Midtown Manhattan

Esse dolor temporibu

Dec 17, 2024 - 13:24
 0  24
Midtown Manhattan
In reprehenderit cor
1271 Avenue of the Americas
Facade of 1271 Avenue of the Americas as seen from beside it
Map
Former names Time & Life Building
General information
Status Completed
Type Office
Location Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Coordinates 40°45′38″N 73°58′52″W
Construction started 1957
Completed 1960
Opening October 1959
Cost $70 million
Owner Rockefeller Group
(Mitsubishi Group)
Management Rockefeller Group
Height
Roof 587 ft (179 m)
Technical details
Floor count 48[a]
Floor area 1,400,000 sq ft (130,000 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s) Wallace Harrison of Harrison, Abramovitz, and Harris
Main contractor George A. Fuller Company
Designated July 16, 2002[1]
Reference no. 2119[1]
Designated entity Ground-floor interior

1271 Avenue of the Americas (formerly known as the Time & Life Building) is a 48-story skyscraper[a] on Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), between 50th and 51st streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by architect Wallace Harrison of Harrison, Abramovitz, and Harris, the building was developed between 1956 and 1960 as part of Rockefeller Center.

The building's eight-story base partially wraps around its 48-story main tower. Both sections are surrounded by a plaza, which has white-and-gray pavement in a serpentine pattern, as well as water fountains. The facade consists of glass panels between limestone columns. The lobby contains serpentine floors, white-marble and stainless-steel walls, and reddish-burgundy glass ceilings, in addition to artwork by Josef Albers, Fritz Glarner, and Francis Brennan. The ground floor also includes storefronts and originally housed La Fonda del Sol, a Latin American–themed restaurant. Each of the upper floors covers 28,000 sq ft (2,600 m2), with the offices arranged around the core. The 48th floor originally contained the Hemisphere Club, which operated as a members-only restaurant during the day and was open to the public during evenings.

After Time Inc. expressed its intention to move from 1 Rockefeller Plaza in the 1950s, Rockefeller Center's owners proposed a skyscraper at 1271 Avenue of the Americas to accommodate the move. Construction started in May 1957; the building was topped out during November 1958, and occupants began moving into their offices in late 1959. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the lobby as a city landmark in 2002. Time Inc. vacated 1271 Avenue of the Americas in 2015, and the building was subsequently renovated between 2015 and 2019.

Site

1271 Avenue of the Americas is on the western side of Sixth Avenue (officially Avenue of the Americas[2]), between 50th and 51st streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.[3][4] The land lot is rectangular and covers 82,340 sq ft (7,650 m2).[3] The site has a frontage of 410 ft (120 m) on 50th and 51st streets and a frontage of 200 ft (61 m) on Sixth Avenue.[3][5] Nearby buildings include The Michelangelo to the west, Axa Equitable Center to the northwest, 75 Rockefeller Plaza to the northeast, Radio City Music Hall to the east, 30 Rockefeller Plaza to the southeast, and 1251 Avenue of the Americas to the south.[3]

Prior to the development of 1271 Avenue of the Americas, much of the site had previously served as a New York Railways Company trolley barn,[6][7] which in turn was replaced by a parking lot.[8] There was also a four-story building facing Sixth Avenue and a collection of single-story shops on 50th Street.[8][7] Rockefeller Center Inc. bought the plots on 50th and 51st streets in the first week of August 1953,[9][10] followed by those on Sixth Avenue the next week.[11][12] One building on the site reportedly cost $2 million after its owner had held out.[13] Rockefeller Center's managers originally wanted to build an NBC studio or a Ford vehicle showroom on the site.[14]

Architecture

The building was designed by Harrison & Abramovitz, a firm led by Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz.[4] It was constructed by John Lowry and the George A. Fuller Company.[15][16] Syska Hennessy was hired as the mechanical engineering firm, and Edwards & Hjorth was the structural engineering firm.[17][18][19]

1271 Avenue of the Americas was planned as a 48-story tower,[20] rising 587 feet (179 m)[21] and measuring around 310 by 104 ft (94 by 32 m).[22][23][b] The tower is flanked by shorter segments with setbacks at the third and eighth stories.[24] The north and west edges of the tower are flanked by a seven-story section of the base.[7][20][a] An auditorium designed by Gio Ponti, with colored triangles, was installed on the eighth-floor setback.[25] The neighboring Roxy Theatre was acquired as part of the building's development,[26] allowing the building's floor area to be increased under the limits set by the 1916 Zoning Resolution.[15][27] A provision under the 1916 Zoning Resolution had allowed structures to rise without setbacks above a given level if all subsequent stories covered no more than 25 percent of the land lot.[28][c]

Facade

1271 Avenue of the Americas' facade is made mostly of glass, which at the time of the building's construction cost the same as a wall made mostly of limestone. The use of a glass facade permitted a higher degree of flexibility on each story compared to a limestone wall of the same size.[22] Before the current facade design was selected, several alternatives were considered. Time Inc. wanted a flush exterior wall, but this was rejected because exterior columns would protrude into the floor area. Another alternative called for an accordion-shaped wall: The windows would have sloped inward, and the spandrel panels between the windows on each story would have sloped outward. The accordion wall, which would have been framed by flat columns, was infeasible because it reduced floor area, required modifications to the drapes and air-conditioning, and was not aesthetically desirable to the architects.[30]

At ground level, there is a canopy over the 51st Street entrance.[31] The rest of the tower has a glass curtain wall.[32][31][d] On all stories, the facade includes structural columns with limestone cladding.[7][30] The limestone columns frame the glass curtain wall and also serve as an architectural allusion to the other buildings at Rockefeller Center.[33][34] In addition, more than 40,000 ft (12,000 m) of stainless-steel flashing was placed on the facade. The stainless-steel flashing was meant to last for as long as the building existed; on the setbacks at the base, the flashing was buried inside corners along the roof deck.[35]

The limestone columns are spaced every 28 ft (8.5 m).[22][30][36] There are five vertical bays of windows between each set of limestone columns. Each bay has two narrow aluminum mullions flanking the center pane and two larger air-conditioning risers along the outer panes.[36][37] Originally, each glass pane measured 52 in (1,300 mm) wide and 56 in (1,400 mm) tall.[22] The spandrels between the windows on different stories consist of a 0.25 in-thick (6.4 mm) plate, behind which is a screen made of aluminum mesh. The mechanical pipes and ducts, as well as the floor slabs, are hidden behind the spandrels.[22][30] The windows were planned as square panes, but the window sills were lowered during the design process so they were only 2.5 ft (0.76 m) above each floor slab. Each spandrel was then covered by a regular glass pane.[30] In the late 2010s, new low-emissivity glazed panels with thermal breaks were installed.[31]

Plaza

The eastern part of the site was planned with a plaza.[15][16][17] The plaza measures 170 ft (52 m) long and 83 ft (25 m) wide and is flanked by the eight-story base.[7][18] The southern part of the site also has a promenade that is about 30 ft (9.1 m) wide.[23] The plaza has pavers in a serpentine pattern, similar to those found on the sidewalks of Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach.[38][39][40] According to the architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern, the pavement was "an illustration of the 'good neighbor' ideals of the Avenue of the Americas Association".[41] Harrison believed the pavers would bring variety to the building's design. The original pavers, designed by Port Morris Tile & Marble Corporation, were removed in 2001 because they were too slippery; the same company reproduced the pattern in rougher terrazzo.[39] In the late 2010s, the sidewalk pattern was extended from the lot line to the curb line.[32]

A seating parapet in the plaza surrounded a reflecting pool with four jets,[41][42] measuring about 110 by 30 ft (33.5 by 9.1 m).[42][43][e] Another six pools, measuring 33.5 by 6 ft (10.2 by 1.8 m) each, were placed within the plaza.[42][43] Each pool had a mat made of lead for waterproofing, which in turn was covered by cement and terrazzo.[44] Trees and shrubs were originally also planted on the 50th Street side, while three flagpoles were placed on the section of the plaza facing Sixth Avenue.[42] After the late 2010s renovation, the original decorations were replaced. The new decorations included five pools with fountain jets on Sixth Avenue, in addition to planting beds and seating areas.[45] Also within the plaza is an entrance to the New York City Subway's 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station, serving the B, ​D, ​F, <F>, and ​M trains.[46]

In 1972, the Association for a Better New York hired William Crovello to create a sculpture at the building called Cubed Curve,[47][48] measuring 8 feet (2.4 m) wide and 12 feet (3.7 m) wide.[49] The sculpture was inspired by a fluid brush stroke.[50] According to The New York Times, the sculpture marked Time Inc.'s "presence at the center of the media universe".[51] It was moved in 2018 to Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, while the building was being renovated.[52]

What's Your Reaction?

like

dislike

love

funny

angry

sad

wow