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One Times Square (also known as 1475 Broadway, the New York Times Building, the New York Times Tower, or simply as the Times Tower) is a 25-story,
skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...
on
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
in the
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...
neighborhood of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Designed by Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz in the
neo-Gothic style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
, the tower was originally built in 1903–1904 as the headquarters of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. It takes up the
city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...
bounded by Seventh Avenue, 42nd Street, Broadway, and 43rd Street. The building's design has been heavily modified throughout the years, and all of its original architectural detail has since been removed. One Times Square's primary design features are the
advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
billboards on its facade, added in the 1990s. Due to the large amount of revenue generated by its signage, One Times Square is one of the most valuable advertising locations in the world. The surrounding Longacre Square neighborhood was renamed "
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
" during the tower's construction, and ''The New York Times'' moved into the tower in January 1905. Eight years later, the paper's offices moved to
229 West 43rd Street 229 West 43rd Street (formerly The New York Times Building, The New York Times Annex, and the Times Square Building) is an 18-story office building in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1913 and expanded ...
. One Times Square remained a major focal point of the area due to its annual
New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...
"
ball drop The Times Square Ball is a time ball located in New York City's Times Square. Located on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square commonly referred to as the ball drop, where the ...
" festivities and the introduction of a large lighted news ticker near street-level in 1928. The Times sold the building to
Douglas Leigh Douglas Leigh (May 24, 1907 – December 14, 1999) was an American advertising executive and lighting designer, and a pioneer in signage and outdoor advertising. He is famous for making New York City's Times Square the site of some of the wo ...
in 1961.
Allied Chemical Allied Corp. was a major American company with operations in the chemical, aerospace, automotive, oil and gas industries. It was initially formed in 1920 as the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation as an amalgamation of five chemical companies. In ...
then bought the building in 1963 and renovated it as a showroom. Alex M. Parker took a long-term lease for the entire building in October 1973, buying it two years later. One Times Square was then sold multiple times in the 1980s and continued to serve as an office building.
Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, ...
acquired the building in 1995, adding billboards to take advantage of its prime location within Times Square. Jamestown L.P. has owned the building since 1997. In 2017, as part of One Times Square's redevelopment, plans were announced to construct a new Times Square museum, observation deck, and a new entrance to the Times Square–42nd Street subway station. Jamestown started renovating the building at a cost of $500 million in 2022.


Site

One Times Square is at the southern end of
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
in the
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...
neighborhood of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It takes up the
city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...
bounded by Seventh Avenue to the west, 42nd Street to the south, Broadway to the east, and 43rd Street to the north. The
land lot In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the same thing) in o ...
is trapezoidal and covers . The full-block site has a
frontage Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...
of to the west, to the south, to the east, and to the north. The shape of the site arises from Broadway's diagonal alignment relative to the
Manhattan street grid The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was the original design for the streets of Manhattan above Houston Street and below 155th Street, which put in place the rectangular grid plan of streets and lots that has defined Manhattan on its march uptown u ...
. The building's address was originally 1475 Broadway, but it was changed to 1 Times Square in 1966. The current address is a vanity address assigned by the
government of New York City The government of New York City, headquartered at New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan, is organized under the New York City Charter and provides for a mayor-council system. The mayor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for th ...
. The addresses around Times Square are not assigned in any particular order; for example, 2 Times Square is several blocks away from 1 Times Square. Nearby buildings include 1501 Broadway to the north, 1500 Broadway to the northeast,
4 Times Square 4 Times Square (also known as 151 West 42nd Street or One Five One; formerly the Condé Nast Building) is a 52-story skyscraper at Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located at 1472 Broadway, between 42nd ...
to the east,
The Knickerbocker Hotel The Knickerbocker Hotel is a hotel at Times Square, on the southeastern corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Built by John Jacob Astor IV, the hostelry was designed in 1901 and opened in ...
to the southeast, the
Times Square Tower Times Square Tower, also known as 7 Times Square, is a 48-story office skyscraper at the southern end of Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located on the city block bounded by Broadway, 42nd Street, Seve ...
to the south,
5 Times Square 5 Times Square is a 38-story office skyscraper at the southern end of Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located on the western sidewalk of Seventh Avenue between 41st and 42nd Street, the building measure ...
to the southwest, and
3 Times Square 3 Times Square, also known as the Thomson Reuters Building, is a 30-story skyscraper at Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located on Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Street, the building measures ...
to the west. An entrance to the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...
's Times Square–42nd Street station, served by the , is directly adjacent to the building. There is also an entrance to the 42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue station, served by the , less than a block east. Prior to the construction of what is now One Times Square, the northern end of the site had been part of the estate of Amos R. Eno, which had sold the site in 1901 to the Subway Realty Company. The southern end contained the Pabst Hotel, which had been built on land leased from Charles Thorley. The southeast corner of the building originally contained a plaque containing Thorley's name, as he had required that his name be placed on any building that was constructed on the site.
The New York Times Company The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City. History The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. ...
bought the site in 1927, four years after Thorley died, but the plaques remained until 1963.


History


''Times'' ownership

Newspaper publisher
Adolph Ochs Adolph Simon Ochs (March 12, 1858 – April 8, 1935) was an American newspaper publisher and former owner of ''The New York Times'' and ''The Chattanooga Times'' (now the '' Chattanooga Times Free Press''). Early life and career Ochs was born ...
purchased ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' in 1896. The paper was then headquartered at 41 Park Row in
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
, within the city's Newspaper Row. The ''Times'' expanded greatly under Ochs's leadership, prompting him to acquire land for a new headquarters in Longacre Square. In August 1902, Ochs purchased the former Eno ground from the Subway Realty Company and obtained a long-term lease from Charles Thorley on the ground under the Pabst Hotel. At the time, the first line of the New York City Subway was being constructed through the site, spurring commercial growth in the surrounding neighborhood. In deciding to relocate to Longacre Square, the ''Times'' cited the fact that the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...
's Times Square station would be directly adjacent to the new building, thus allowing the paper to expand its circulation.


Headquarters

In mid-1902, the ''Times'' hired architect Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz to draw up plans for its new building. Site clearing began in December 1902 and was completed within two months. Afterward, workers began constructing the building's concrete, brickwork, and ironwork in mid-1903. By the end of the year, the steel frame was being constructed at a rate of three stories per week. Ochs's 11-year-old daughter Iphigene Bertha Ochs laid the building's cornerstone on January 18, 1904, after the steel frame had been completed. Ochs successfully persuaded the
New York City Board of Aldermen The New York City Board of Aldermen was a body that was the upper house of New York City's Common Council from 1824 to 1875, the lower house of its Municipal Assembly upon consolidation in 1898 until the charter was amended in 1901 to abolish ...
to rename the surrounding area after the newspaper, and Longacre Square was renamed
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
in April 1904. Workers were installing interior finishes by the next month. Construction was temporarily halted that August when seventeen workers' unions went on strike. According to the ''Times'', the building's completion was delayed by 299 days due to various strikes during the project, as well as inclement weather. Prior to the building's completion, in November 1904, the ''Times'' used searchlights on the building's facade to display the results of the 1904 United States presidential election. The ''Times'' indicated which candidate won by flashing searchlights on different sides of the building. ''The New York Times'' officially moved into the building on January 1, 1905. To help promote the new headquarters, the ''Times'' held a
New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...
event on December 31, 1904, welcoming the year 1905 with a fireworks display set off from the roof of the building at midnight. The event was a success, attracting 200,000 spectators, and was repeated annually through 1907. Hegeman & Company leased most of the ground level in mid-1905, opening a drug store within that space. The same year, the paper started operating a stereopticon machine on the north side of the building, displaying news bulletins. In addition, the ''Times'' experimented with transmitting music and telephone messages to the top of its tower in 1907. In 1908, Ochs replaced the fireworks display with the lowering of a lit ball down the building's flagpole at midnight, patterned off the use of time balls to indicate a certain time of day. By then, the New York City government had banned the fireworks displays, which were detonated directly over the crowd and, thus, posed a danger. The "ball drop" was directly inspired by a time ball atop the
Western Union Telegraph Building The Western Union Telegraph Building was a building at Dey Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The Western Union Building was built with ten above-ground stories rising . The structure was originally de ...
in lower Manhattan. By then, Times Square had become a popular venue for New Year's celebrations. The ball drop is still held atop One Times Square, attracting an average of one million spectators yearly. The Times Tower was also used for telegraph experiments, and its searchlights continued to display election results, including those for the
1908 United States presidential election The 1908 United States presidential election was the 31st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1908. Secretary of War and Republican Party nominee William Howard Taft defeated three-time Democratic nominee William Je ...
. The building's roof attracted visitors such as French author Pierre Loti, who called the Times Tower "one of the boldest" of New York City's skyscrapers, and
Jamalul Kiram II Jamalul Kiram II (1884-7 June 1936) was Sultan of Sulu (ruled 1894–1915). During his long reign, he signed treaties with several nations. He served under both Spain and America. Jamalul Kiram II rose to the throne following Sultan Harun Ar-R ...
, the
Sultan of Sulu The Sultanate of Sulu ( Tausūg: ''Kasultanan sin Sūg'', كاسولتانن سين سوڬ; Malay: ''Kesultanan Sulu''; fil, Sultanato ng Sulu; Chavacano: ''Sultanato de Sulu/Joló''; ar, سلطنة سولك) was a Muslim state that ruled ...
.


''Times'' relocation and office use

There was so little space on the Times Tower site that its mechanical basements had to descend as much as . By the early 1910s, the Times Square area had become densely developed with restaurants, theaters, hotels, and office buildings. Despite the dearth of space, a ''Times'' booklet said: "It did not occur to anyone to suggest that the 'Times''should desert Times Square." On February 2, 1913, eight years after it moved to One Times Square, the ''Times'' moved its corporate headquarters to
229 West 43rd Street 229 West 43rd Street (formerly The New York Times Building, The New York Times Annex, and the Times Square Building) is an 18-story office building in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1913 and expanded ...
, where it remained until 2007. Most of the ''Times'' operations quickly moved to the annex, except for the publishing and subscription divisions. The ''Times'' retained ownership of the Times Tower and leased out the former space there. The building continued to be popularly known as the Times Tower for half a century. The original Times Square Ball above the Times Tower was replaced following the 1919–1920 New Year's celebrations. A neon beacon was installed atop the Times Tower's roof in September 1928. An electromechanical ' news ticker, colloquially known as the "zipper", started operating near the base of the building on November 6, 1928, after eight weeks of installation. The zipper originally consisted of 14,800 light bulbs, with the display controlled by a chain conveyor system inside the building; individual letter elements (a form of
movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation m ...
) were loaded into frames to spell out news headlines. As the frames moved along the conveyor, the letters themselves triggered
electrical contacts An electrical contact is an electrical circuit component found in electrical switches, relays, connectors and circuit breakers. Each contact is a piece of electrically conductive material, typically metal. When a pair of contacts touch, they ...
which lit the external bulbs (the zipper was later upgraded to use modern LED technology). The first headline displayed on the zipper announced
Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gre ...
's victory in that day's
presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...
. The zipper was used to display other major news headlines of the era, and its content later expanded to include sports and weather updates as well. During the 1940s, the building's basement contained a
shooting range A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by military ...
occupied by the Forty-third Street Rifle Club. Due to restrictions imposed during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the Times Tower's zipper was powered down in May 1942, marking the first time since its installation that the zipper had shut down. The tower's lights were darkened for the same reason. Consequently, the 1942 New York state election was the first since 1904 for which the tower's lights did not broadcast any election results. The ''Times'' reactivated the building's zipper in October 1943, but, less than two weeks later, the sign was again deactivated to reduce electricity usage. The sign operated intermittently until the end of World War II, when it again ran continuously. On the evening of August 14, 1945, the building's zipper announced Japan's surrender in World War II to a packed crowd in Times Square. Ahead of the 1952 United States presidential election, the ''Times'' temporarily installed a electronic sign on the 4th through 11th stories of the northern facade, displaying each candidate's electoral vote count. The sign was reinstalled on the Times Tower during the 1956 United States presidential election. The tower's ball was also replaced after the 1954–1955 celebrations. The
New York Community Trust The New York Community Trust is the community foundation for New York City, with divisions in Westchester and Long Island. It is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States and one of the largest funders of New York C ...
installed a plaque outside the building in 1957, designating it as a point of interest and an unofficial "landmark".


Leigh and Allied Chemical ownership

The ''Times'' sold the building to advertising executive and sign designer
Douglas Leigh Douglas Leigh (May 24, 1907 – December 14, 1999) was an American advertising executive and lighting designer, and a pioneer in signage and outdoor advertising. He is famous for making New York City's Times Square the site of some of the wo ...
in 1961. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', Leigh had attempted to purchase the Times Tower for 25 years before he succeeded. At the time, there were 110 tenants in the building; the ''Times'' only operated the zipper as well as a classified advertising office at ground level. Leigh had planned to construct an exhibition hall within the building. One of the Times Tower's subbasement levels caught fire in November 1961, killing three people and injuring 24 others; investigators later determined that the fire had been caused by "careless smoking". The building's zipper was deactivated in December 1962 due to the 1962–1963 New York City newspaper strike, and it did not operate for more than two years. Leigh sold the building in April 1963 to
Allied Chemical Allied Corp. was a major American company with operations in the chemical, aerospace, automotive, oil and gas industries. It was initially formed in 1920 as the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation as an amalgamation of five chemical companies. In ...
, which planned to renovate the building and use it as a sales headquarters and showroom. The first three stories would be re-clad in glass and serve as a showroom for nylon products, and the interior would be completely overhauled. Benjamin Bailyn of architectural firm Smith Haines Lundberg Waehler designed the renovation. Due to recent changes to New York City zoning laws, it was more economically efficient to renovate the Times Tower than to demolish it, as a new building on the site could not be as tall. Work began in October 1963, and the Times Tower's original cornerstone was unsealed in a ceremony in March 1964. Allied Chemical stripped the building to its steel frame, replacing the intricate
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...
and
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...
facade with
marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
panels as part of a $10 million renovation. The first panel of the new facade crashed to the ground while it was being installed in August 1964. The modifications occurred one year before the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
gained the power to protect buildings as official landmarks, leading architectural critic
Ada Louise Huxtable Ada Louise Huxtable (née Landman; March 14, 1921 – January 7, 2013) was an architecture critic and writer on architecture. Huxtable established architecture and urban design journalism in North America and raised the public's awareness of th ...
to express opposition to the renovation. Huxtable praised the building as "radical and conservative at the same time", saying that it was full of "vintage structural details". Allied Chemical reactivated the news zipper on the building's facade in March 1965 as part of a joint venture with ''
Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...
'' magazine. Allied Chemical turned on four electric signs atop the tower in July 1965. The Times Tower was officially rededicated that December as the Allied Chemical Tower. Shortly after the renovation was completed, Allied Chemical's nylon division had outgrown the space, and the building's elevator service was also reportedly unreliable. The Stouffer Foods Corporation also agreed to operate an English-themed restaurant on the 15th and 16th floors. The restaurant, known as Act I, opened in 1966. The
United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...
officially changed the building's address from 1475 Broadway to 1 Times Square in September 1966. Allied Chemical announced in late 1972 that it had placed 1 Times Square for sale. By that time, the company no longer needed the surplus space in its namesake tower. Allied Chemical had relocated other workers to Morris Township, New Jersey, during early 1972, and it planned to move its nylon division into smaller space at the nearby 1411 Broadway. The firm wanted to sell the building outright at a minimum price of $7 million. It is unknown whether anyone submitted a bid to purchase the building, but Allied Chemical ultimately failed to sell it.


Parker renovations

Alex M. Parker took a long-term lease for the entire building in October 1973, with an option to purchase the structure. Parker then renamed the building Expo America. He planned to convert 17 of the building's stories into an exhibition hall while also continuing to operate the Act I restaurant. Shortly after buying the building, Parker said: "It is my hope that the activity and excitement generated by Expo America will flow outward through the surrounding area, encouraging others to join in the effort to once again make Times Square a great area." In early 1974, Parker announced that the building's zipper would display only advertising and good news because "I've had it with bad news". According to Parker, it cost him $100,000 a year to operate the zipper.
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...
provided the headlines for the zipper. Parker exercised his option to buy the building in 1975 at a cost of $6.25 million. He then hired the architectural firm of
Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman & Associates Architects LLC (formerly Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects) is a New York City-based architectural firm founded in 1967 by architects Charles Gwathmey and Robert Siegel. The firm's work ranges from art ...
to redesign the tower with a glass facade and sloping roof. Under Parker's plan, four stories would be added to the tower, and the facade would be replaced with panels of one-way glass. Parker also planned to host a competition to select a new name for the building. This plan was never carried out. Instead, Parker and mayor
Abraham Beame Abraham David Beame (March 20, 1906February 10, 2001) was the 104th mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977. As mayor, he presided over the city during its fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, when the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy. ...
officially reopened One Times Square as an exhibition center on March 2, 1976. Spectacolor Inc. installed a new zipper on the building's facade later that year. The zipper only operated for a short time before being deactivated entirely in 1977.


Times Square redevelopment


Early plans

The City at 42nd Street Inc. proposed demolishing One Times Square in 1979 as part of a plan to redevelop a section of West 42nd Street near Times Square. Parker, who had not been consulted about the proposal, expressed his opposition by calling it "obscene". Another plan for the site, announced in 1981, called for renovating One Times Square into a "potential civic sculpture" with a brightly lit facade. In a plan presented to the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) in June 1981, architectural firm Cooper Eckstut proposed doubling the height of One Times Square's northern section. Parker had sold the building to the Swiss investment group Kemekod in February 1981. Kemekod sold the tower to TSNY Realty Corporation, an investment group led by Lawrence I. Linksman, in 1982 for $12 million. Linksman promised further renovations to the building, including the possibility of using its north face for signage displays. As part of the 42nd Street Redevelopment Project, in 1983, architects Philip Johnson and
John Burgee __NOTOC__ John Burgee (born August 28, 1933) is an American architect noted for his contributions to Postmodern architecture. He was a partner of Philip Johnson from 1967 to 1991, creating together the partnership firm Johnson/Burgee Architect ...
had planned to raze One Times Square and construct four new towers immediately surrounding the site. Park Tower Realty, which had been designated as the developer of these towers, offered to buy the building in November 1983. Park Tower planned to demolish the building and transfer the Times Square Ball to the tallest of the four new buildings. A month afterward, TSNY sued Park Tower to prevent the demolition. Allan J. Riley acquired the building in 1984 for $16.5 million, at which point the building was almost fully leased. Also in 1984, the
Municipal Art Society The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) is a non-profit membership organization for preservation in New York City, which aims to encourage thoughtful planning and urban design and inclusive neighborhoods across the city. The organization was ...
held an
architectural design competition An architectural design competition is a type of design competition in which an organization that intends on constructing a new building invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning design is usually chosen by an independent panel ...
for the site, attracting over 1,380 entrants from 15 nations. That December, the building's owner objected to the ESDC's plans to condemn the site. The city and state governments of New York created a six-member committee in 1985 to discuss the future of One Times Square.


Israel and Calmenson ownership

Steven M. Israel and Gary Calmenson paid $18.1 million for the building in December 1985 and leased the building's ticker to local newspaper ''
Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and fo ...
'' the next month. The ticker displayed headlines, advertising, and weather from 6 a.m. to midnight each day. Israel started converting on the lower stories into the Crossroads Fashion Center, a retail complex designed by Fernando Williams Associates. By then, Park Tower had begun promoting a plan to replace One Times Square with a seven-story building containing an "open staircase running up its middle and a waterfall running over rough stones at its base". City and state officials debated whether to acquire One Times Square through condemnation for several years, but they canceled these plans in 1988 after failing to reach an agreement. By 1988, Israel had renovated the first two stories for $1 million. In addition, he converted the 11th floor into an amenity area for the building's tenants; the space contained production rooms, a reception area, and a screening room. At the time, the building was known as One Times Square Plaza. Israel and Calmenson refinanced the building in 1989 with a $30 million loan from French bank Banque Arabe Internationale d'Investissement (BAII), and Cofat & Partners bought an equity stake in the building. By then, the zipper was profitable, leading Israel to say: "We have blank exterior walls that are screaming out to be used." The building's owners negotiated to lease additional advertising space on the building to ''Newsday'', but the deal was canceled.
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
agreed to start operating a Jumbotron on the exterior of the tower in 1990; the Jumbotron was upgraded in March 1994. BAII moved to foreclose on the property in 1991, prompting Israel and Calmenson to file for bankruptcy protection in March 1992. At the time, the building had 41 tenants but was half vacant. Israel wanted to avoid a foreclosure, as he would be liable for $2 million in taxes if the building were foreclosed upon. Rebecca Rawson was named as the receiver for the bankrupt property. Israel proposed reducing the building's first mortgage in 1993 to avoid foreclosure, but BAII opposed the plan. ''Newsday'' stopped operating the building's ticker on December 31, 1994, and declined to renew its lease, believing that it " idn'tget very much out of that sign" financially. Publishing company
Pearson PLC Pearson plc is a British multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London, England. It was founded as a construction business in the 1840s but switched to publishing in the 1920s. Spender, J. A., ''Weetman Pearson: F ...
agreed to operate the zipper three days before ''Newsday'' lease expired, using the zipper for news, announcements, and advertisements of its own products.


Lehman Brothers ownership

Banque National de Paris (BNP) bought the building at a foreclosure auction in January 1995 for $25.2 million. The financial services firm
Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, ...
acquired the building shortly afterward for $27.5 million. According to the ''Times'', Lehman Brothers had been "ridiculed" for buying the building at that price.
Madame Tussauds Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in 1835 by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer us ...
, a subsidiary of Pearson PLC, had sought to lease space for a museum in One Times Square but could not reach an agreement with the new owner. Lehman Brothers felt that it would be economically inefficient to use the tower as an office building because it was so small, so the firm decided to market the tower as a location for advertising. The entire exterior of One Times Square above the ticker was modified to add a grid frame for mounting
billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...
signs.
Dow Jones & Company Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp and led by CEO Almar Latour. The company publishes ''The Wall Street Journal'', '' Barron's'', ''MarketWatch'', ''Mansion Global'', ''Financial News'' and ''Private ...
started operating the zipper in June 1995, and Dow Jones replaced the zipper in mid-1997, donating part of the old zipper to the
Museum of the City of New York A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
. Sony's Jumbotron operated until 1996. Alongside its use for advertising and news, it was also frequently used by the producers of the
late-night talk show A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show popular in the United States, where the format originated. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It i ...
''
Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production ...
'', who could display a live feed from its studio on the screen as well. As a cost-saving measure, Sony declined to renew its lease of the space, leading to the subsequent removal of the Jumbotron in June 1996. Due to its frequent use by ''Late Show'', its producer Rob Burnett jokingly considered the removal of the Jumbotron to be "a sad, sad day for New York." The last office tenants moved out of the building in 1996, and the first electronic billboards were installed the same year. In October 1996, Warner Bros. agreed to lease the building and operate a retail store at the base. The complex would include a four-story restaurant on the roof. Warner Bros. hired Frank O. Gehry to design the store, and Gehry released his plans in early 1997. The proposal called for gutting the lowest eight stories and replacing the facade with a translucent wire mesh.


Jamestown ownership


Late 1990s and 2000s

Lehman Brothers sold One Times Square in June 1997 to Jamestown L.P. for about $110 million, four times more than what Lehman Brothers had paid for the building just two years earlier. Sherwood Equities owned a minority stake in the building and was the leasing agent for the retail space. The Warner Bros. store then opened in April 1998, occupying on three stories. The store was known as "1 Toon Square", a reference to its address. In advance of the 1999–2000 New Year's celebrations, the ball atop One Times Square's roof was replaced once again. After a portion of the building's exterior signs collapsed in March 1999, the New York City Department of Buildings ordered that four of the building's billboards be removed.
Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...
announced in mid-2001 that it would close the Warner Bros. store that October due to a decline in business. Time Warner continued to pay rent for the vacant retail space. In 2002, plans were announced for a
7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...
convenience store, the Times Square Brewery, and Two Boots Pizza in One Times Square. However, the planned 7-Eleven store was ultimately canceled. Jamestown then repaired 450 panels on the building's facade in the mid-2000s. During this project, one of the facade's panels fell to the ground in 2004, injuring two pedestrians. Due to the building's small size, it only housed a single office tenant during the 2000s and 2010s: the production company in charge of the Times Square Ball drop. In early 2006, the lower floors were occupied by a pop-up store operated by
J. C. Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...
and known as ''The J C. Penney Experience''. The
pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...
chain
Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, a ...
leased the entire building in 2007, paying $4 million yearly. The chain had previously operated a store in the building for four decades until 1970. Walgreens opened a new flagship store in the space in November 2008. As part of the store's opening, Gilmore Group designed a digital sign for the facade, constructed by D3 LED. The sign ran diagonally up the western and eastern elevations of the building and contained 12 million LEDs, surpassing the nearby Nasdaq MarketSite sign as the largest LED sign in Times Square. The sign operated 20 hours a day and advertised Walgreens's products.


2010s to present

In September 2017, Jamestown unveiled plans to use much of its vacant space. Under the proposal, a museum dedicated to the history of Times Square would be built on the 15th through 17th floors, and the 18th floor would contain a new
observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. ...
. At the time, the building's billboards had started to become dated because of the increasing popularity of interactive programming. The ground level would also be renovated to provide an expanded entrance to the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...
's Times Square–42nd Street station, directly underneath the building. Work on the subway entrance was originally supposed to be completed in 2018, but the MTA did not start construction on the 42nd Street Shuttle reconstruction project until August 2019. As part of the redevelopment of One Times Square, a new staircase entrance with a glass canopy, as well as a new elevator entrance, would be built. The new $40 million station entrance, including the elevator, formally opened in May 2022. Jamestown announced in January 2019 that it planned to renovate the building and lease the upper floors, which at the time were completely blocked by billboards. Jamestown also planned to either terminate Walgreens's lease or reduce the size of the pharmacy. ''The Real Deal'' magazine estimated that Jamestown was earning $23 million per year from the building's billboards. Later the same year, the individual billboard screens on the front of the tower were replaced by one
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
LED display, with a resolution of 1312×7380 pixels. The installation of the screen necessitated the removal of the Zipper. The Walgreens store at the building's base had closed permanently by 2022. Jamestown started renovating 1 Times Square in May 2022 at a cost of $500 million. To finance the project, Jamestown received a $425 million mortgage from
JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, t ...
, a building loan of $88.7 million, and a project loan of $39.8 million. S9 Architecture designed the renovation, while AECOM and Tishman Construction were the general contractors. The advertising boards on the northern facade remained in place, but the advertisements on the other three facades were removed. The 1960s marble facade would be removed and replaced with a glass curtain wall. The structure would contain only one story of office space after it reopened; the museum would occupy six stories. Technology companies would be able to lease 12 stories for interactive attractions. The building's observation deck would be open year-round, and the Times Square Ball would drop several times a day throughout the year. Jamestown would also install a new elevator to the building's observation deck. The building would continue to display ads on its northern facade, and it would host New Year's Eve celebrations during the renovation, which was to be completed in 2024. The
Durst Organization The Durst Organization is one of the oldest family-run commercial and residential real estate companies in New York City. Established in 1915, the company is owned and operated by the third generation of the Durst family. As of 2014, it owns and ...
, which owned the neighboring 4 Times Square, sued the city's DOB in July 2022, claiming that the scaffolding around One Times Square would attract crime while worsening congestion on the sidewalk.


Architecture

Eidlitz & McKenzie had originally designed One Times Square in the
neo-Gothic style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
. This style was reportedly used because the irregular shape of the site prevented the architects from designing a neoclassical or
neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...
building. The ''Times'' had described the edifice as being tall, measured from the deepest basement level to the pinnacle of the tower's flagpole. The actual height from street level to roofline was , making it the city's second tallest office building when it opened, after the
Park Row Building The Park Row Building, also known as 15 Park Row, is a luxury apartment building and early skyscraper on Park Row in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The , 31-story building was designed by R. H. Robertson ...
. Without its tower, the ''Times'' Building only measured tall.
David W. Dunlap David W. Dunlap (born 1952) is an American journalist who worked as a reporter for '' The New York Times''. He wrote a regular column, Building Blocks, that looked at the New York metropolitan area through its architecture, infrastructure, spaces ...
of the ''Times'' wrote that, when the building was completed, it was in his employer's "self-interest to assert that building heights ought to be measured from the lowest level."


Facade

When the Times Tower opened, it contained an elaborately decorated facade of limestone and
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...
. The facade's articulation consisted of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a
column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...
, namely a base, shaft, and
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
. The facade contained several slightly projecting sections, which indicated the locations of steel columns in the building's
superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...
. The southern portion of the building extended about back from 42nd Street and was taller than the northern portion. This increased the amount of rentable space, since the southern part of the site was wider. The plate glass used in the building weighed . The first three stories were elaborately decorated and were clad entirely in cream-colored
Indiana limestone Indiana limestone — also known as Bedford limestone in the building trade — has long been an economically important building material, particularly for monumental public structures. Indiana limestone is a more common term for Salem Limestone, ...
, a material chosen for its durability. There were elaborately carved doorways on both Broadway and Seventh Avenue, as well as a horizontal band course of limestone above the third story. Some of the decoration on the lower levels was made of iron, including the ground-floor windows. The windows at the base were smaller than they normally would have been, thereby giving the impression of massiveness. The 4th through 12th stories, comprising the shaft, contained little decoration. These stories were clad in cream-colored brick, which was glazed to resemble the terracotta on the rest of the facade. The upper stories contained extremely ornate terracotta details such as
brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
and
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
s. There were ornamental ironwork window frames above the 12th story. Above the 16th story, the roof of the northern section was made of wire glass. The trapezoidal "tower" above the southern half of the building was designed to resemble a square
campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tow ...
. Each elevation of this tower contained one arched window flanked by smaller, single windows. Critics compared the tower's detail to that of Giotto's Campanile in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
. Arthur G. Bein of ''American Architect'' magazine said: "The architect has been free to reproduce almost exactly Giotto's great machicolated cornice with perforated parapet above." Each corner of the tower contained projecting piers, designed in a manner that resembled turrets. Originally, Eidlitz had planned to build a dome atop the southern part of the building, but he scrapped these plans because of the difficulty in placing a circular dome above an irregular trapezoidal
massing Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building. Massing in architectural theory Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
. In 1965, the building's original facade was replaced with 420 concrete and marble panels. Each panel was made of a layer of precast concrete covered with a layer of white Vermont marble. Twenty of these panels measured and the other 400 panels measured . The rear of each panel was anchored to the building's superstructure. ''Progressive Architecture'' magazine criticized the renovation as "a face-lifting job of thorough-going blandness". All four elevations of the facade were covered with billboards in the 1990s. , the concrete-and-marble facade of the western, southern, and eastern elevations is being removed and replaced with glass panels.


Structural features


Substructure

The foundation of the building extended deep and was excavated to the underlying layer of
bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of be ...
. It is surrounded by waterproof retaining walls, which are backfilled with a mixture of loose stone and cement. The foundation itself consists of cast-steel footings, above which rise the building's steel columns. The footings each measure across, and their centers are spaced apart. Each steel footing is placed atop a heavy granite block measuring across and thick, which in turn rests directly on the underlying bedrock. Structural loads from the upper stories are carried down into the footings and then spread across the layer of bedrock, which carries a load of . The retaining walls of the foundation are made of red brick. On the eastern part of the site (where the underlying rock sloped upward), workers built a retaining wall with embedded
I-beam An I-beam, also known as H-beam (for universal column, UC), w-beam (for "wide flange"), universal beam (UB), rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially in Polish, Bulgarian, Spanish, Italian and German), is a beam with an or -shap ...
s, providing additional wind bracing. The building contains three basement levels, the lowest of which is deep. The Times Square subway station encroaches on a portion of the first and second basement levels. The subway station itself is placed below ground and has a ceiling high. The pillars of the subway tunnel were covered in brick and were placed atop sound-dampening sand cushions, minimizing vibrations caused by passing subway trains. Part of the superstructure is
cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cant ...
ed above the subway tunnel, since the city's Rapid Transit Commission forbade any obstructions in subway tunnel's
right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
. The northern wall rests on a
plate girder A plate girder bridge is a bridge supported by two or more plate girders. Overview In a plate girder bridge, the plate girders are typically I-beams made up from separate structural steel plates (rather than rolled as a single cross-section), ...
above the subway tunnel; at the time of construction, it was the heaviest girder in the world to be installed in an office building. This girder measures long and consists of a group of three I-beams, which collectively measure wide and high. Seven
piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
in the basement, each measuring high, carry the entire
structural load A structural load or structural action is a force, deformation, or acceleration applied to structural elements. A load causes stress, deformation, and displacement in a structure. Structural analysis, a discipline in engineering, analyzes the ...
of the upper levels; they are encased in Portland cement.


Superstructure

The superstructure contains two-story-tall sections of steel columns. At each story, the columns are connected horizontally by a grid of steel
girders A girder () is a support beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. Girders often have an I-beam cross section composed of two load-bearing ''flanges'' separated by a stabilizin ...
. On average, each girder measures long, and there are about 150 pieces of steel used on each story. The seven main structural columns are embedded within the walls on each story. Structural engineers Purdy and Henderson designed three systems of wind bracing for the building. The first system consists of the girders on each story, which are welded to the building's columns via gusset plates. The building also contains "X"-shaped diagonal bracing, placed within the partitions next to each of the elevator shafts. Between the individual elevator shafts is a system of knee bracing; it consists of diagonal steel bars shaped like a rotated "K", which extend downward from the centers of the horizontal girders. The structural steel frame carried a dead load of . Originally, the spaces between the girders were spanned by flat arches made of hollow bricks, which were then covered with a layer of cement. Fireproof timber sleepers were then installed atop these flat arches, and a layer of fireproof wood was installed above these sleepers. The
finished Finished may refer to: * ''Finished'' (novel), a 1917 novel by H. Rider Haggard * ''Finished'' (film), a 1923 British silent romance film * "Finished" (short story), a science fiction short story by L. Sprague de Camp See also *Finishing (disa ...
wooden floor was then installed above the layer of fireproof wood. The partition walls were constructed of square bricks, which were then finished in plaster. The building's elevator shafts were surrounded by walls made of fire-clay, which were then covered with a layer of tiled brick. The superstructure used of iron, brick, mortar, terracotta, limestone, masonry, and other materials.


Interior

Initially, the entrance on Broadway led to an elevator lobby with decorative
pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s, while the entrance on Seventh Avenue led to an ornamental staircase. The lobby contained a ceiling measuring high. The lowest part of the wall contained a marble
wainscoting Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity to make ro ...
that measured high, while the upper portion of the wall was painted white. The top of the main hall contained a paneled cornice decorated with a shell motif. The floor was made of white mosaic. There were seven oak-framed revolving doors in the building: two at the Broadway entrance to the lobby, one at the 42nd Street entrance, and four leading to the subway station in the basement. On the first basement level was a pedestrian arcade with several small stores, which ran from street level to the Times Square station's southbound platform. The arcade was closed in 1967 due to high crime, but an archway leading from the station to One Times Square's basement remained visible until the 2000s. The rest of the first basement contained storefronts and the ''Times's'' mailing department, while the second basement contained the mailing and repair departments. The third basement is larger than the other basement levels, extending underneath the sidewalk to the curb line on all sides. It covers an area of , three times as large as each of the office stories above. The third basement level contained the pressroom, which was connected via a freight elevator to the second basement. The southern section of the pressroom originally contained four
printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
es. The pressroom was illuminated by
areaway In architecture, an area (areaway in North America) is an excavated, subterranean space around the walls of a building, designed to admit light into a basement. Also called a lightwell, it often provides access to the house and a store-room/serv ...
s on 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, which measured deep and contained glazed-brick cladding. These areaways, as well as the southbound platform of the Times Square station, were covered by glass skylights. The first twelve stories above ground were rented out to other tenants, except for the ''New York Times'' publication office at ground level. The 13th through 21st stories contained various departments for ''The New York Times''. Each office was decorated with ornamental cornices and red-oak doors. Offices occupied the northernmost of the building, which was extremely narrow. In the southern half of the building, a hallway ran down the middle of each story, separating offices to the west and east. These hallways were decorated with white mosaic tile floors and marble wainscoting on the walls. The 16th story, used as a composing room, was the highest story in the northern section of the building. The top six stories, which contained the ''Times's'' editorial offices, had windows on all four sides. All offices were located within of a window, and the building was narrow enough that there were no light shafts to provide natural light to interior offices. When the building was completed, each office was illuminated by natural light for at least five hours every day. The former electrical room in the tower's basement serves as a "vault" for the storage of items relating to New Year's Eve celebrations at Times Square, including the ball itself (prior to 2009, when it was replaced with a weatherproofed version that is displayed atop the tower year-round), spare parts, numeral signage and other memorabilia. A room near the top of the tower likewise contains the ball's electronics, including its lighting controller and
winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attach ...
.


Mechanical features

Stairs and elevators were placed on the western side of the building, and there were restrooms on each story next to the stairs and elevators. When the building was constructed, it had seven elevators and over a hundred other motorized appliances, including printing presses, pumps, and fans. Of these, five elevators were for passengers and two were for freight. Two of the building's elevators (one passenger and one freight) ran from the basement to the top story, while the other elevators only ran to the 16th story. Although all the passenger elevators could travel at , one of these elevators could also be used to transport heavy equipment and could be slowed down to , thereby doubling its carrying capacity. The elevator cabs were originally copper cages with mirrors on each wall. The building contained two boilers, which were each capable of . Steam risers distributed heat from the boilers to 542 radiators. Water from the New York City water supply system was drawn into the basement and filtered at a rate of per minute. The filtered water was then pumped up to the 23rd floor and distributed to other stories. In case of a fire, there was a water tank in the basement and two tanks on the 23rd floor. Three sewage pumps, with a combined capacity of , were used to pump wastewater out of the building. In addition, there was a gas pipe extending from the cellar to the 16th floor. Outdoor air was drawn into an air-intake opening at street level and through
air filter A particulate air filter is a device composed of fibrous, or porous materials which removes solid particulates such as dust, pollen, mold, and bacteria from the air. Filters containing an adsorbent or catalyst such as charcoal (carbon) may a ...
s in the basement; the filtered air was then distributed to the offices. On the Seventh Avenue side of the building was a ventilation pipe, which faced the building's outer wall and was surrounded by the stairs, elevators, and restrooms on each floor. During the summer, a large electric fan pushed stale air upward through the ventilation pipe. The building also contained 2,400 electrical outlets and over 6,200 lamps. The offices were illuminated by 150 ornate chandeliers on the 2nd through 14th floors. There originally were of electrical wires and of electrical conduits in the building.


Billboards

One Times Square's first electronic billboards were installed in 1996. A Cup Noodles billboard with
steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...
effects was added to the front of the tower, later accompanied by an animated Budweiser sign. In October, a 55-foot video screen sponsored by
ITT Corporation ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three business ...
was introduced to the top of the tower, which would feature video advertisements and community service announcements. In December 1996, a
Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb ...
display operated by NBC known as ''Astrovision'' was introduced as a replacement for Sony's Jumbotron at the base of the tower. Filings related to the building's 1997 sale revealed that the billboards on the tower had been generating a net revenue of $7 million yearly, representing a 300% profit. Sherwood Equities president Brian Turner estimated in 2005 that over 200 million people saw the Times Square Ball drop at the building every year. With growing tourism and high traffic in the Times Square area (with a yearly average of over 100 million pedestriansalongside its prominence in media coverage of New Year's festivities, seen by a wide audience yearly), annual revenue from the signs grew to over $23 million by the year 2012rivaling
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
's Piccadilly Circus as the most valuable public advertising space in the world.


Advertisers

From 1996 to 2006, Nissin Foods operated a Cup Noodles
billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...
with smoke effects (an effect that had also been used by other Times Square billboards, such as the Camel Cigarettes sign). The Cup Noodles billboard was replaced in 2006 by a
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
billboard featuring a
Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ou ...
branded clock. Due to cutbacks resulting from GM's bankruptcy and re-organization, the Chevrolet Clock was removed in 2009 and eventually replaced by a Kia Motors advertisement billboard. This billboard was itself replaced in 2010 by a
Dunkin' Donuts Dunkin' Donuts LLC, also known as Dunkin' and by the initials DD, is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company, as well as a quick service restaurant. It was founded by Bill Rosenberg (1916–2002) in Quincy, Massachusetts, in ...
display. In 1998,
Discover Card Discover is a credit card brand issued primarily in the United States. It was introduced by Sears in 1985. When launched, Discover did not charge an annual fee and offered a higher-than-normal credit limit, features that were disruptive to the ...
replaced ITT Corporation as the operator and sponsor of the topmost screen on One Times Square as part of a ten-year deal. The deal came alongside the announcement that Discover Card would be an official sponsor of Times Square's 1999–2000 festivities.
News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...
(later renamed
21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, fo ...
) replaced NBC as the operator and sponsor of the Astrovision screen in 2006. Sony returned to One Times Square in 2010, replacing the News Corp. Panasonic screen with a new high-definition LED display. In December 2007,
Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...
took over sponsorship of the top-most screen of One Times Square from Discover Card in a 10-year lease. The screen displayed not only Toshiba products but also videos about tourism in Japan. In 2008, upgrades to the upper portion of One Times Square commenced, including the installation of new Toshiba high-definition LED displays (known as ''ToshibaVision''), and the redesign of its roof to accommodate a larger New Year's Eve ball, which became a year-round fixture of the building beginning in 2009. Toshiba announced that it would end its One Times Square sponsorship in early 2018, citing ongoing cost-cutting measures.


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* * {{Authority control 1904 establishments in New York City 42nd Street (Manhattan) Broadway (Manhattan)
1 Times Square One Times Square (also known as 1475 Broadway, the New York Times Building, the New York Times Tower, or simply as the Times Tower) is a 25-story, skyscraper on Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed ...
Mass media company headquarters in the United States The New York Times
1 Times Square One Times Square (also known as 1475 Broadway, the New York Times Building, the New York Times Tower, or simply as the Times Tower) is a 25-story, skyscraper on Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed ...
Newspaper headquarters in the United States Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)
1 Times Square One Times Square (also known as 1475 Broadway, the New York Times Building, the New York Times Tower, or simply as the Times Tower) is a 25-story, skyscraper on Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed ...
1 Times Square One Times Square (also known as 1475 Broadway, the New York Times Building, the New York Times Tower, or simply as the Times Tower) is a 25-story, skyscraper on Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed ...