A tower is a tall structure , taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures.
105-759: 1271 Avenue of the Americas (formerly known as the Time ;& Life Building ) is a 48-story skyscraper 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 shaft. Both sections are surrounded by
210-566: A Ford vehicle showroom on the site. The building was designed by Harrison & Abramovitz , a firm led by Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz . It was constructed by John Lowry and the George A. Fuller Company . Syska Hennessy was hired as the mechanical engineering firm, and Edwards & Hjorth was the structural engineering firm. 1271 Avenue of the Americas was planned as a 48-story tower , rising 587 feet (179 m) and measuring around 310 by 104 ft (94 by 32 m). The tower
315-614: A joint venture , Rock-Time Inc., to share the tower's rental income. Rockefeller Center had the majority stake of 55 percent, and Time Inc. had the remaining 45 percent. Harrison & Abramovitz filed plans for the building in March 1957. A groundbreaking ceremony occurred on May 16, 1957, marking the start of excavation. By the following month, the building was 70 percent leased, and Curtiss-Wright and Westinghouse Electric Corporation had become tenants. The Rockefeller Center Sidewalk Superintendents' Club, composed of members of
420-547: A 20-block stretch with no bike lane. The southern segment ran from Franklin Street to Canal Street, while the northern segment ran from Eighth Street to Central Park South. Community Board 2 was reviewing plans for a protected bike lane from Lispenard Street (just south of Canal Street) to Eighth Street by mid-2024, and plans for a bike lane between these two intersections were announced in October 2024. The same month, as part of
525-422: A 35-story headquarters designed by Harrison & Abramovitz, though the plans did not come to fruition. By 1953, Time Inc. was set to outgrow its existing space in 1 Rockefeller Plaza within a year, and it wanted to have its headquarters in a single building. Time Inc. seriously considered relocating to Westchester County , a northern suburb of New York City, as well as to a suburb of Philadelphia. By November 1955,
630-562: A Latin American–themed restaurant. Each of the upper floors covers 28,000 sq ft (2,600 m), 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
735-484: A certain height, a tower can be made with the supporting structure with parallel sides. However, above a certain height, the compressive load of the material is exceeded, and the tower will fail. This can be avoided if the tower's support structure tapers up the building. A second limit is that of buckling—the structure requires sufficient stiffness to avoid breaking under the loads it faces, especially those due to winds. Many very tall towers have their support structures at
840-471: A color-coding scheme to distinguish the different departments. The Rockefeller Group also has an office on the 24th floor, which was redesigned in 2020 by the firm of Fogarty Finger. The Rockefeller Group's offices include a reception area with dark woods and a pantry designed in a mid-century modern style. There are open plan workspaces with dropped ceilings , as well as executive offices and meeting spaces with glass walls. Gio Ponti designed an auditorium at
945-549: A dining hall at night. Dinners at the Tower Suite cost $ 11.50 per person in 1970, but they had increased to $ 70–130 per person by 1990. The Hemisphere Club closed in the 1990s. Time Inc. had been housed at 1 Rockefeller Plaza since 1937, when that building had opened as part of the construction of Rockefeller Center . As early as 1946, it had sought to develop the site of the Marguery Hotel at 270 Park Avenue for
1050-520: A feature on top of a larger structure or building. Old English torr is from Latin turris via Old French tor . The Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language, connected with the Illyrian toponym Βου-δοργίς. With the Lydian toponyms Τύρρα, Τύρσα, it has been connected with the ethnonym Τυρρήνιοι as well as with Tusci (from *Turs-ci ),
1155-414: A glass curtain wall. On all stories, the facade includes structural columns with limestone cladding. The limestone columns frame the glass curtain wall and also serve as an architectural allusion to the other buildings at Rockefeller Center. 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
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#17327659940951260-423: A glass facade permitted a higher degree of flexibility on each story compared to a limestone wall of the same size. 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
1365-451: A mat made of lead for waterproofing, which in turn was covered by cement and terrazzo. 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. 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. Also within
1470-501: A myriad of materials including wood, plastic, burlap, and glass, though they were initially not soundproof. Mockups of the offices were manufactured at Astoria, Queens , as well as in Time Inc.'s earlier headquarters at 1 Rockefeller Plaza . The elevator lobbies on each of Time Inc.'s stories had different decorations. The 28th floor also had a photo gallery where photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt worked. After Charles Eames designed
1575-537: A new entrance on Sixth Avenue, repaved the plaza, and replaced the facade. The Rockefeller Group also restored the lobby and renamed the building to its address. Time Inc. removed a time capsule that had been embedded in the building when its cornerstone was laid. The time capsule included contemporary objects such as magazines, photography books, a pencil, and a microfilm about the Rockefeller Center complex. Glarner's and Albers's paintings were restored, and
1680-438: 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,
1785-537: A reconstruction of the parallel Fifth Avenue in Midtown, Mayor Eric Adams proposed widening Sixth Avenue's bike lane for two-way bike traffic. Sights along Sixth Avenue include Juan Pablo Duarte Square ; the polychrome High Victorian Gothic Jefferson Market Courthouse, currently occupied by the Jefferson Market Library ; the surviving stretch of grand department stores of 1880 to 1900 in
1890-600: A serpentine pattern, similar to those found on the sidewalks of Rio de Janeiro 's Copacabana Beach . 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". 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;
1995-545: A set of dining spaces leading to the largest dining room. The dining rooms were decorated with Latin American artifacts, and each of the dining rooms was furnished in vivid colors with at least two hues of fabrics. It relocated elsewhere in 1971 and was replaced with a bank branch. Originally used by the Seaman's Bank for Savings , the branch had round steel columns as well as green marble counters with flecks of white. As of 2021,
2100-505: 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. 1271 Avenue of
2205-711: A target (see siege tower ). Today, strategic-use towers are still used at prisons, military camps, and defensive perimeters. By using gravity to move objects or substances downward, a tower can be used to store items or liquids like a storage silo or a water tower , or aim an object into the earth such as a drilling tower . Ski-jump ramps use the same idea, and in the absence of a natural mountain slope or hill, can be human-made. In history, simple towers like lighthouses , bell towers , clock towers , signal towers and minarets were used to communicate information over greater distances. In more recent years, radio masts and cell phone towers facilitate communication by expanding
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#17327659940952310-597: A transfer to the Eighth Avenue line at West Fourth Street , opened in 1940. The demolition of the Sixth Avenue elevated railway also resulted in accelerated commercial development of the avenue in Midtown . Beginning in the 1960s, the avenue was entirely rebuilt above 42nd Street as an all-but-uninterrupted avenue of corporate headquarters housed in glass slab towers of International Modernist style. Among
2415-413: Is flanked by shorter segments with setbacks at the third and eighth stories. The north and west edges of the tower are flanked by a seven-story section of the base. An auditorium designed by Gio Ponti , with colored triangles, was installed on the eighth-floor setback. The neighboring Roxy Theater was acquired as part of the building's development, allowing the building's floor area to be increased under
2520-438: Is mounted east of the elevators. It includes overlapping red, yellow, blue, gray, and black geometric shapes on a white background. Albers's mural, entitled Portals, measures 42 by 14 ft (12.8 by 4.3 m) and is mounted west of the elevators. Portals includes alternating bands of white and brown glass, which surround a set of bronze and nickel plates in a way that gives the impression of depth. Relational Painting No. 88
2625-681: The Flatiron District and NoMad , passes through the Garment District and skirts the edge of the Theater District while passing through Midtown Manhattan . Although it is officially named "Avenue of the Americas", this name is seldom used by New Yorkers. Sixth Avenue's northern end is at Central Park South , adjacent to the Artists' Gate entrance to Central Park via Center Drive . Historically, Sixth Avenue
2730-679: The IND Eighth Avenue Line ( A , C , and E trains) south of Greenwich Avenue . The Harlem portion of Sixth Avenue ( Lenox Avenue ) is served by the IRT Lenox Avenue Line ( 2 and 3 trains) north of Central Park North (110th Street). The PATH 's Uptown Hudson Tubes to New Jersey also run under Sixth Avenue ( JSQ–33 , HOB-33 , and JSQ-33 (via HOB) trains) from 9th to 33rd Streets. The M55 runs south of West 44th Street, where it terminates, while
2835-516: The Ladies' Mile Historic District that runs from 18th Street to 23rd Street ; the former wholesale flower district; Herald Square at 34th Street, site of Macy's department store; and Bryant Park from 40th to 42nd Streets . The corporate stretch above 42nd Street contains the Bank of America Tower , W. R. Grace Building , International Center of Photography , Rockefeller Center (including
2940-587: The M5 and M7 run north of West 31st and West 14th Streets, respectively. The latter begins Harlem service at West 16th Street and uses 7th Avenue downtown; the rest use 5th Avenue. Additional service is provided by the eastbound M21 from Spring to West Houston Streets. The avenue is referenced both in the name and in the lyrics of " 6th Avenue Heartache " by The Wallflowers . Tower Towers are specifically distinguished from buildings in that they are built not to be habitable but to serve other functions using
3045-610: The New York City borough of Manhattan . The avenue is commercial for much of its length, and traffic runs northbound, or uptown. Sixth Avenue begins four blocks below Canal Street , at Franklin Street in Tribeca , where the northbound Church Street divides into Sixth Avenue to the left and the local continuation of Church Street to the right, which then ends at Canal Street. From this beginning, Sixth Avenue traverses SoHo and Greenwich Village , roughly divides Chelsea from
3150-810: The Qin dynasty . Towers were also an important element of castles . Other well known towers include the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy built from 1173 until 1372, the Two Towers in Bologna, Italy built from 1109 until 1119 and the Towers of Pavia (25 survive), built between 11th and 13th century. The Himalayan Towers are stone towers located chiefly in Tibet built approximately 14th to 15th century. Up to
3255-901: The Time-Life Building , News Corp. Building , Exxon Building , McGraw-Hill Building , and Radio City Music Hall ) and the CBS Building . Sixth Avenue is the site of the annual Village Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village and the Dominican Day Parade in Midtown. Sixth Avenue is served by the New York City Subway with the IND Sixth Avenue Line ( B , D , F , <F> , and M trains) north of Houston Street , and
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3360-407: The height of the tower. For example, the height of a clock tower improves the visibility of the clock, and the height of a tower in a fortified building such as a castle increases the visibility of the surroundings for defensive purposes. Towers may also be built for observation , leisure, or telecommunication purposes. A tower can stand alone or be supported by adjacent buildings, or it may be
3465-404: 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. At ground level, there is a canopy over the 51st Street entrance. The rest of the tower has
3570-406: The superstructure incorporated in the core and exterior, Harrison could design the lobby with more flexibility. Originally, the lobby was planned to include a covered shopping and exhibit hall on 50th Street and a north–south passage between 50th and 51st streets. These details were changed significantly in the final plan. The lobby has two entrances to the south on 50th Street, one on either side of
3675-547: The 3rd millennium BC, and the Etemenanki , one of the most famous examples of Babylonian architecture . Some of the earliest surviving examples are the broch structures in northern Scotland , which are conical tower houses . These and other examples from Phoenician and Roman cultures emphasised the use of a tower in fortification and sentinel roles. For example, the name of the Moroccan city of Mogador , founded in
3780-450: The Americas is on the western side of Sixth Avenue (officially Avenue of the Americas), between 50th and 51st streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City . The land lot is rectangular and covers 82,340 sq ft (7,650 m). 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. Nearby buildings include The Michelangelo to
3885-651: The Greek and Latin names for the Etruscans (Kretschmer Glotta 22, 110ff.) Towers have been used by humankind since prehistoric times. The oldest known may be the circular stone tower in walls of Neolithic Jericho (8000 BC). Some of the earliest towers were ziggurats , which existed in Sumerian architecture since the 4th millennium BC. The most famous ziggurats include the Sumerian Ziggurat of Ur , built in
3990-563: The Rockefeller Group to support the preservation of the lobby. At the time, the lobby was being renovated by Swanke Hayden Connell Architects for $ 40 million. The renovation involved combining two storefronts into a waiting lounge, as well as creating a secure area around the elevators. The CNN studio opened in September 2002, with scenic design by Production Design Group . The Ted's Montana Grill restaurant opened in 2006 on
4095-466: The Time ;& Life Building is upper-middle-class." New York Times critic Ada Louise Huxtable , writing in 1960, said that 1271 Avenue of the Americas, 28 Liberty Street , and 270 Park Avenue all had a "still too-rare esthetic excellence". Huxtable also characterized 1271 Avenue of the Americas' spaces as "flexible architectural anarchy". Another architectural critic, Carter B. Horsley, praised
4200-431: The avenue's newer name, and in 1955, an informal study found that locals used "Sixth Avenue" more than eight times as often as "Avenue of the Americas". The move was also criticized as "propaganda" by those who wanted to return to the original name. Since then, the thoroughfare has been labelled as both "Avenue of the Americas" and "Sixth Avenue" in recent years. Most of the old round signs with country emblems were gone by
4305-467: The bike lane and the vehicular lanes were removed in November 1980. Manhattan Community Board 2 voted in 2014 to request a feasibility study for a protected bike lane on Sixth Avenue. The protected bike lane between 35th Street and Central Park South was reinstated in October 2020, following advocacy from cyclists. At the time, Sixth Avenue had two discontinuous segments of bike lanes, separated by
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4410-516: The building existed; on the setbacks at the base, the flashing was buried inside corners along the roof deck. The limestone columns are spaced every 28 ft (8.5 m). 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. Originally, each glass pane measured 52 in (1,300 mm) wide and 56 in (1,400 mm) tall. The spandrels between
4515-499: The building has a gross floor area of 1,962,900 sq ft (182,360 m). The interior design was contracted to a variety of architects, including Alexander Girard , Gio Ponti , Charles Eames , William Tabler , and George Nelson & Company . Thirty elevators, within the core, serve the building. The building's interior is divided into eight air-conditioning zones. Floors 8, 9, and 16 through 34 were originally occupied by Time Inc. and had their own thermostats, accommodating
4620-415: The building opened, charged $ 1,000 for initiation and $ 360 in annual fees thereafter. This made the Hemisphere Club one of several private clubs at the tops of New York City skyscrapers. In the evenings, the restaurant space opened to the public as the Tower Suite, which originally offered meals for $ 8.50 per person. The restaurant was operated by Restaurant Associates. George Nelson designed special chairs for
4725-627: The building originally included the second-story offices of the Gilman Paper Company , designed by SLS-Environetics and connected to the lobby by an escalator. The vestibule at the top of the escalators had stainless-steel wall and a carpet that extended across the floor and part of the walls. Gilman's reception area had an angular reception desk and lighting fixtures made of stainless steel. Gilman's offices had ceilings measuring 13 feet (4.0 m) tall, with angular furniture, sculpted ducts and lighting elements, exposed structural beams, and
4830-504: The building retained its name, and the former Life space was quickly taken by the company's other publications, such as People and Money . A U.S. Steakhouse restaurant designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects opened in the building in 1975 and was slightly renovated a few years later. By 1981, Time Inc. occupied about 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m) of space and some of its divisions, such as HBO , had to be housed in other buildings. The eighth-floor auditorium
4935-425: The building's completion "opens a wide frontier for an expanding city", leading the way for the construction of other large office buildings west of Sixth Avenue. 1271 Avenue of the Americas has appeared in several media works. The building was featured in the television series Mad Men as the fictional headquarters of the advertising agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (later Sterling Cooper & Partners). AMC ,
5040-404: The buildings constructed was the CBS Building at 52nd Street , by Eero Saarinen (1965), dubbed "Black Rock" for its full-height black-granite piers ; this designated landmark is Saarinen's only skyscraper . Another group of modernist structures along Sixth Avenue in midtown was the "XYZ Buildings" (1971–1974) at 1211 , 1221 , and 1251 Sixth Avenue. On March 10, 1957, Sixth Avenue
5145-493: The businesses in the lobby include The Capital Grille and Ted's Montana Grill . The seven lowest stories each have about 62,000 sq ft (5,800 m) of floor space. Each of the upper stories has around 28,000 sq ft (2,600 m), largely uninterrupted by columns. These were among the largest floor slabs of any office building in New York City since World War II. All stairs and elevators are placed in
5250-680: The chairs for Time Inc.'s offices, he created a new chair design in 1961, which was nicknamed the Time-Life Chair. Eames designed them as a favor to Henry Luce , the founder of Time and Life magazines, who had allowed Eames to use photos from the Time-Life archives for the pavilion he designed at the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow. The chairs remain in production during the 21st century, albeit with modifications for stability and to meet updated product codes. Other offices in
5355-446: The company had decided to stay in New York City because of the large number of transportation options there. Once Rockefeller Center Inc.'s managers learned of Time Inc.'s predicament, they hired Harrison & Abramovitz to create plans for a building on Rockefeller Center Inc.'s vacant plot that could house both NBC and Time. The plans involved creating several elevation drawings as well as a 15-minute film. NBC ultimately dropped out of
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#17327659940955460-514: The construction fence around 1271 Avenue of the Americas had been dismantled and several companies had occupied their space. Additional leases were announced in January 1960, including one storefront. A passageway from the basement to the subway station opened the next month. Life magazine moved into the building that April, writing that its new headquarters was "a victory in the fight to improve down-at-the-heels Sixth Avenue". Ultimately, Time Inc.
5565-569: The construction of the Holland Tunnel , Sixth Avenue was widened and extended from Minetta Lane to Canal Street . Smaller side streets in the extension's path were also demolished or incorporated into the extended avenue. The Sixth Avenue extension also allowed for the construction of the Independent Subway System (IND)'s Eighth Avenue Line , which was to run below Sixth Avenue south of Eighth Street. To accommodate
5670-487: The core, as well as an entrance to the north on 51st Street, along the east side of the core. The core itself has two west–east passages connected by elevator banks. The more northerly of the east–west passages has stairs and escalators to the second story and the basement. Until the 1990s, the southern passage had been a narrow hallway because there were two storefronts next to it. A breezeway led east to Sixth Avenue, but this had been closed by 2002. Time Inc.'s reception area
5775-400: The core, leaving the outer section of each floor available for use. This improved the efficiency of each floor by allowing an open plan for the offices. The arrangement of the building allowed high flexibility in planning interior offices. An office module in the building generally measured 48 by 56 in (1.2 by 1.4 m), though these could be combined as necessary. The interior arrangement
5880-477: The core, the walls are made of stainless steel rectangular panels. The steel panels are designed to complement the floor colors and are arranged in a checkerboard pattern. The ceiling throughout the lobby is 16 ft (4.9 m) high and was originally made of dark maroon glass tiles, finished in a matte covering. There were white lighting coves in some tiles. Manufactured by American-Saint Gobain Corporation,
5985-629: The design the same month. Construction on the Time-Life Building's superstructure started in April 1958. That August, the Equitable Life Assurance Society lent the project's developers $ 50 million. At the time, it was the largest-ever financing on a single real-estate parcel. The structure topped out in November of that year. The next April, Time Inc. sublet six of the 21 floors under its control. The building
6090-514: The early and mid-1800s Sixth Avenue passed by the popular roadhouse and tavern, Old Grapevine , at the corner of 11th Street, which at the time was the northern edge of the city. In late 1887, the Harlem portion of what was then considered Sixth Avenue was renamed Lenox Avenue for philanthropist James Lenox ; a century later it was co-named Malcolm X Boulevard, in honor of the slain civil rights leader Malcolm X . Starting in 1926, as part of
6195-534: The entire building simultaneously. Although not correctly defined as towers, many modern high-rise buildings (in particular skyscraper ) have 'tower' in their name or are colloquially called 'towers'. Skyscrapers are more properly classified as 'buildings'. In the United Kingdom , tall domestic buildings are referred to as tower blocks . In the United States , the original World Trade Center had
6300-402: The extended floor did not match the original pavement. The entire lobby was resurfaced in the late 2010s with marble-based terrazzo tiles that matched the original floor's design. Because the marble tiles had contained natural veins of black rock, contractors manually removed the veins before installing the tiles. The walls are largely made of plate-glass windows and white marble panels. Around
6405-460: The extension resulted in blank side walls facing the "uninspiring thoroughfare" and small leftover spaces. Dozens of buildings, including the original Church of Our Lady of Pompeii , were demolished. After the renumbering of the street's properties in 1929, the Sixth Avenue extension was opened to traffic in 1930, and the subway line was completed two years later. Sixth Avenue, the only numbered avenue to extend south of Houston Street , thus became
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#17327659940956510-401: The facade. There are three basement stories. The first basement has a passageway leading to Rockefeller Center's underground concourse and the 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station. The two other basements are not accessible to the public and are used for storage, maintenance, and service functions. 1271 Avenue of the Americas' lobby is surrounded by commercial spaces on all sides; with
6615-720: The first millennium BC, is derived from the Phoenician word for watchtower ('migdol'). The Romans utilised octagonal towers as elements of Diocletian's Palace in Croatia , which monument dates to approximately 300 AD, while the Servian Walls (4th century BC) and the Aurelian Walls (3rd century AD) featured square ones. The Chinese used towers as integrated elements of the Great Wall of China in 210 BC during
6720-528: The floors, ceilings, and signs were modified to match the original design. The building was completely vacant by the beginning of 2018. The renovation was nearly completed by 2019, and the building was fully leased at that time. The building's major tenants included financial firms such as American International Group , Greenhill & Co. , and H.I.G. Capital . and Mizuho Financial Group The other tenants included law firms Blank Rome and Latham & Watkins , as well as multi-family office Bessemer Trust on
6825-480: The glass tiles were suspended from washers at each corner and were designed to be removed for maintenance. In the late 2010s, the original glass ceiling was replaced with reddish-burgundy tiles of similar design, which matched the original color. The lobby walls contain large murals by Josef Albers and Fritz Glarner , both of whom Harrison had known for many years. Glarner's mural, entitled Relational Painting No. 88, measures 40 by 15 ft (12.2 by 4.6 m) and
6930-476: The ground level. In May 2014, Time Inc. announced it was planning to leave the Time & Life Building for the Brookfield Place complex in lower Manhattan . The following year, Time Inc. moved out of its offices, and the Rockefeller Group announced a $ 325 million renovation of the entire building, designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners . As part of the renovation, the architects created
7035-415: The late 1990s, and the ones remaining, which were only present between Canal Street and Washington Place in Greenwich Village and in Midtown around 57th Street began showing signs of age. However, starting in March 2023, the city began to install new signs along most of the length of the avenue, in addition to replacing the remaining original signs, which were aging. In the mid-1970s, the city "spruced up"
7140-417: The limits set by the 1916 Zoning Resolution . 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. 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
7245-423: The lobby's design and materials, though he believed the facade had an inconspicuous, albeit "not terrible", design. The Time & Life Building's completion spurred the construction of similar office buildings along Sixth Avenue. The architect Robert A. M. Stern wrote in his 1995 book New York 1960 that the building "marked the first key step" in the avenue's reconstruction. Architectural Forum wrote that
7350-410: The most part, excellent"; by 1970, New York magazine had called it "the baneful cumulus atop Time Inc." According to New York Times food critic Florence Fabricant , the Tower Suite may have originated the trend of servers introducing themselves to guests. When business at the Hemisphere Club declined with the construction of taller buildings in the area, the space was renovated so it could function as
7455-507: The nations of Central and South America, and to encourage those countries to build consulates along the avenue. It was felt at the time that the name would provide greater grandeur to a shabby street, and to promote trade with the Western Hemisphere. After the name change, round signs were attached to streetlights on the avenue, showing the national seals and coats of arms of the nations honored. However, New Yorkers rarely used
7560-399: The network on which Mad Men airs, unveiled a bench in front of the building in 2015; it contains a sculpture of lead character Don Draper 's black silhouette, as shown in the show's opening credits. The 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was partially set within the building. Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue , also known as Avenue of the Americas , is a major thoroughfare in
7665-540: The new subway, buildings were condemned and demolished to extend Sixth Avenue southward. Construction of the extension resulted in considerable dislocation to existing residents, as ten thousand people were evicted to make way for the Sixth Avenue extension. One historian stated that most of the displaced residents were "Italian immigrants who knew no other home in America". According to the WPA Guide to New York City ,
7770-643: The nickname the Twin Towers, a name shared with the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur . In addition some of the structures listed below do not follow the strict criteria used at List of tallest towers . The tower throughout history has provided its users with an advantage in surveying defensive positions and obtaining a better view of the surrounding areas, including battlefields. They were constructed on defensive walls , or rolled near
7875-529: The nonstandard working hours of Time Inc. employees. In conjunction with the building's construction, Rockefeller Center's central air-conditioning system was upgraded in 1957 to provide 6,000 tons of cooling capacity to the building every hour. The cooling systems had to operate all year because Time Inc.'s equipment generated large amounts of heat. The original cooling system was powered by steam, but electric and natural gas cooling systems had been added by 2000. The mechanical spaces are concealed by narrow windows on
7980-456: The periphery of the building, which greatly increases the overall stiffness. A third limit is dynamic; a tower is subject to varying winds, vortex shedding, seismic disturbances etc. These are often dealt with through a combination of simple strength and stiffness, as well as in some cases tuned mass dampers to damp out movements. Varying or tapering the outer aspect of the tower with height avoids vibrations due to vortex shedding occurring along
8085-484: 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. In 1972, the Association for a Better New York hired William Crovello to create a sculpture at the building called Cubed Curve , measuring 8 feet (2.4 m) wide and 12 feet (3.7 m) wide. The sculpture
8190-692: The project because its CEO, David Sarnoff , dissented. Rockefeller Center Inc. acquired the Roxy Theater in August 1956. That December, officials announced the construction of the Time-Life Building. When the plans were announced, Time had leased 600,000 sq ft (56,000 m) in the building, and American Cyanamid , Shell Oil Company , McCann-Erickson , and Esso had already made lease agreements for other floors. The developers had already ordered 27,000 tons of structural steel to be delivered in early 1958. Time Inc. and Rockefeller Center Inc. formed
8295-670: The public who wanted to observe Rockefeller Center's construction, was revived after having been dormant for seventeen years. The actress Marilyn Monroe presided over the club's inaugural ceremonies that July. The site was excavated to a depth of 40 ft (12 m), where there was a layer of Manhattan schist . By November 1957, the excavations were largely complete; the Rockefeller Foundation had leased offices and two tenants had expanded their lease commitments. Rockefeller Center Inc. chairman Nelson Rockefeller and Time Inc. president Roy E. Larsen announced details of
8400-655: The range of the transmitter. The CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario , Canada was built as a communications tower, with the capability to act as both a transmitter and repeater. Towers can also be used to support bridges, and can reach heights that rival some of the tallest buildings above-water. Their use is most prevalent in suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges . The use of the pylon, a simple tower structure, has also helped to build railroad bridges, mass-transit systems, and harbors. Control towers are used to give visibility to help direct aviation traffic. The term "tower"
8505-448: The restaurant, which apparently were never manufactured. Since the windows split the view from the 48th floor into many sections, the space was designed with window embrasures . The New Yorker reported several years after the Tower Suite's opening that "a butler in a black tailcoat and a maid in a fluffy white apron" visited every table seven days a week. When the restaurant opened, Craig Claiborne of The New York Times called it "for
8610-409: The same company reproduced the pattern in rougher terrazzo . In the late 2010s, the sidewalk pattern was extended from the lot line to the curb line. A seating parapet in the plaza surrounded a reflecting pool with four jets, measuring about 110 by 30 ft (33.5 by 9.1 m). Another six pools, measuring 33.5 by 6 ft (10.2 by 1.8 m) each, were placed within the plaza. Each pool had
8715-474: The same year. The building was again fully leased by May 2021, and the Greek restaurant Avra Estiatorio leased a two-story space at the base, which opened in June 2022. Upon the building's completion, Architectural Forum wrote: "The building's character reflects a joining of partners, a marriage of uses, a meld of design, and a union between New York's two generic office-building types. [...] In skyscraper society,
8820-512: The setback above the eighth floor, along with an adjoining kitchen, dining room, reception area, and lounge. This space was meant for meetings with advertisers and corporate and sales functions. The space was arranged with walls at irregular angles and originally had colored glass-block walls and Sicilian paintings. The auditorium itself had a domed ceiling, while the ceiling in the adjoining spaces contained brass motifs. The floors were yellow with green and blue streaks, and geometric wooden furniture
8925-532: The southernmost numbered avenue in Manhattan. House numbering of existing buildings was adjusted. By the 1930s, a coalition of commercial establishments and building owners along Sixth Avenue campaigned to have the El removed. The El was closed on December 4, 1938, and came down in stages, beginning in Greenwich Village in 1938–39. The replacement Sixth Avenue subway , which ran between Houston and 53rd Streets with
9030-421: The street, including the addition of patterned brick crosswalks, repainting of streetlamps, and new pedestrian plazas. Special lighting, rare throughout the rest of the city, was also installed. The administration of Mayor Ed Koch added a protected bike lane to Sixth Avenue between Eighth Street/ Greenwich Avenue and Central Park South; the lane carried 200 cyclists an hour at peak times. The barriers between
9135-412: The time, the company occupied 80 percent of the Time & Life Building and it had rented space at the adjacent 135 West 50th Street. The two buildings were to be connected internally on the second floor as part of a $ 190 million renovation. A natural-gas cooling system was added in 2000; at the time, it was New York City's only building with three cooling sources. By August 2001, Time Inc.
9240-523: The top seven floors. In addition, Major League Baseball moved its headquarters to the building, and it leased two stories in the building's base for use as an MLB store, which opened in 2020. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City , the building stood largely empty for several months in 2020. The building received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification
9345-489: The west, the 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. 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, which in turn was replaced by a parking lot, There
9450-413: 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. 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
9555-543: Was 92 percent leased by then, including the space that was being sublet. The Time-Life Building's cornerstone was laid in June 1959, at the southeast corner of the building, after the superstructure had been completed. The first tenant, the American Cyanamid Company, began moving into the tower in October 1959. Over the next couple of months, tenants began moving into the building and the final interior design elements were installed. By that December,
9660-637: Was a Manufacturers Trust bank branch within the northeast corner of the base, next to the lobby. There had also been two storefronts along the southern end of the lobby, next to the west–east corridor there, but the storefronts were removed in the 1990s. Along the lobby's west side was La Fonda del Sol (the Inn of the Sun), a Latin American–themed restaurant operated by Joseph Baum of Restaurant Associates . The interiors were designed by Alexander Girard and furniture by Charles Eames. La Fonda had an elaborate entry foyer and
9765-442: Was able to sublet part of its space to more than forty firms. By late 1961, the building was almost completely occupied. La Fonda del Sol had moved out of the Time & Life Building to a smaller location by early 1971. The restaurant space was replaced by a Seaman's Trust bank branch. The bank was so popular that, in three weeks, it performed six months' worth of transactions. Although Life magazine stopped publishing in 1972,
9870-403: Was added to the street grid in 1857 and created an interruption in Sixth Avenue between 59th and 110th Streets. Proposals to extend the street south of Carmine Street were discussed by the city's Board of Aldermen as early as the mid-1860s. The IRT Sixth Avenue Line elevated railway (the "El") was constructed on Sixth Avenue in 1878, darkening the street and reducing its real-estate value. In
9975-419: Was also a four-story building facing Sixth Avenue and a collection of single-story shops on 50th Street. Rockefeller Center Inc. bought the plots on 50th and 51st streets in the first week of August 1953, followed by those on Sixth Avenue the next week. One building on the site reportedly cost $ 2 million after its owner had held out . Rockefeller Center's managers originally wanted to build an NBC studio or
10080-514: Was also the name of the road that continued north of Central Park, but that segment was renamed Lenox Avenue in 1887 and co-named Malcolm X Boulevard in 1987. Sixth Avenue was laid out in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 . As originally designed, Sixth Avenue's southern terminus was at Carmine Street in Greenwich Village, and it continued northward to 147th Street in Harlem. Central Park
10185-579: Was inspired by a fluid brush stroke. According to The New York Times , the sculpture marked Time Inc.'s "presence at the center of the media universe". It was moved in 2018 to Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania , while the building was being renovated. 1271 Avenue of the Americas was built with about 1,400,000 sq ft (130,000 m) of rentable space. According to the New York City Department of City Planning ,
10290-624: Was inspired by that of the PSFS Building in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania. The firm Designs for Business was responsible for the design of Time Inc.'s space, which originally spanned 21 stories. Time Inc. had to fit multiple small rooms and cubicles on each of its floors, but the company was largely able to fit these rooms and cubicles within the modular system. Square aluminum posts were installed in Time Inc.'s space, through which partition panels could be installed. The panels were made of
10395-453: Was installed in April 1960, while Portals was installed twelve months later. Another artwork by Fortune art director Francis Brennan was installed north of the elevators in January 1965. Brennan's work consists of a relief measuring 13 by 6 ft (4.0 by 1.8 m), which contains all the letters of the alphabet in the Caslon 471 typeface. When 1271 Avenue of the Americas opened, there
10500-561: Was part of AOL Time Warner and occupied 98 percent of the building's space. That month, AOL Time Warner subsidiary CNN and the Rockefeller Group agreed to convert a former Chase Manhattan Bank branch at the base into a two-story CNN television studio. In July 2002, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the lobby interior as a city landmark. Municipal Art Society executive director Frank E. Sanchis III prompted
10605-543: Was reconfigured to carry one-way traffic north of its intersection with Broadway in Herald Square . The rest of the avenue followed on November 10, 1963. The avenue's official name was changed to Avenue of the Americas in 1945 by the City Council, at the behest of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia , who signed the bill into law on October 2, 1945. The intent was to honor "Pan-American ideals and principles" and
10710-619: Was renovated in 1983. An electric cooling system was also added in the early 1980s to supplement the original steam-powered cooling system. Time Inc. sold its 45 percent ownership stake in December 1986 to the Rockefeller Group for $ 118 million. Time Inc. planned to use some of the proceeds from the sale for other purchases such as stock buybacks. In the same transaction, Time Inc. extended its lease from 1997 to 2007, with an option to extend its lease by another ten years, to 2017. Time Inc. executed its option to extend its lease in 1999. At
10815-408: Was specially designed for the space. The auditorium was closed by 1981, and the furniture was sold. It was redesigned by Davis, Brody & Associates in 1983 and became a conference center. The Hemisphere Club and Tower Suite shared a space on the 48th floor, which was designed by George Nelson & Company. During the day, the Hemisphere Club was a 250-seat private club for executives that, when
10920-429: Was then covered by a regular glass pane. In the late 2010s, new low- emissivity glazed panels with thermal breaks were installed. The eastern part of the site was planned with a plaza. The plaza measures 170 ft (52 m) long and 83 ft (25 m) wide and is flanked by the eight-story base. The southern part of the site also has a promenade that is about 30 ft (9.1 m) wide. The plaza has pavers in
11025-470: Was within the lobby behind the fountain. The lobby has the same style of pavement as the plaza outside the building. Originally, the tiles were white cementitious terrazzo bordered with stainless steel and aligned from west to east; they were installed by the American Mosaic & Tile Company. The southern section of the lobby was expanded in the 1990s, over the site of the storefronts there, but
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