182-479: The Engineering Societies' Building , also known as 25 West 39th Street , is a commercial building at 25–33 West 39th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City . Located one block south of Bryant Park , it was constructed in 1907 along with the adjoining Engineers' Club . The building was designed by Herbert D. Hale , of the firm Hale & Rogers , along with Henry G. Morse , in
364-499: A Ruhmkorff coil with a high speed alternator he had been developing as part of an improved arc lighting system but found that the high-frequency current overheated the iron core and melted the insulation between the primary and secondary windings in the coil. To fix this problem Tesla came up with his "oscillating transformer", with an air gap instead of insulating material between the primary and secondary windings and an iron core that could be moved to different positions in or out of
546-617: A cold cathode electrical discharge tube. Tesla may have inadvertently captured an X-ray image—predating, by a few weeks, Wilhelm Röntgen 's December 1895 announcement of the discovery of X-rays—when he tried to photograph Mark Twain illuminated by a Geissler tube , an earlier type of gas discharge tube. The only thing captured in the image was the metal locking screw on the camera lens. In March 1896, after hearing of Röntgen's discovery of X-ray and X-ray imaging ( radiography ), Tesla proceeded to do his own experiments in X-ray imaging, developing
728-403: A commutator , thus avoiding sparking and the high maintenance of constantly servicing and replacing mechanical brushes. Along with getting the motor patented, Peck and Brown arranged to get the motor publicized, starting with independent testing to verify it was a functional improvement, followed by press releases sent to technical publications for articles to run concurrently with the issue of
910-779: A thermo-magnetic motor idea, they agreed to back the inventor financially and handle his patents. Together they formed the Tesla Electric Company in April 1887, with an agreement that profits from generated patents would go 1 ⁄ 3 to Tesla, 1 ⁄ 3 to Peck and Brown, and 1 ⁄ 3 to fund development. They set up a laboratory for Tesla at 89 Liberty Street in Manhattan, where he worked on improving and developing new types of electric motors, generators, and other devices. In 1887, Tesla developed an induction motor that ran on alternating current (AC),
1092-407: A 150-spot garage with a vehicle lift. The renovation was designed by Wechsler & Schimenti. Structural engineer Eugene Ho determined the existing columns to be strong enough to support the weight of new floor slabs. Women's clothing retailer Lane Bryant leased the 15th and 16th stories in 1964. The building was resold in 1969 to a client represented by Armand Lindenbaum, who paid $ 2.7 million. At
1274-481: A 1907 article described it. The Conference Committee launched an architectural design competition in April 1904, giving $ 1,000 each (about $ 27,232 in 2023) to six longstanding architecture firms who submitted plans. Other architects were allowed to submit plans anonymously and without compensation. Any architect was eligible if they had actually practiced architecture under their real name for at least two years. The four best plans from non-invited architects would receive
1456-407: A 2 in long (51 mm) terra-cotta block to prevent moisture from being driven through the walls. The fourteenth to sixteenth stories are supported by four columns resting directly on the underlying layer of bedrock. The building has 208,000 sq ft (19,300 m) of interior space. There were three passenger elevators, surrounded by an iron grille lined with wire glass. On each side of
1638-400: A balcony and an aedicular stone doorway, topped by a triangular pediment with a frieze and console brackets . The rest of each arch contains a glass-and-iron frame, as well as a console bracket above the center and carved fronds at the corner spandrels . The three arches are separated from each other by pairs of Doric -style columns, while the outer arches are flanked by a Doric column and
1820-628: A bonus he did not receive, either for redesigning generators or for the arc lighting system that was shelved. Tesla had previous run-ins with the Edison company over unpaid bonuses he believed he had earned. In his autobiography, Tesla stated the manager of the Edison Machine Works offered a $ 50,000 bonus to design "twenty-four different types of standard machines" "but it turned out to be a practical joke". Later versions of this story have Thomas Edison himself offering and then reneging on
2002-500: A building for the shared use of several societies. This plan did not pass. On February 9, 1903, Carnegie attended a dinner for the AIEE's library, where the institute's president talked about the need for a shared engineering societies' clubhouse. Carnegie then talked with AIEE president Charles F. Scott and board chairman Calvin W. Rice over the idea of a new clubhouse. Five days after that dinner, Carnegie agreed to donate $ 1 million for
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#17327724679802184-646: A collection of early notes and research material, models, and demonstration pieces, including many that had been exhibited at the 1893 Worlds Colombian Exposition. Tesla told The New York Times "I am in too much grief to talk. What can I say?". After the fire Tesla moved to 46 & 48 East Houston Street and rebuilt his lab on the 6th and 7th floors. Starting in 1894, Tesla began investigating what he referred to as radiant energy of "invisible" kinds after he had noticed damaged film in his laboratory in previous experiments (later identified as "Roentgen rays" or " X-rays "). His early experiments were with Crookes tubes ,
2366-433: A college education or higher. The percentage of Midtown Manhattan students excelling in math rose from 61% in 2000 to 80% in 2011 and reading achievement increased from 66% to 68% during the same time period. Midtown Manhattan's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is lower than the rest of New York City. In Midtown Manhattan, 19% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year , less than
2548-820: A combined $ 100 million. In 2005, he sold the building to Crown Acquisitions and the Chetrit and Nakashe families for $ 53 million. His brand consolidated its showrooms at the Starrett–Lehigh Building in Chelsea, Manhattan , but had the right to occupy the building through June 2006. After the sale to Crown Acquisitions, three of the upper stories were leased to fashion brand 7 for all Mankind , fashion designer Rachel Roy , and watch company Movado . Clothing firm Polo Ralph Lauren leased three stories in 2007 and expanded to another story two years later. Thor Equities itself used 25 West 39th Street as its headquarters. Per
2730-712: A congratulatory letter to the United Engineering Societies, and the societies thanked Carnegie for his gift. The next day, April 17, the presidents of each society gave speeches and medals were given to society members. The ASME, AIEE, and AIME hosted their first events over the next two days. The Engineering Societies' Building and the Engineers' Club Building quickly became part of an engineering hub in Midtown Manhattan, with both national and international conferences being held there. One of
2912-527: A considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed. Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators /generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging . He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and
3094-585: A contract to Westinghouse Electric for building a two-phase AC generating system at the Niagara Falls, based on Tesla's advice and Westinghouse's demonstration at the Columbian Exposition. At the same time, a further contract was awarded to General Electric to build the AC distribution system. In 1895, Edward Dean Adams, impressed with what he saw when he toured Tesla's lab, agreed to help found
3276-408: A demonstration he had previously performed throughout America and Europe; these included using high-voltage, high-frequency alternating current to light wireless gas-discharge lamps . An observer noted: Within the room were suspended two hard-rubber plates covered with tin foil. These were about fifteen feet apart and served as terminals of the wires leading from the transformers. When the current
3458-514: A ditch digger for $ 2 per day. Later in life Tesla recounted that part of 1886 as a time of hardship, writing "My high education in various branches of science, mechanics and literature seemed to me like a mockery". In late 1886, Tesla met Alfred S. Brown, a Western Union superintendent, and New York attorney Charles Fletcher Peck. The two men were experienced in setting up companies and promoting inventions and patents for financial gain. Based on Tesla's new ideas for electrical equipment, including
3640-496: A five-person committee in April 1955 to select a site and obtain financing. In response, the city and state governments of New York tried to convince the societies to stay within New York City. By June 1956, the societies had voted against relocating out of the city. They were considering constructing an entrance from 40th Street on property owned by the Engineers' Club. A joint committee, consisting of three members each from
3822-485: A footbridge, which connected to the tenth story of the Engineers' Club Building. The twelfth and thirteenth floors were used as the libraries of the three founding societies and for other engineering collections. The twelfth floor contained the stacks , while the thirteenth floor had a reading room with stacks, a delivery desk, reading tables, and chairs. Additionally, space was reserved for working alcoves and activities such as photographic reproduction and drawing. Media of
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#17327724679804004-506: A frustrating period because of conflicts with the other Westinghouse engineers over how best to implement AC power. Between them, they settled on a 60-cycle AC system that Tesla proposed (to match the working frequency of Tesla's motor), but they soon found that it would not work for streetcars, since Tesla's induction motor could run only at a constant speed. They ended up using a DC traction motor instead. Tesla's demonstration of his induction motor and Westinghouse's subsequent licensing of
4186-511: A fundraiser in 1928 to raise money for scientific research and to expand the library. The building also hosted conventions, such as for the electrical industry and for the mining and metallurgical industry. By the 1950s, the Engineering Societies' and Engineers' Club buildings were becoming overburdened, in large part due to their own success. A 1955 New York Times article described the buildings as "the engineering crossroads of
4368-406: A glass ceiling. The ceiling was placed about 15 in (380 mm) below the fifth-floor slab, and the lamps were installed in the intermediate space. The acoustic properties of the space were described in a contemporary media source as "remarkably good". The speakers' platform had anterooms and a connection to the freight elevator. On both the parterre and the gallery floors, corridors surrounded
4550-559: A high-energy single-terminal vacuum tube of his own design that had no target electrode and that worked from the output of the Tesla coil (the modern term for the phenomenon produced by this device is bremsstrahlung or braking radiation ). In his research, Tesla devised several experimental setups to produce X-rays. Tesla held that, with his circuits, the "instrument will ... enable one to generate Roentgen rays of much greater power than obtainable with ordinary apparatus". Tesla noted
4732-498: A large stamp exhibition in 1913. Several awards were also granted there, including the AIEE's annual Edison Gold Medal, as well as the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure 's 1913 Grashof Medal, given to George Westinghouse . The Engineering Foundation was established at the building in 1915, and a "Museum of Safety and Sanitation" was housed there as well. In 1913, Beverly Sedgwick King designed a six-story annex to
4914-408: A lion's head with a swag in its mouth. The outer bays of the fifth story are plain rectangular windows with shallow stone cornices. On the sixth through eleventh stories, the center three bays each contain a six-story-high opening. Each of the openings contains iron bars, which divide the windows into section. Additionally, spandrel panels separate the different stories. At the eleventh floor, there
5096-475: A live load of 1,500 short tons (1,300 long tons; 1,400 t) and contain steel columns weighing 1,000 psf (48 kPa). The double-height auditorium at the third story was spanned by girders measuring 60 ft (18 m) wide. The ceiling was supported by three plate girders and a 60-short-ton (54-long-ton; 54 t) lattice girder. The steel plate-girders in the ceilings of the main auditorium weigh 48 short tons (43 long tons; 44 t) tons each, while
5278-447: A low population of residents who are uninsured . In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 11%, slightly less than the citywide rate of 12%. The concentration of fine particulate matter , the deadliest type of air pollutant , in Midtown Manhattan is 0.0113 milligrams per cubic metre (1.13 × 10 oz/cu ft), more than the city average. Eleven percent of Midtown Manhattan residents are smokers , which
5460-419: A lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 81.2% between 1990 and 2022. The precinct reported 8 murders, 23 rapes, 653 robberies, 502 felony assaults, 660 burglaries, 2,375 grand larcenies, and 68 grand larcenies auto in 2022. The main part of midtown Manhattan, between 34th and 59th Streets from Lexington Avenue to Eighth Avenue, is served by five fire stations of
5642-600: A major force in Midtown Manhattan's economy, and indeed the city's, as the total value of all New York City property was estimated at US$ 914.8 billion for the 2015 fiscal year . Manhattan has perennially been home to some of the nation's, as well as one of the world's, most marketable real estate, including the Time Warner Center , which had the highest-listed market value in the city in 2006 at US$ 1.1 billion, to be subsequently surpassed in October 2014 by
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5824-494: A mezzanine. When fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger used the building as a showroom, there was a grand suite on the sixteenth floor, with three private bathrooms, a kitchen, and a dining room. The first proposal for what would become the Engineering Societies Building occurred in 1895, when American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) member W. D. Weaver asked businessman Andrew Carnegie to fund
6006-423: A monetary prize. William Robert Ware was hired to judge the competition. That July, the committee examined over 500 drawings submitted for the two sites. Hale & Rogers and Henry G. Morse, who had not been formally invited, were hired to design the Engineering Societies' Building. Herbert D. Hale of Hale & Rogers was the grandson of the preacher Edward Everett Hale . Henry D. Whitfield and Beverly King ,
6188-407: A new clubhouse for New York City's various engineering societies. The Engineers' Club did not want to share a building with the other societies, so an architectural design competition was held for two clubhouse buildings. By the 1950s, the Engineering Societies' Building was becoming too small for the engineering societies' needs, and the societies sold the clubhouse in 1960. In the late 20th century,
6370-588: A number of private languages and music centers (e.g. Berlitz , American Language Communication Center, New York Language Center, Swan Music School, and the New York Youth Symphony ). The La Scuola d'Italia Guglielmo Marconi Italian international school moved to West Midtown in 2016. The New York Public Library (NYPL) operates the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (also the Main Branch),
6552-409: A pilaster. Above the columns and pilasters are an entablature , which includes brackets with carved wreaths and dentils directly above each of the columns. A cornice with dentils projects above the fourth story. The outer bays each contain a tall aedicular window with a paneled sill . Above each aedicular window is a cornice and a wide tripartite window. The fifth through eleventh stories constitute
6734-585: A power system format that was rapidly expanding in Europe and the United States because of its advantages in long-distance, high-voltage transmission. The motor used polyphase current, which generated a rotating magnetic field to turn the motor (a principle that Tesla claimed to have conceived in 1882). This innovative electric motor, patented in May 1888, was a simple self-starting design that did not need
6916-966: A program aimed at creating "a 24/7, live-work, mixed-use neighborhood" in Midtown South though the conversion of commercial and office space to residential, as part of an effort to create 20,000 new residences citywide in a decade. According to The Broadway League , shows on Broadway sold approximately US$ 1.54 billion worth of tickets in both the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 seasons. Both seasons featured theater attendance of approximately 12.3 million each. Companies that used to have their headquarters in Midtown Manhattan include American Airlines , American Comics Group , American Overseas Airlines , Central Park Media , Eastern Air Lines , GoodTimes Entertainment , LJN , NewKidCo , Pan American World Airways , Philip Morris Companies (now Altria Group ), Trans Caribbean Airways , and Trans World Airlines . In 1997, Aer Lingus announced that it
7098-497: A quip about their "Parisian" being out all night. After Tesla told them he had been up all night fixing the Oregon , Edison commented to Batchelor that "this is a damned good man". One of the projects given to Tesla was to develop an arc lamp -based street lighting system. Arc lighting was the most popular type of street lighting but it required high voltages and was incompatible with the Edison low-voltage incandescent system, causing
7280-510: A rectangular land lot with a frontage of 125 ft (38 m) along 39th Street, a depth of 98.75 ft (30.10 m), and an area of 12,343 sq ft (1,146.7 m). The building was once connected to the Engineers' Club Building to the north. The Engineering Societies' Building is on 39th Street, one block south of Bryant Park , between Fifth and Sixth Avenues . On the same block are The Bryant and 452 Fifth Avenue to
7462-679: A reference branch at 476 Fifth Avenue. The four-story building, constructed in 1911, is known worldwide for its architecture and has several million items in its collections. There are also five circulating branches in Midtown: Two campuses of the City University of New York (CUNY)—the doctorate-granting CUNY Graduate Center and the Stella and Charles Guttman Community College —are located in Midtown, while Baruch College , also of
Engineering Societies' Building - Misplaced Pages Continue
7644-500: A relatively obscure firm that had nonetheless been formally invited, won the commission for the Engineers' Club Building. Nepotism may have been a factor in the Engineers' Club commission, as Carnegie was married to Whitfield's sister Louise . Hale and Morse received one of the four prizes for non-invited architects; the others were Trowbridge & Livingston , Frank C. Roberts & Co. with Edgar V. Seeler , and Allen & Collens . The United Engineering Society, which represented
7826-592: A relief portrait of Carnegie and the words of his short letter, in which he gifted $ 1.5 million to the construction of the Engineering Societies' and Engineers' Club buildings. The other tablet had a statement saying that the land was given by members and friends of the three founding societies: the ASME, AIME, and AIEE. The foyer has since been converted into a garage. At the rear of the first floor were receiving and shipping offices, through which all freight and goods were handled. The offices contained an information bureau and
8008-552: A required subject; and he was illiterate in Czech , another required subject. Tesla did, however, attend lectures in philosophy at the university as an auditor but he did not receive grades for the courses. Tesla moved to Budapest , Hungary , in 1881 to work under Tivadar Puskás at a telegraph company, the Budapest Telephone Exchange. Upon arrival, Tesla realized that the company, then under construction,
8190-541: A royalty of $ 2.50 per AC horsepower produced by each motor. Westinghouse also hired Tesla for one year for the large fee of $ 2,000 ($ 67,800 in today's dollars ) per month to be a consultant at the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company's Pittsburgh labs. During that year, Tesla worked in Pittsburgh, helping to create an alternating current system to power the city's streetcars. He found it
8372-634: A series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943. Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the International System of Units (SI) measurement of magnetic flux density
8554-487: A series of proposals and open competitions on how best to do it. Among the systems proposed by several US and European companies were two-phase and three-phase AC, high-voltage DC, and compressed air. Adams asked Tesla for information about the current state of all the competing systems. Tesla advised Adams that a two-phased system would be the most reliable and that there was a Westinghouse system to light incandescent bulbs using two-phase alternating current. The company awarded
8736-400: A service gate. Under a deed restriction, the adjoining building to the east was restricted to a height of 60 ft (18 m). The facade had decorations on all four sides because it was designed to be set back from adjoining structures. The facade is built of limestone up to the third story auditorium, above which it is gray mottled brick and terracotta. The facade was meant to indicate
8918-406: A steel-and-glass loading dock for freight. Additionally, in 1914, the United Engineering Societies filed plans for two more stories atop the roof. The Wells Construction Company built the annex. The weight of the extra stories could not be supported on the existing pilings, so four new columns were constructed through the building, supported directly on the bedrock. The ASCE had been offered space at
9100-426: A telephone and telegraph service. The elevators and a main staircase were also grouped on one end of the hall. The entrance vestibule contains two small flights of steps to the elevator lobby. A set of stairs at the rear of the elevator lobby connected with a glass door. This glass door led to a 10 ft-wide (3.0 m) courtyard, across which was the entrance to the Engineers' Club. The main staircase led directly to
9282-516: A way to provide electricity to all potential customers and started branding their polyphase AC system as the "Tesla Polyphase System". They believed that Tesla's patents gave them patent priority over other polyphase AC systems. Westinghouse Electric asked Tesla to participate in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago where the company had a large space in the "Electricity Building" devoted to electrical exhibits. Westinghouse Electric won
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#17327724679809464-410: A way to transmit worldwide communications. At the time Tesla was formulating his ideas, there was no feasible way to wirelessly transmit communication signals over long distances, let alone large amounts of power. Tesla had studied radio waves early on, and came to the conclusion that part of the existing study on them, by Hertz, was incorrect. Also, this new form of radiation was widely considered at
9646-454: A wireless lighting system based on near-field inductive and capacitive coupling and conducted a series of public demonstrations where he lit Geissler tubes and even incandescent light bulbs from across a stage. He spent most of the decade working on variations of this new form of lighting with the help of various investors but none of the ventures succeeded in making a commercial product out of his findings. In 1893 at St. Louis , Missouri,
9828-471: Is 41% in Midtown Manhattan, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018 , Midtown Manhattan is considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying . Midtown Manhattan is patrolled by two precincts of the NYPD . Midtown North is patrolled by the 18th Precinct, located at 306 West 54th Street, while Midtown South
10010-412: Is a bracket above each of the middle bays, and the windows are flanked by carvings, which depict a roundel, a lion's head, and a wreath dangling from the lion's mouth. Within the outer bays, each of the sixth through eleventh stories contains a rectangular window with a sill at the bottom and a stone panel at the top. Each of the outer bays' windows contains a brick surround, as well as iron bars that divide
10192-651: Is also growing in Midtown Manhattan based upon the city's strength in academic scientific research and public and commercial financial support. By mid-2014, Accelerator, a biotech investment firm, had raised more than US$ 30 million from investors , including Eli Lilly and Company , Pfizer , and Johnson & Johnson , for initial funding to create biotechnology startups at the Alexandria Center for Life Science, which encompasses more than 700,000 square feet (65,000 m ) on East 29th Street and promotes collaboration among scientists and entrepreneurs at
10374-702: Is commonly defined to be 59th Street ; its southern boundary is less clear, and variously taken to be 34th Street , 23rd Street , or even 14th Street . Midtown spans the entire island of Manhattan along an east–west axis, bounded by the East River on its east and the Hudson River to its west. The Encyclopedia of New York City defines Midtown as extending from 34th Street to 59th Street and from 3rd Avenue to 8th Avenue. In addition to its central business district , Midtown Manhattan encompasses many neighborhoods, including Hell's Kitchen and Chelsea on
10556-554: Is considered to be the busiest transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere , servicing around 650,000 people per day. The Port Authority Bus Terminal , located at Eighth Avenue and 41st Street at the western edge of Midtown, is the city's main intercity bus terminal and the world's busiest bus station, serving 250,000 passengers on 7,000 buses each workday. The building opened in 1950 and had been designed to accommodate 60,000 daily passengers. A 2021 plan announced by
10738-426: Is divided horizontally into three sections. The building was originally thirteen stories tall, excluding the second story, which was not visible from the facade. The lowest three stories comprise a rusticated base of limestone , including a colonnade with Doric columns. Above that is a seven-story stone midsection, followed by another loggia similar to that on the base. Inside, the building's first story contains
10920-727: Is higher than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 86% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", more than the city's average of 78%. For every supermarket in Midtown Manhattan, there are 11 bodegas . The nearest major hospitals are Mount Sinai West in Hell's Kitchen ; Beth Israel Medical Center in Stuyvesant Town ; the Bellevue Hospital Center and NYU Langone Medical Center in Kips Bay ; and NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital in
11102-505: Is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are adults: a plurality (45%) are between the ages of 25 and 44, while 22% are between 45 and 64, and 13% are 65 or older. The ratio of youth and college-aged residents was lower, at 7% and 12% respectively. As of 2017, the median household income in Community Districts 4 and 5 (including Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen )
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#173277246798011284-693: Is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building , the Chrysler Building , the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project , the headquarters of the United Nations , Grand Central Terminal , and Rockefeller Center , as well as several prominent tourist destinations, including Broadway , Times Square , and Koreatown . Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan is
11466-470: Is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 297 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole. The 18th Precinct has a lower crime rate than it did in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 82.1% between 1990 and 2022. The precinct reported 1 murder, 22 rapes, 154 robberies, 185 felony assaults, 205 burglaries, 2,065 grand larcenies, and 116 grand larcenies auto in 2022. The 14th Precinct also has
11648-407: Is less than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. In Midtown Manhattan, 10% of residents are obese , 5% are diabetic , and 18% have high blood pressure —compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively. In addition, 9% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%. Ninety-one percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which
11830-496: Is located at 421 8th Avenue. The post office stopped 24-hour service in 2009 due to decreasing mail traffic. Midtown Manhattan generally has a higher rate of college-educated residents than the rest of the city as of 2018 . A majority of residents age 25 and older (78%) have a college education or higher, while 6% have less than a high school education and 17% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 64% of Manhattan residents and 43% of city residents have
12012-941: Is located in Midtown Manhattan. Haier operates its United States offices in the Haier Building at 1356 Broadway, formerly the headquarters of the Greenwich Savings Bank . Haier held the opening ceremony on March 4, 2002. Sumitomo Corporation operates its New York Office, the headquarters of the corporation's United States operations, at 600 Third Avenue, 10016 in the Murray Hill neighborhood. El Al 's North American headquarters are in Midtown. The Air France USA regional headquarters are in 125 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan. Hachette Book Group USA has its headquarters in 237 Park Avenue . In 1994 Alitalia considered moving its USA headquarters from Midtown to Lower Manhattan , but decided to keep
12194-1277: Is one of the world's leading financial centers. Midtown Manhattan is the one of the world's largest central business district , with 400 million square feet (37.2 million m ) of office space in 2018. Midtown contains the headquarters of major companies, including 4Kids Entertainment (formerly), Barnes & Noble , Bloomberg L.P. , Ernst & Young , Calvin Klein , Cantor Fitzgerald , CBS Corporation , Citigroup , Colgate-Palmolive , Cushman & Wakefield , DC Comics , Deloitte , Duane Reade , Estée Lauder Companies , Foot Locker , Frederator Studios , JPMorgan Chase , Hess Corporation , Kroll Inc. , L-3 Communications , Marsh & McLennan Companies , Marvel Entertainment , MetLife , MidOcean Partners , Morgan Stanley , Nasdaq, Inc. , NBCUniversal , The New York Times Company , NexCen Brands , Paramount Global , Pfizer , Polo Ralph Lauren , Saks Incorporated ( Saks Fifth Avenue ), The Sharper Image , Simon & Schuster , Six Flags , TBWA Worldwide , Thomson Reuters , Warner Bros. Discovery , Time Warner Cable , The Travelers Companies , and Univision Communications . The New York Institute of Finance
12376-490: Is part of 10001. Other areas between 14th and 34th Streets are covered by ZIP Codes 10003, 10009, 10010, and 10011, though these are generally not considered to be part of Midtown proper. There are also thirty-three ZIP Codes assigned to individual buildings or building complexes. The United States Postal Service operates six post offices in Midtown: The James A. Farley Station , the city's main post office,
12558-430: Is patrolled by the 14th Precinct, located at 357 West 35th Street. The precincts ranked 69th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. The high per-capita crime rate can be attributed to the low population of the area, as well as the high number of crimes committed against tourists. As of 2018 , with a non-fatal assault rate of 25 per 100,000 people, Midtown Manhattan's rate of violent crimes per capita
12740-506: The New York Herald Tribune published an article on Tesla, in which he recalled an event that occasionally took place while experimenting with his single-electrode vacuum tubes. A minute particle would break off the cathode, pass out of the tube, and physically strike him: Tesla said he could feel a sharp stinging pain where it entered his body, and again at the place where it passed out. In comparing these particles with
12922-529: The COVID-19 pandemic in New York City in 2020, Thor sued The Wing for $ 2.7 million in unpaid back rent. Music management firm Phase One Network took one story in 2021, and the building was fully occupied by January 2022. Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan , serving as the city's primary central business district . Midtown
13104-753: The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania and the National Electric Light Association , Tesla told onlookers that he was sure a system like his could eventually conduct "intelligible signals or perhaps even power to any distance without the use of wires" by conducting it through the Earth. Tesla served as a vice-president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers from 1892 to 1894,
13286-771: The Higher Real Gymnasium where the classes were held in German, as it was usual throughout schools within the Austro-Hungarian Military Frontier . Later in his patent applications, before he obtained American citizenship, Tesla would identify himself as 'of Smiljan, Lika , border country of Austria-Hungary '. Tesla later wrote that he became interested in demonstrations of electricity by his physics professor. Tesla noted that these demonstrations of this "mysterious phenomena" made him want "to know more of this wonderful force". Tesla
13468-599: The Imperial-Royal Technical College in Graz in 1875 on a Military Frontier scholarship. Tesla passed nine exams (nearly twice as many as required ) and received a letter of commendation from the dean of the technical faculty to his father, which stated, "Your son is a star of first rank." At Graz, Tesla noted his fascination with the detailed lectures on electricity presented by Professor Jakob Pöschl and described how he made suggestions on improving
13650-651: The Ladies' Mile , along Fifth Avenue from 14th to 23rd Street; and the Tenderloin , from 23rd to 42nd Street and from Fifth Avenue to Seventh Avenue . Important streets and thoroughfares The border of Midtown Manhattan is nebulous and further confused by the fact that the term "Midtown Manhattan" can be used to refer either to a district or a group of neighborhoods and districts in Manhattan: Midtown Manhattan, along with Lower Manhattan ,
13832-575: The New York City Fire Department (FDNY): The greater Midtown area between 14th Street and 59th Street contains seven additional fire stations. As of 2018 , preterm births and births to teenage mothers in Midtown Manhattan are lower than the city average. In Midtown Manhattan, there were 67 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 4 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide). Midtown Manhattan has
14014-640: The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and the National Electric Light Association . These tenants could also use the auditorium. Each of the ninth through eleventh floors were devoted to the offices of the founding societies: AIME to the ninth, AIEE to the tenth, and ASME to the eleventh. Outside the elevators on these stories was a terrazzo floor with a plaque corresponding to the society that occupied that story. These floors were all devoted to administrative and executive work, and they were arranged in different layouts for each society. The ninth story had
14196-681: The Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing Company . Tesla worked for the rest of the year obtaining the patents that included an improved DC generator, the first patents issued to Tesla in the US, and building and installing the system in Rahway , New Jersey. Tesla's new system gained notice in the technical press, which commented on its advanced features. The investors showed little interest in Tesla's ideas for new types of alternating current motors and electrical transmission equipment. After
14378-560: The Upper East Side . Midtown Manhattan is located within six primary ZIP Codes . West of Fifth Avenue, Midtown is located in 10018 between 34th and 41st Streets, 10036 between 41st and 48th Streets, and 10019 between 48th and 59th Streets. East of Fifth Avenue, Midtown is located in 10016 between 34th and 40th Streets, 10017 between 40th and 49th Streets, and 10022 between 49th and 59th Streets. The area southwest of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, sometimes considered to be in Midtown,
14560-603: The Waldorf Astoria New York , which became the most expensive hotel ever sold after being purchased by the Anbang Insurance Group, based in China, for US$ 1.95 billion . In the same year, six of the top ten most expensive zip codes in the United States by median housing price were located in Manhattan, underscoring the borough's dominant position in the real estate market. When 450 Park Avenue
14742-439: The financial panic of 1890 , causing investors to call in their loans to Westinghouse Electric. The sudden cash shortage forced the company to refinance its debts. The new lenders demanded that Westinghouse cut back on what looked like excessive spending on acquisition of other companies, research, and patents, including the per motor royalty in the Tesla contract. At that point, the Tesla induction motor had been unsuccessful and
14924-496: The neo-Renaissance style. It served as the clubhouse of the United Engineering Societies, composed of its three founding societies: the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME), and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE). The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) joined the partnership in 1917. The Engineering Societies Building's facade
15106-607: The tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s. Nikola Tesla was born into an ethnic Serb family in the village of Smiljan , within the Military Frontier , in the Austrian Empire (present-day Croatia ), on 10 July 1856. His father, Milutin Tesla (1819–1879), was a priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church . His father's brother Josif
15288-425: The 1890s through 1906, Tesla spent a great deal of his time and fortune on a series of projects trying to develop the transmission of electrical power without wires . It was an expansion of his idea of using coils to transmit power that he had been demonstrating in wireless lighting. He saw this as not only a way to transmit large amounts of power around the world but also, as he had pointed out in his earlier lectures,
15470-548: The 1892 merger of Edison and Thomson-Houston). The money Tesla made from licensing his AC patents made him independently wealthy and gave him the time and funds to pursue his own interests. In 1889, Tesla moved out of the Liberty Street shop Peck and Brown had rented and for the next dozen years worked out of a series of workshop/laboratory spaces in Manhattan . These included a lab at 175 Grand Street (1889–1892),
15652-613: The AIChE, ASCE, AIEE, AIME, and ASME, was created to determine the future of the clubhouse. In November 1956, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon were hired to conduct a study on whether to relocate the societies or redevelop the existing site. The Engineering Societies selected a site for a new clubhouse on First Avenue in Turtle Bay, Manhattan , across from the headquarters of the United Nations , in August 1957. Herbert Hoover announced plans for
15834-588: The ASME, AIME, and AIEE, took title to the main land lot between 25 and 33 West 39th Street in December 1904. An additional land lot at 23 West 39th Street was acquired the next April. By July 1905, construction had not yet started because Hale & Rogers considered all bids for the construction contract to be too expensive. That December, the United Engineering Society prepared a set of five criteria. The new building had to contain offices for
16016-472: The ASME, AIME, and AIEE. The ASCE had also been invited to join the Engineering Societies Building but declined, preferring to stay at its clubhouse at 220 West 57th Street . Originally, the Engineers' Club was to occupy space in the engineering building. However, this was deemed logistically prohibitive, so two buildings connected at their rears were developed. In March 1904, Carnegie increased his gift to $ 1.5 million (about $ 39.8 million in 2023). The gift
16198-693: The City University of New York, is located in Midtown South. Mercy College is situated at Herald Square . Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central Terminal are the two major railroad stations located in Midtown Manhattan. Penn Station serves Amtrak , NJ Transit , and the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), while Grand Central serves the Metro-North Railroad and also serves the LIRR at Grand Central Madison . Penn Station
16380-600: The Columbian Exposition Agriculture Hall, Tesla introduced his steam powered reciprocating electricity generator that he patented that year, something he thought was a better way to generate alternating current. Steam was forced into the oscillator and rushed out through a series of ports, pushing a piston up and down that was attached to an armature. The magnetic armature vibrated up and down at high speed, producing an alternating magnetic field . This induced alternating electric current in
16562-1093: The Continental Edison Company. Tesla began working in what was then a brand new industry, installing indoor incandescent lighting citywide in large scale electric power utility . The company had several subdivisions and Tesla worked at the Société Electrique Edison, the division in the Ivry-sur-Seine suburb of Paris in charge of installing the lighting system. There he gained a great deal of practical experience in electrical engineering. Management took notice of his advanced knowledge in engineering and physics and soon had him designing and building improved versions of generating dynamos and motors. They also sent him on to troubleshoot engineering problems at other Edison utilities being built around France and in Germany. In 1884, Edison manager Charles Batchelor , who had been overseeing
16744-533: The Edison Machine Works". Soon after leaving the Edison company, Tesla was working on patenting an arc lighting system, possibly the same one he had developed at Edison. In March 1885, he met with patent attorney Lemuel W. Serrell, the same attorney used by Edison, to obtain help with submitting the patents. Serrell introduced Tesla to two businessmen, Robert Lane and Benjamin Vail, who agreed to finance an arc lighting manufacturing and utility company in Tesla's name,
16926-492: The Engineering Societies' Building in 1914, with the opportunity to be named as a "founding society" if it did so. The ASCE moved its headquarters to the Engineering Societies' Building by December 1917, after the additional stories were completed, and it became a "founding society". The Engineering Societies' Building continued to be used for major events, as in 1925, when U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover became an honorary ASCE member. The United Engineering Foundation held
17108-399: The Engineers' Club on the adjacent lot at 23 West 39th Street. The annex, completed in 1915, replaced the carriage entrance of the Engineering Societies' Building. The United Engineering Societies agreed to let the Engineers' Club use the eastern wall of the Engineering Societies' Building as a load-bearing wall . The parties also agreed to share the walkways behind both buildings and construct
17290-434: The Engineers' Club, has a storefront and a five-story, two-bay-wide brick facade. The base is three stories high. The ground story is made of rusticated blocks of limestone above a water table made of stone. The middle three bays are slightly recessed from the outer bays, and a frieze runs above the ground story. There are five openings, each topped by voussoirs and a tall keystone . The westernmost opening serves as
17472-487: The Nikola Tesla Company, set up to fund, develop, and market a variety of previous Tesla patents and inventions as well as new ones. Alfred Brown signed on, bringing along patents developed under Peck and Brown. The board was filled out with William Birch Rankine and Charles F. Coaney. It found few investors since the mid-1890s were a tough time financially, and the wireless lighting and oscillators patents it
17654-660: The Paris installation, was brought back to the United States to manage the Edison Machine Works , a manufacturing division situated in New York City, and asked that Tesla be brought to the United States as well. In June 1884, Tesla emigrated and began working almost immediately at the Machine Works on Manhattan 's Lower East Side , an overcrowded shop with a workforce of several hundred machinists, laborers, managing staff, and 20 "field engineers" struggling with
17836-626: The Port Authority would spend $ 10 billion to expand capacity and modernize the facility. The New York City Subway and MTA Regional Bus Operations each operate several routes that go through Midtown. Additionally, the PATH train to New Jersey terminates at 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue in Midtown. Traffic congestion is common, especially for crosstown traffic. In 2011, a new system of traffic light control, known as "Midtown in Motion"
18018-488: The US military as a type of radio-controlled torpedo , but they showed little interest. Remote radio control remained a novelty until World War I and afterward, when a number of countries used it in military programs . Tesla took the opportunity to further demonstrate "Teleautomatics" in an address to a meeting of the Commercial Club in Chicago, while he was traveling to Colorado Springs , on 13 May 1899. From
18200-523: The United Nations, and consulates-general accredited to the United States, in Midtown Manhattan. In addition, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office of the Republic of China ( Taiwan ) is in Midtown Manhattan. Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( / ˈ n ɪ k ə l ə ˈ t ɛ s l ə / ; Serbian Cyrillic : Никола Тесла , [nǐkola têsla] ; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943)
18382-433: The United States achieved completion in Midtown Manhattan, at a selling price of US$ 238 million, for a 24,000 square feet (2,200 m ) penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park at 220 Central Park South . The COVID-19 pandemic and hybrid work models have prompted consideration of commercial-to-residential conversion within the neighborhood's real estate sector. In August 2023, Mayor Eric Adams announced
18564-400: The United States during the early and mid-20th century. The adjoining area included the offices of three engineering publications on 39th Street, as well as Engineers' Club member Nikola Tesla 's laboratory on 8 West 40th Street. The Engineering Societies' Building was designed by Herbert D. Hale , of the firm Hale & Rogers , along with Henry G. Morse in the neo-Renaissance style. It
18746-666: The West Side, and Murray Hill , Kips Bay , Turtle Bay , and Gramercy Park on the East Side. It is sometimes broken into "Midtown East" and "Midtown West", or north and south as in the New York City Police Department 's Midtown North and Midtown South precincts. Neighborhoods in the Midtown area include the following: Midtown is the original district in the United States to bear the name and included historical but now defunct neighborhoods such as
18928-573: The alternating current system he was already marketing. Westinghouse looked into getting a patent on a similar commutator-less, rotating magnetic field-based induction motor developed in 1885 and presented in a paper in March 1888 by Italian physicist Galileo Ferraris , but decided that Tesla's patent would probably control the market. In July 1888, Brown and Peck negotiated a licensing deal with George Westinghouse for Tesla's polyphase induction motor and transformer designs for $ 60,000 in cash and stock and
19110-602: The arches on 39th Street. An initial plan in The New York Times had the library on the fifth floor, the founding societies' offices on the sixth to eighth floors, and rental space on four subsequent floors. As built, the fifth and sixth stories contained several lecture rooms. On the fifth floor, there were two large assembly rooms, which could be used either independently or in tandem. There were also two smaller rooms on this floor. The smaller rooms could be used either on their own or as an auxiliary space for either of
19292-551: The auditorium would be retained for fashion-industry events, and the other stories would become showrooms and offices. This did not happen and, by 1963, Rudinger planned to convert the building into a photographic center for about 30 studios displaced from the soon-to-be-destroyed Grand Central Palace . William B. Goldin was hired to design a new marble-and-walnut lobby. The top twelve stories had ceilings measuring 12 to 24 ft (3.7 to 7.3 m) high, making them ideal for photography equipment. The lowest four stories would have become
19474-430: The auditorium, allowing audience members to easily access the auditorium and providing a space for conversation. Four stairs, one from each corner of the auditorium, provided emergency exits. The stairs and elevators opened directly onto the two floors of the auditorium so it could be evacuated quickly in case of emergency. The third and fourth stories have since been converted to regular office floors; they are placed behind
19656-423: The bankers" to try to collect future royalties. The advantages of having Westinghouse continue to champion the motor probably seemed obvious to Tesla and he agreed to release the company from the royalty payment clause in the contract. Six years later Westinghouse purchased Tesla's patent for a lump sum payment of $ 216,000 as part of a patent-sharing agreement signed with General Electric (a company created from
19838-546: The basement for ventilating. Low-pressure steam was provided twenty-four hours a day, year-round, by radiators below each window. The ventilation system could be toggled for each room, and the blowers from the basement pushed air to the roof, where it was exhausted by four fans. The designers minimized the usage of woodwork in the building; where wood was used, it was designed to be fireproof. The large window sashes were built of cast-iron, while other windows were built with wood covered with iron. Additionally, iron doors were used at
20020-483: The best which could be found on the American continent. For the next quarter of a century at least it will be close to the business centre of New York." After Carnegie's gift, the ASME, AIME, AIEE, and Engineers' Club formed a Conference Committee to plan the new buildings. Because of Carnegie's international fame and his large gift, the design process was to be "a semi-public matter of more than ordinary importance", as
20202-521: The bid to light the Exposition with alternating current and it was a key event in the history of AC power, as the company demonstrated to the American public the safety, reliability, and efficiency of an alternating current system that was polyphase and could also supply the other AC and DC exhibits at the fair. A special exhibit space was set up to display various forms and models of Tesla's induction motor. The rotating magnetic field that drove them
20384-420: The bits of metal projected by his "electric gun", Tesla said, "The particles in the beam of force ... will travel much faster than such particles ... and they will travel in concentrations". In 1898, Tesla demonstrated a boat that used a coherer -based radio control —which he dubbed "telautomaton"—to the public during an electrical exhibition at Madison Square Garden . Tesla tried to sell his idea to
20566-507: The brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District , is a major center of the world's entertainment industry. Sixth Avenue also has the headquarters of three of the four major U.S. television networks . Midtown is part of Manhattan Community District 5 . It is patrolled by the 14th and 18th precincts of the New York City Police Department . Geographically, the northern boundary of Midtown Manhattan
20748-487: The building in 1996 as a showroom for his company, also called Tommy Hilfiger . The designer added a television studio with two cameras, and his clothing collection took up a portion of the old library. Hilfiger spent $ 56 million to renovate the building. Hilfiger's showroom grew so quickly that, by 1999, he had to lease space in other buildings nearby. As early as 2001, Hilfiger was considering selling 25 West 39th Street and an adjacent department store at 485 Fifth Avenue for
20930-472: The building was used by fashion firms such as women's clothing retailer Lane Bryant and fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger . The building has been owned by Thor Equities since 2005, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. The Engineering Societies' Building is at 25–33 West 39th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City . The building occupies
21112-407: The building's shaft, or midsection. As with the base, the three middle bays are slightly recessed and the outer bays are designed as projecting pavilions. The fifth story is designed as a transitional story. Within each of the middle bays is a balustrade, an aedicular window, and a cornice with console brackets. There are stone roundels flanking each of the fifth-story windows, above which is carving of
21294-461: The building. The floor surface of the first story is made of Tennessee marble tiles surrounded by a colored-marble border. The main foyer had twelve large columns of Swiss Cipolin marble. A small flight of steps led from the foyer to the elevators. Gold decoration was also used in the foyer, and individual lamps were placed in recesses on the foyer ceiling. On the foyer walls, facing toward the main entrance, were two large bronze tablets. One tablet had
21476-406: The busiest transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere . Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business district in the world, and has been ranked as the densest central business district in the world in terms of employees, at 606,108 per square mile (234,020/km ). Midtown also ranks among the world's most expensive locations for real estate; Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan has commanded
21658-401: The center and with nearby academic, medical, and research institutions. The New York City Economic Development Corporation 's Early Stage Life Sciences Funding Initiative and venture capital partners, including Celgene , General Electric Ventures, and Eli Lilly, committed a minimum of US$ 100 million to help launch 15 to 20 ventures in life sciences and biotechnology. Real estate is
21840-411: The citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 92% of high school students in Midtown Manhattan graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%. There are no public elementary or middle schools in Midtown. The New York City Department of Education operates the following public high schools in Midtown, serving grades 9–12: Private schools include The Beekman School , Rebecca School , and
22022-545: The coil. Later called the Tesla coil, it would be used to produce high- voltage , low- current , high frequency alternating-current electricity. He would use this resonant transformer circuit in his later wireless power work. On 30 July 1891, aged 35, Tesla became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In the same year, he patented his Tesla coil. After 1890, Tesla experimented with transmitting power by inductive and capacitive coupling using high AC voltages generated with his Tesla coil. He attempted to develop
22204-408: The company to lose contracts in some cities. Tesla's designs were never put into production, possibly because of technical improvements in incandescent street lighting or because of an installation deal that Edison made with an arc lighting company. Tesla had been working at the Machine Works for a total of six months when he quit. What event precipitated his leaving is unclear. It may have been over
22386-464: The current entrance to the building, and the center opening is a garage door; the other three openings are square-headed windows. A bronze plaque with the words "Engineering Societies" was hung above the original main entrance. Because the auditorium inside had a sloped floor, the second story was designed as a partial story and is not visible from the facade. On the third and fourth stories, the three center bays contain double-height arches. Each arch has
22568-468: The deal, quipping "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor". The size of the bonus in either story has been noted as odd since Machine Works manager Batchelor was stingy with pay and the company did not have that amount of cash (equal to $ 1,695,556 today) on hand. Tesla's diary contains just one comment on what happened at the end of his employment, a note he scrawled across the two pages covering 7 December 1884, to 4 January 1885, saying "Good By to
22750-464: The design of an electric motor the professor was demonstrating. But by his third year he was failing in school and never graduated, leaving Graz in December 1878. One biographer suggests Tesla was not studying and may have been expelled for gambling and womanizing. Tesla's family did not hear from him after he left school. There was a rumor among his classmates that he had drowned in the nearby river Mur but in January one of them ran into Tesla in
22932-428: The earliest events at the building was a 1908 speech by U.S. Army general George Owen Squier , who predicted that aerial warfare would not be successful, as well as a 1911 speech by astronomer Percival Lowell , who spoke of life on Mars . Among the other events in the building was a conference for an international association for testing materials, described as "the most important of its kind ever called together", and
23114-688: The east; the Haskins & Sells Building to the west; and the American Radiator Building and Bryant Park Studios to the northwest. Other nearby places include the New York Public Library Main Branch one block to the north, as well as the Lord & Taylor Building to the southeast. The Engineering Societies and Engineers' Club buildings collectively served as a center for the engineering industry in
23296-445: The elevator core, wide stairways rose to the sixth floor, above which a stair led to the library. A freight elevator was installed on the eastern side of the building, while a service stairway on the north side connected all stories. The basement had a boiler room, engine room, and coal storage areas, but it obtained electricity light and power from the city's electrical grid. There were three boilers for heating, as well as four blowers in
23478-444: The erection of such a building. Carnegie acquired five land lots on 39th Street, measuring 125 by 100 ft (38 by 30 m), in May 1903. Carnegie had acquired these lots specifically because they were directly behind the Engineers' Club. Carnegie offered to donate $ 1 million (about $ 27.2 million in 2023) to fund the construction of a clubhouse for several engineering societies on that site. The engineering building would house
23660-496: The forerunner of the modern-day IEEE (along with the Institute of Radio Engineers ). By the beginning of 1893, Westinghouse engineer Charles F. Scott and then Benjamin G. Lamme had made progress on an efficient version of Tesla's induction motor. Lamme found a way to make the polyphase system it would need compatible with older single-phase AC and DC systems by developing a rotary converter . Westinghouse Electric now had
23842-530: The fourth floor of 33–35 South Fifth Avenue (1892–1895), and sixth and seventh floors of 46 & 48 East Houston Street (1895–1902). Tesla and his hired staff conducted some of his most significant work in these workshops. In the summer of 1889, Tesla traveled to the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris and learned of Heinrich Hertz 's 1886–1888 experiments that proved the existence of electromagnetic radiation , including radio waves . In repeating and then expanding on these experiments Tesla tried powering
24024-623: The hazards of working with his circuit and single-node X-ray-producing devices. In his many notes on the early investigation of this phenomenon, he attributed the skin damage to various causes. He believed early on that damage to the skin was not caused by the Roentgen rays, but by the ozone generated in contact with the skin, and to a lesser extent, by nitrous acid . Tesla incorrectly believed that X-rays were longitudinal waves, such as those produced in waves in plasmas . These plasma waves can occur in force-free magnetic fields . On 11 July 1934,
24206-474: The interior uses: the lower section contained auditoriums, the middle section contained offices, and the upper part contained the library. The facade's principal elevation faces south on 39th Street. It is five bays wide and is organized into three horizontal sections: a base, shaft, and capital. The eastern elevation is designed in a similar arrangement, while the western elevation is made of plain brick. The adjacent structure at 23 West 39th Street, designed for
24388-504: The larger rooms. The sixth floor had smaller assembly rooms, which could be used for small gatherings. Cove lighting was used in the assembly rooms. Some of the original decorative details remain in the fifth floor's large assembly rooms, such as moldings, wall paneling, and ceilings. On the south wall, where the windows overlook 39th Street, there are also paired piers. The seventh and eighth floors were reserved for "associate" societies that dealt primarily in science or engineering, such as
24570-449: The lobby. The second story is hidden beneath what was originally a double-tiered auditorium with 1,000 seats. The fifth and sixth stories contained several lecture rooms, and the seventh through eleventh stories contained engineering offices; the twelfth and thirteenth stories were devoted to an engineering library. Two stories were added later. The Engineering Societies' Building was funded by Andrew Carnegie , who in 1904 offered money for
24752-406: The lower stories. The ninth-story door leading to the Engineers' Club was made of copper on wood. All finished floors throughout the building were of cement, marble, or terrazzo, except the library. main auditorium, and lecture rooms, where maple was used. There was also an 8,000 US gal (30,000 L) water tower on the roof, fed by two electric pumps, as well as a standpipe at either end of
24934-510: The neighborhood was 64.1% (18,351) White , 4.6% (1,310) African American , 0.1% (34) Native American , 20.8% (5,942) Asian , 0% (8) Pacific Islander , 0.3% (92) from other races , and 2% (569) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 8.1% (2,324) of the population. The entirety of Community District 5, which comprises Midtown Manhattan, had 53,120 inhabitants as of NYC Health 's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 84.8 years. This
25116-567: The new electric power industry . In 1884 he immigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen . He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him
25298-420: The new building that November, and construction on that building started in 1959. The societies moved to the new building in August 1961. The United Engineering Societies sold 25 West 39th Street to Fred Rudinger Associates in 1960 for $ 2 million. Rudinger planned to convert the basement, first story, and second story to a health club with a gymnasium, swimming pool, and saunas. The main lobby would become stores,
25480-453: The next month, on 17 April 1879, at the age of 60 after an unspecified illness. During the rest of the year Tesla taught a large class of students in his old school in Gospić. In January 1880, two of Tesla's uncles put together enough money to help him leave Gospić for Prague , where he was to study. He arrived too late to enroll at Charles-Ferdinand University ; he had never studied Greek ,
25662-720: The offices where they were at the last minute. Global Infrastructure Partners has an office in Midtown Manhattan. Silicon Alley , the common metonym for New York City's high tech sector, is based in Midtown South , specifically the Flatiron District . Prominent Silicon Alley companies in Midtown include AppNexus , Blue Apron , Gilt , Betterment , Oscar , SoFi , Rent the Runway , Warby Parker , and WeWork . The technology sector has been expanding across Midtown Manhattan since 2010. The biotechnology sector
25844-442: The passenger and freight elevators, as well as the shipping and receiving offices. Vehicles could enter the driveway through a covered arch on the eastern side of the building, drop off passengers, and exit through the western side. Wrought-iron gates were placed in front of the driveway. The eastern driveway entrance was replaced in 1913 by a six-story building on 23 West 39th Street, while the western entrance still exists and contains
26026-400: The patent, both in 1888, came at the time of extreme competition between electric companies. The three big firms, Westinghouse, Edison, and Thomson-Houston Electric Company , were trying to grow in a capital-intensive business while financially undercutting each other. There was even a " war of currents " propaganda campaign going on, with Edison Electric claiming their direct current system
26208-529: The patent. Physicist William Arnold Anthony (who tested the motor) and Electrical World magazine editor Thomas Commerford Martin arranged for Tesla to demonstrate his AC motor on 16 May 1888 at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers . Engineers working for the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company reported to George Westinghouse that Tesla had a viable AC motor and related power system—something Westinghouse needed for
26390-644: The priesthood), promised to send him to the best engineering school if he recovered from the illness. Tesla later said that he had read Mark Twain 's earlier works while recovering from his illness. The next year Tesla evaded conscription into the Austro-Hungarian Army in Smiljan by running away southeast of Lika to Tomingaj , near Gračac . There he explored the mountains wearing hunter's garb. Tesla said that this contact with nature made him stronger, both physically and mentally. He enrolled at
26572-422: The roof in 1916, are set back from the street wall. They contain square-headed window openings and a brick cladding. The steel used in the building construction weighs a total of 2,650 short tons (2,370 long tons; 2,400 t). The foundation consists of 46 piers descending to the underlying layer of rock, which ranges between 27 and 67 ft (8.2 and 20.4 m) below the curb. Two of these piers each carry
26754-434: The steel lattice truss on the sixth floor weighs 64 short tons (57 long tons; 58 t). All the steel work in the building is covered with 2 to 4 in (51 to 102 mm) of semi-porous terracotta, and the columns are grouted with concrete. The floors are built with 6-inch-long (150 mm) segmental arches of terracotta, above which is a 5-inch-long (130 mm) layer of cinder-concrete. All exterior walls are furred with
26936-424: The street; they were added in 1916. The building measures 115 by 90 ft (35 by 27 m), since New York City building codes of the time required that only 85 percent of a land lot's area be occupied. The industrialist Andrew Carnegie , who financed the building's construction, owned a private residence at 23 West 39th Street, thus preserving views from the east. A driveway surrounded the building, connecting to
27118-464: The task of building the large electric utility in that city. As in Paris, Tesla was working on troubleshooting installations and improving generators. Historian W. Bernard Carlson notes Tesla may have met company founder Thomas Edison only a couple of times. One of those times was noted in Tesla's autobiography where, after staying up all night repairing the damaged dynamos on the ocean liner SS Oregon , he ran into Batchelor and Edison, who made
27300-548: The terms of the 2005 sale contract, if 25 West 39th Street was resold before December 2006, Hilfiger was entitled to claim 20 percent of any profit. The buyer was legally 25 West 39th Street Realty, which in turn was controlled by a subsidiary of the Chetrit family; it transferred a full interest in the building to Thor Equities for $ 80 million in September 2006. This led Hilfiger to sue for breach of contract in June 2007, saying he
27482-399: The third-story auditorium. This staircase has a decorative metal railing, as well as a niche at the first story, which is flanked by piers and topped by an entablature. The second story was directly below the raked floor of the auditorium. Bathrooms were placed on the second story, occupying most of the space that would otherwise have been left vacant due to the auditorium's raked floor. There
27664-473: The three societies, an auditorium, a library, space for other engineering societies, and a driveway. By the following month, the building was under construction and had reached the fourth floor. Andrew and Louise Carnegie laid the cornerstone , a box containing various mementos, at a simple ceremony on May 8, 1906. The Engineering Societies' Building was dedicated on April 16 to 19, 1907. At the official opening on April 16, U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt sent
27846-458: The time described the library as being "retired, quiet, free from noise and dust, [and] open at all times to any reader". The eastern end of the reading room, facing the elevators, had a bronze bust of Andrew Carnegie, carved by Mrs. E. Cadwalader Guild. The twelfth and thirteenth stories contain some original moldings but have been largely redesigned. The fourteenth and fifteenth stories have always been used as office space. The fourteenth story has
28028-471: The time, the fifth and ninth floors were vacant. Thor leased one story to coworking company Spark Labs that August, and designer Halston took another story the following year. In late 2018, Thor leased space to Manhattan Community Squash Center. During 2019, Thor leased one story each to women's coworking space The Wing , engineering firm PVE, and marketing firm Converge. The next year, Thor hired Industrious to manage three floors of coworking space. Following
28210-430: The time, the lowest stories were characterized as containing a seven-story garage with 215 parking spots. The top twelve office stories had 120,000 sq ft (11,000 m) of space, occupied by tenants such as Lane Bryant and baby-food company Beech-Nut . By the 1980s, there was a wine bar-restaurant named Lavin's at 25 West 39th Street, as well as Caribbean tourism offices. Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger bought
28392-452: The town of Maribor and reported that encounter to Tesla's family. It turned out Tesla had been working there as a draftsman for 60 florins per month. In March 1879, Milutin finally located his son and tried to convince him to return home and take up his education in Prague. Tesla returned to Gospić later that month when he was deported for not having a residence permit. Tesla's father died
28574-440: The utility was up and running in 1886, they decided that the manufacturing side of the business was too competitive and opted to simply run an electric utility. They formed a new utility company, abandoning Tesla's company and leaving the inventor penniless. Tesla even lost control of the patents he had generated, since he had assigned them to the company in exchange for stock. He had to work at various electrical repair jobs and as
28756-410: The window openings into nine panes. The top of the building contains a loggia similar to that at the base. The loggia consists of double-height arches, which are each flanked by columns. The outer bays each contain wide tripartite windows. Above the loggia is an architrave . There is a cornice above the thirteenth story, containing a cornice with dentils and lions' heads. The two top stories, added to
28938-509: The wire coils located adjacent. It did away with the complicated parts of a steam engine/generator, but never caught on as a feasible engineering solution to generate electricity. In 1893, Edward Dean Adams , who headed the Niagara Falls Cataract Construction Company , sought Tesla's opinion on what system would be best to transmit power generated at the falls. Over several years, there had been
29120-499: The world". The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) had wanted to join the United Engineering Societies at 39th Street, but the existing structure was too small to accommodate one more club. This led the United Engineering Societies' four constituent organizations to consider relocating as early as 1953. The engineering societies had originally considered moving to Pittsburgh , though other cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago were also contemplated. The societies created
29302-509: The world's highest retail rents and is the most expensive shopping street in the world. Midtown Manhattan is the country's largest commercial, entertainment , and media center, and is also a growing financial and fintech center. Many of New York City's skyscrapers , including its tallest hotels and apartment towers , are located in Midtown Manhattan. The neighborhood hosts commuters and residents working in its offices, hotels, and retail establishments, tourists and students. Times Square,
29484-403: Was $ 101,981, though the median income in Midtown individually was $ 120,854. In 2018, an estimated 11% of Midtown Manhattan residents lived in poverty, compared to 14% in all of Manhattan and 20% in all of New York City. One in twenty residents (5%) were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent,
29666-417: Was a Serbian-American engineer, futurist , and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. Born and raised in the Austrian Empire , Tesla first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. He then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in
29848-463: Was a lecturer at a military academy who wrote several textbooks on mathematics. Tesla's mother, Georgina "Đuka" Mandić (1822–1892), whose father was also an Eastern Orthodox Church priest, had a talent for making home craft tools and mechanical appliances and the ability to memorize Serbian epic poems . Đuka had never received a formal education. Tesla credited his eidetic memory and creative abilities to his mother's genetics and influence. Tesla
30030-400: Was able to perform integral calculus in his head, which prompted his teachers to believe that he was cheating. He finished a four-year term in three years, graduating in 1873. After graduating Tesla returned to Smiljan but soon contracted cholera , was bedridden for nine months and was near death multiple times. In a moment of despair, Tesla's father (who had originally wanted him to enter
30212-409: Was also a coatroom, arranged in several rows. An "assembly and smoking room for informal meetings", a catering room, and exhibit space was also provided. The third and fourth stories contained a 1,000-seat auditorium, which was designed to accommodate each of the engineering societies' meetings. There was a parterre level and a gallery level above it, which contained red-leather chairs. The auditorium
30394-515: Was announced, with the aim of reducing traffic congestion. Approximately 750,000 vehicles enter Midtown Manhattan on a fall business day. According to the 2011 Traffic Data Report for New York State, 777,527 vehicles a day went through select toll facilities into Manhattan. The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division , First Department, is located at the Appellate Division Courthouse at 25th Street and Madison Avenue
30576-539: Was better and safer than the Westinghouse alternating current system and Thomson-Houston sometimes siding with Edison. Competing in this market meant Westinghouse would not have the cash or engineering resources to develop Tesla's motor and the related polyphase system right away. Two years after signing the Tesla contract, Westinghouse Electric was in trouble. The near collapse of Barings Bank in London triggered
30758-602: Was completed in 1900 by architect James Brown Lord , who used a third of the construction budget to decorate the building with statues and murals. The Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration operates its New York office on the 22nd floor at 135 West 50th Street . Several countries, including Algeria , Argentina , The Bahamas , China , Costa Rica , Germany , Ireland , Israel , Jamaica , Japan , Luxembourg , Mexico , Morocco , Saudi Arabia , Singapore , South Africa , South Korea , United Kingdom , and Ukraine , have Permanent Missions accredited to
30940-450: Was constructed as a shared clubhouse for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME), and American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE). The main requirement was that the interior had to include space for the three founding societies. The building was originally thirteen and a half stories tall with a height of 218.54 ft (67 m). Two additional stories are set back from
31122-412: Was designed around a small speaking platform, rather than around a large stage, so all audience members could easily see the speaker at all times. The front of the gallery was bordered in red plush, and the proscenium arch contained a decorative cartouche with the badges of the three founding societies. There were side brackets for lighting, but the auditorium was primarily lit by incandescent lamps above
31304-549: Was explained through a series of demonstrations including an Egg of Columbus that used the two-phase coil found in an induction motor to spin a copper egg making it stand on end. Tesla visited the fair for a week during its six-month run to attend the International Electrical Congress and put on a series of demonstrations at the Westinghouse exhibit. A specially darkened room had been set up where Tesla showed his wireless lighting system, using
31486-523: Was moving its North American headquarters from Midtown to Melville , New York , in Suffolk County on Long Island . Based on data from the 2010 United States Census , the population of Midtown Manhattan was 28,630, a change of 2,823 (9.9%) from the 25,807 counted in 2000 . Covering an area of 692.81 acres (280.37 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 41.3 inhabitants per acre (26,400/sq mi; 10,200/km ). The racial makeup of
31668-625: Was not functional, so he worked as a draftsman in the Central Telegraph Office instead. Within a few months, the Budapest Telephone Exchange became functional, and Tesla was allocated the chief electrician position. During his employment, Tesla made many improvements to the Central Station equipment and claimed to have perfected a telephone repeater or amplifier , which was never patented nor publicly described. In 1882, Tivadar Puskás got Tesla another job in Paris with
31850-615: Was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs . In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it. After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with
32032-467: Was owed $ 5.4 million. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2008 because the sale involved the controlling interest in the property, rather than the property itself. Children's wear manufacturer Weeplay Kids , whose subsidiaries included Woolrich and Hello Kitty , leased a floor in 2014. Thor Equities had hired a team to potentially place the building for sale by mid-2016, with an asking price of $ 200 million. Thor would continue to occupy space on three floors; at
32214-483: Was set up to market never panned out. The company handled Tesla's patents for decades to come. In the early morning hours of 13 March 1895, the South Fifth Avenue building that housed Tesla's lab caught fire. It started in the basement of the building and was so intense Tesla's 4th-floor lab burned and collapsed into the second floor. The fire not only set back Tesla's ongoing projects, but it also destroyed
32396-408: Was sold on July 2, 2007, for US$ 510 million, about US$ 1,589 per square foot (US$ 17,104/m ), it broke the barely month-old record for an American office building of US$ 1,476 per square foot (US$ 15,887/m ) based on the sale of 660 Madison Avenue . In 2014, Manhattan was home to six of the top ten zip codes in the United States by median housing price. In 2019, the most expensive home sale ever in
32578-455: Was stuck in development. Westinghouse was paying a $ 15,000-a-year guaranteed royalty even though operating examples of the motor were rare and polyphase power systems needed to run it was even rarer. In early 1891, George Westinghouse explained his financial difficulties to Tesla in stark terms, saying that, if he did not meet the demands of his lenders, he would no longer be in control of Westinghouse Electric and Tesla would have to "deal with
32760-525: Was the fourth of five children. He had three sisters, Milka, Angelina, and Marica, and an older brother named Dane, who was killed in a horse-riding accident when Tesla was aged six or seven. In 1861, Tesla attended primary school in Smiljan where he studied German, arithmetic, and religion. In 1862, the Tesla family moved to the nearby town of Gospić , where Tesla's father worked as parish priest. Nikola completed primary school, followed by middle school. In 1870, Tesla moved to Karlovac to attend high school at
32942-400: Was to be shared by both the club and the societies, with $ 450,000 for the Engineers' Club and $ 1,050,000 for the engineering societies. Carnegie's gift only covered the costs of the respective buildings, and the club and societies had to buy their own respective land lots. The engineering societies' site cost $ 517,000. The New York Times wrote of the sites: "The location agreed upon is probably
33124-528: Was turned on, the lamps or tubes, which had no wires connected to them, but lay on a table between the suspended plates, or which might be held in the hand in almost any part of the room, were made luminous. These were the same experiments and the same apparatus shown by Tesla in London about two years previous, "where they produced so much wonder and astonishment". During his presentation at the International Electrical Congress in
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