The Zeckendorf Towers, sometimes also called One Irving Place and One Union Square East, is a , 29-story, four-towered

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

complex on the eastern side of Union Square, Manhattan, 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 ...

. Completed in 1987, the building is located on the former site of the bargain-priced department store S. Klein. Designed by architectural firm

Davis, Brody & Associates Davis Brody Bond is an American architectural firm headquartered in New York City, New York, with additional offices in Washington, DC and São Paulo, Brazil. The firm is named for Lewis Davis, Samuel Brody, and J. Max Bond Jr. and is ...

, and named in honor of prominent American

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re- lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to othe ...

William Zeckendorf William Zeckendorf Sr. (June 30, 1905 – September 30, 1976) was a prominent American real estate developer. Through his development company Webb and Knapp — for which he began working in 1938 and which he purchased in 1949 — he developed ...

, it was one of New York City's most important development projects of the 1980s.

Architecture

The towers are clad in red brick and the window frames are arranged to give vertical accents, while the fifth and top floors of the office portion of the base have arched windows. The top of the 29-story towers are each capped with screens in the forms of pyramids that are illuminated at night providing a notable contrast to the illuminated clocktower of the Con Ed Building just across

Irving Place Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated as "Lex", is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street. Along its ...

Green roof

The of outdoor space on the building's seventh floor, formerly an undistinguished rooftop filled with potted plants, make up the largest residential

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 draina ...

in New York. The roof was transformed in 2010 as part of Mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...

's NYC Green Infrastructure campaign. The planted roof also serves to capture some of the rain that falls on it rather than letting it run off and contribute to flooding in 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 ...

14th Street–Union Square station The 14th Street–Union Square station is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the BMT Broadway Line, the BMT Canarsie Line and the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. It is located at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and 14th Street, ...

below it.One Union Square East Opens City's Largest Residential Green Roof
Zeckendorf Towers press release of November 15, 2010.

History

The full-block complex with its 670 apartments was built just before the renaissance of Union Square Park in the 1990s and became a part of the emergence of

Park Avenue South Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington A ...

and the

Flatiron District The Flatiron District is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, named after the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street, Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Generally, the Flatiron District is bounded by 14th Street, Union Square and Gre ...

as a rather chic neighborhood. The design by

did not originally capture much support from the public or the architectural press. At the time,

preservationist Preservationist is generally understood to mean ''historic preservationist'': one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects, or sites from demolition or degradation. Historic preservation us ...

s began to draw the public's attention to the S. Klein site's architecture, which included the former Union Square Hotel, designed by

James Renwick Jr. James Renwick Jr. (born November 11, 1818, Bloomingdale, in Upper Manhattan, New York City – June 23, 1895, New York City) was an American architect in the 19th century. ''The Encyclopedia of American Architecture'' calls him "one of the most ...

, architect of many

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

buildings, including St. Patrick's Cathedral. To realize the Zeckendorf plan, the site needed to be rezoned, a move that was rigorously opposed by the Union Square Coalition, a group largely made up of newer residents who had moved into lofts and apartments and feared the impact of real estate speculation on their rented homes. In order to receive final plan approval, the building which was originally planned as a single tower was scaled down in order to better fit in with the neighborhood. In addition,

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

s serving the subway station were built as a public benefit in exchange for approvals to develop the site. As part of the deal, the Zeckendorf Towers condominium association was responsible for the machinery's maintenance.Developers in New York Try to Ease Prickly Relations
The New York Times, March 15, 2011.

References

External links

Zeckendorf Towers
official website. Archived fro
the original
on October 14, 2011. {{Union Square, Manhattan Buildings and structures completed in 1987 Apartment buildings in New York City Residential skyscrapers in Manhattan 14th Street (Manhattan) Union Square, Manhattan 1987 establishments in New York City

Architecture

Green roof

History

See also

References

External links