appropriateness" regarding the transfer of air rights from the Bowery Savings Bank Building. At a hearing in July 2014, the LPC endorsed One Vanderbilt's construction, though 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 ...

and the Society for the Architecture of the City both expressed strong opposition. In exchange for further increases to the FAR, and thus the building's height, SL Green proposed transit improvements around Grand Central in September 2014. At public hearings for the proposed transit improvements, neighborhood residents questioned the high price of the improvements, which was quoted at $210 million. Conversely, transit experts stated that the cost of the improvements was justified due to the amount of work that was necessary. Shortly after One Vanderbilt's plans were revived, Andrew Penson—the founder of Midtown TDR Ventures, which owned the land under Grand Central Terminal—threatened to sue for $1 billion in a dispute concerning the air rights above the terminal's underground tracks. In its September 2014 proposal to the city, SL Green proposed to pay $400 per square foot for the air rights, then build a , 67-story building, twice as big as the zoning rules permitted. Penson proposed paying SL Green $400 million for of air rights, and he also proposed assuming the $210 million cost of the transit improvements SL Green planned to make. Penson valued the air rights at up to , nearly 10 times the he paid when he bought the station in 2006. SL Green rejected Penson's offer as a "publicity stunt". By October 2014, One Vanderbilt was projected to be high. The following month, TD Bank signed a lease at the building, officially becoming an anchor tenant. Disputes over the proposed transit improvements at One Vanderbilt continued. That December, an advisory task force composed of two local community boards indicated that it would oppose the improvements unless the building's energy efficiency was increased and one of the Grand Central entrances was relocated. In January 2015, Manhattan Borough President

Gale Brewer Gale Arnot Brewer (born September 6, 1951) is an American Democratic politician from the state of New York who has represented the 6th New York City Council District since January 2022, a position she previously held from 2002 to 2013. From Janu ...

endorsed the project with several stipulations, including benches and restrooms in the proposed transit hall, as well as a requirement that SL Green maintain the plaza on Vanderbilt Avenue. Public hearings on the proposed rezoning of One Vanderbilt proceeded the next month.

Constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

lawyer

Laurence Tribe Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is an American legal scholar who is a University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. He previously served as the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School. A constitutional law sc ...

testified against the proposal on behalf of Penson, under the argument that SL Green had taken Grand Central's air rights from the city rather than purchasing them from Penson. In March 2015, the DCP approved the Vanderbilt Avenue rezoning as well as SL Green's proposal for One Vanderbilt.

Construction

The Vanderbilt Avenue rezoning received unanimous approval from the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...

in May 2015, following an endorsement by the council's zoning subcommittee. Immediately afterward, SL Green announced it would start demolishing structures on the site. During demolition of one of the buildings that July, a chandelier and a banister fell on four construction workers who were taking down the chandelier, injuring them. By the following month, some excavations had begun. With excavation ongoing, in September 2015, SL Green filed construction plans for a tower, slightly shorter than what had been announced the previous year. The same month, Penson sued the city and SL Green for $1.1 billion, claiming that the city government had given SL Green the air rights over Grand Central for free. Midtown TDR dropped the lawsuit in August 2016 in exchange for an undisclosed sum. At a forum in June 2016, SL Green had indicated that the building could cost about $3.14 billion. That month, a consortium of banks including

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 Bank of New York Mellon 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 Finan ...

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 ...

Toronto-Dominion Bank Toronto-Dominion Bank (french: links=no, Banque Toronto-Dominion), doing business as TD Bank Group (french: links=no, Groupe Banque TD), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. T ...

Bank of China The Bank of China (BOC; ) is a Chinese majority state-owned commercial bank headquartered in Beijing and the fourth largest bank in the world. The Bank of China was founded in 1912 by the Republican government as China's central bank, repl ...

, and

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) is a universal bank and the Landesbank for some Federal States of Germany (Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Sachsen). As of 2018, it is Germany's biggest state-backed landesbank lender. LBBW is a full-serv ...

offered a $1.5 billion, five-year loan for the tower's construction. The loan was finalized that September. The following month, general contractor AECOM Tishman subcontracted the construction of One Vanderbilt to Navillus Tile for $135.9 million.

Liberty Mutual Liberty Mutual Group is an American diversified global insurer and the sixth-largest property and casualty insurer in the United States. It ranks 71st on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the United States based on 2020 revenue. B ...

was the

guarantor In finance, a surety , surety bond or guaranty involves a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults. Usually, a surety bond or surety is a promise by a surety or guarantor to pa ...

for the contract. An official

occurred on October 18, 2016. At the ceremony, de Blasio described One Vanderbilt as the "right kind" of development in East Midtown, while Brewer said the planned skyscraper had "set the bar very high" for other new developments nearby. No other tenants besides TD Bank had yet signed leases for space in One Vanderbilt. That December, plans for the building's observation deck were announced. In January 2017, South Korea's

National Pension Service The National Pension Service of Korea (NPS; ) is a public pension fund in South Korea. It is the third largest in the world with $800 billion in assets, and is the largest investor in South Korea. South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS), w ...

and development firm Hines Interests Limited Partnership paid a combined $525 million for a 27.6% and 1.4% stake in the development, respectively. At the time, SL Green projected that One Vanderbilt would earn $198 million annually, including $42 million from the observation deck alone. Foundation laying started the next month. The work included one of the largest continuous concrete pours to ever take place in New York City. By that June, the skyscraper's first vertical beams had been constructed. One Vanderbilt's superstructure reached above ground level in October 2017. The following month, Navillus filed for bankruptcy, and Tishman moved to end its subcontract with Navillus, though work on the skyscraper continued. In January 2018, Tishman, SL Green, and Liberty Mutual agreed to let Navillus complete the subcontract for One Vanderbilt's construction. One Vanderbilt's construction proceeded faster than originally scheduled and, by February 2018, the tower had been completed to the ninth floor. By June of the same year, the tower had reached the sixteenth floor. Facade installation began in August 2018, at which point the structure had passed the 30th floor, or more than half its eventual height. By November, the structure had reached the 56th floor, high enough to provide views above neighboring buildings. Around that time, SL Green refinanced the construction loan, increasing it to $1.75 billion and reducing the interest rate. The building topped out on September 17, 2019.

Completion

At the end of 2019, SL Green announced that the building was expected to open the following August. Shortly afterward, the top part of the spire was temporarily removed so construction cranes could add cladding to the crown. The building's completion was delayed slightly in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. By that June, the building was 67 percent leased in spite of the pandemic. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, One Vanderbilt's leasing agents had sought for the building to be 82 percent leased by the end of 2020; however, the agents revised their forecast to 72 percent. The

New York City Department of Buildings The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is the department of the New York City government that enforces the city's building codes and zoning regulations, issues building permits, licenses, registers and disciplines certain construction ...

issued a temporary

certificate of occupancy Certificate may refer to: * Birth certificate * Marriage certificate * Death certificate * Gift certificate * Certificate of authenticity, a document or seal certifying the authenticity of something * Certificate of deposit, or CD, a financial p ...

for One Vanderbilt on September 11, 2020. One Vanderbilt was formally opened with a ceremony three days later, on September 14. At the time, tenant spaces were incomplete and the first tenants could not move into the building until that November. The Le Pavillon restaurant at the building's base opened in May 2021. The following month, a banking consortium led by Wells Fargo and

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

refinanced One Vanderbilt for about $3 billion. The refinancing included a 10-year, fixed-rate loan using

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 ...

and was intended to pay off part of the $1.75 billion debt incurred during construction. By July 2021, SL Green was advertising the top two floors at rates of up to , the highest office rents in the city. Ticket sales for Summit One Vanderbilt launched in September 2021, a month before the planned October 21 opening, and a press preview was held on September 24. The building was 90 percent leased by October 2021; 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, Nik ...

'' quoted Holliday as saying he wished the building "had 20 more floors because if edid we could lease them". Summit One Vanderbilt opened on October 21 of that year.

Tenants

To attract tenants to One Vanderbilt, SL Green offered to pay off their old leases, such as that of

The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and ...

, whose lease SL Green paid off for around $100 million. , the building is 90 percent leased. Tenants include: * Lobby and anchor tenant: FL 14, 20, 21, 22, 23

* 2nd floor: Le Pavillon restaurant * 10th–12th floors: TD Securities * 15th–16th floors: Oak Hill Advisors * 24th floor: Accordion Partners, InTandem Capital Partners, and Sagewind Capital LLC * 26th floor:

DZ Bank DZ Bank AG () is the second largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for around 800 cooperative banks and their around 8,500 branch offices. Within the German Cooperative Financial Group, which is one of Germany's la ...

* 27th–28th floors:

* 29th–31st floors:

Greenberg Traurig Greenberg Traurig is a multinational law firm founded in Miami in 1967. As of 2022, the Greenberg Traurig is the 9th largest law firm in the United States. The firm has 43 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and ...

* 33rd floor: Walker & Dunlop * 34th–38th floors:

* 44th–47th, 67th floors:

McDermott Will & Emery McDermott Will & Emery is an international law firm with a diversified business practice. The firm is one of the largest grossing law firms in the US and globally, and its lawyers represent a wide range of commercial, industrial and financial e ...

* 48th floor: MFA Financial * 51st floor: Mamoura Holdings * 52nd floor:

KPS Capital Partners KPS Capital Partners is an American investment company that manages KPS Special Situation Funds, a family of investment funds. KPS specifically invests out of two funds raised in October 2019: KPS Special Situations Fund V ($6.12 billion) and KPS ...

* 55th floor: Undisclosed financial service firm * 60th floor:

UiPath UiPath is a global software company that makes robotic process automation (RPA) software. It was founded in Bucharest, Romania, by Daniel Dines and Marius Tîrcă. Its headquarters are in New York City. The company's software monitors user acti ...

, a software company for robotic process automation * 62nd floor: FIS Global * 73rd floor: GFL Environmental * Four unidentified floors:

Stone Ridge Asset Management In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's o ...

Critical reception

Writing for '' The Real Deal'' magazine in December 2015, James Gardiner said the proposal "does not feel as striking or impressive as one could want", in that it failed to stand out in any way other than its height.

Justin Davidson Justin Davidson (born in Rome, Italy, in 1966) is a classical music and architecture critic. In 1983, he graduated from the American Overseas School of Rome, where his mother was an English teacher. Davidson began his journalism career as a loc ...

of ''New York'' magazine described One Vanderbilt as a rare "civic-minded Goliath" in that, while other skyscrapers are usually built in a design that maximizes profit, One Vanderbilt's base is designed for easier pedestrian and transit access in the nearby area.

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1 Vanderbilt 2020 establishments in New York City 2020s in Manhattan 42nd Street (Manhattan) Kohn Pedersen Fox buildings Madison Avenue Midtown Manhattan Office buildings completed in 2020 Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan