The Grant USA Tower was a proposed 121-story skyscraper planned for

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

by developer Harry Grant. Harry Grant was an Iraqi-born developer who was based out of New Jersey who financed the gold dome on top of

Newark City Hall Newark City Hall is located at Government Center in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The building was built in 1902 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 17, 1978. History The building is a five- ...

The tower was to be located over the old Central Railroad of New Jersey's Newark and New York Railroad Terminal, near Broad and Lafayette Street. In 2007, the incomplete Renaissance Mall was torn down to build the Prudential Center. The old and unused part of the train station below, which was to serve as the foundation of the tower, remains in place. There are currently plans to connect the old portion of the train station with the Prudential Center, with the idea of turning it into a museum.Star Ledger Archives October 24, 2007
/ref> Had it been completed as planned by 1986, it would have contained the tallest hotel, and would have been the

tallest building This list of tallest buildings includes skyscrapers with continuously occupiable floors and a height of at least . Nonbuilding structure, Non-building structures, such as towers, are not included in this list (for these, see ''List of tallest ...

and the

tallest structure The tallest structure in the world is the Burj Khalifa skyscraper at . Listed are guyed masts (such as telecommunication masts), self-supporting towers (such as the CN Tower), skyscrapers (such as the Willis Tower), oil platforms, electricity t ...

at the time.

Description

The proposed 1,750 foot, 121-story tower was to be clad in "dollar green" glass, topped by a golden

American bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

statue atop a flagpole, and large gold letters spelling out "USA" at the peak. The tower was to contain over 3 million square feet of office space, a hotel, convention facilities, and a promenade with an ice skating rink. There were plans for a 21-floor atrium above the 121st floor, which would have been the top floor of the hotel component. Grant also proposed a privately-financed, 125-seat

monorail A monorail (from "mono", meaning "one", and "rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, ...

system that would have run from the tower to the

Newark Liberty International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport , originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union Count ...

. The tower was to be built on the block bounded by Broad, Lafayette, Edison, and Mulberry Street, purchased by Grant for $1.2 million in a city auction in 1985. Construction on the first component of the project, the 5-story, 250,000 square-foot Renaissance Mall, was underway in 1989. The mall was to feature an international food court, a floating piano bar, office space, and

horse and buggy ] A horse and buggy (in American English) or horse and carriage (in British English and American English) refers to a light, simple, two-person carriage of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, drawn usually by one or sometimes by two ho ...

rides around downtown Newark. An accompanying 30-story tower called "Grant USA I", was to be connected to the mall via skyway.

References

{{coord, 40.732755, -74.172242, display=title Unbuilt buildings and structures in the United States Skyscrapers in Newark, New Jersey