Hearst Building
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The Hearst Tower is a building at the southwest corner of 57th Street and Eighth Avenue, near
Columbus Circle Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eighth Avenue, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, ...
, in the
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...
neighborhood of
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, New York, U.S. It is the world
headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...
of media conglomerate
Hearst Communications Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
, housing many of the firm's publications and communications companies. The Hearst Tower consists of two sections, with a total height of and 46 stories. The six lowest stories form the Hearst Magazine Building (also known as the International Magazine Building), designed by
Joseph Urban Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872 – July 10, 1933) was an Austrian-American architect, illustrator, and scenic designer. Life and career Joseph Urban was born on May 26, 1872, in Vienna. He received his first architectural commission at age 19 wh ...
and
George B. Post George Browne Post (December15, 1837November28, 1913) was an American architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition. Active from 1869 almost until his death, he was recognized as a master of several contemporary American architectural genres, an ...
& Sons, which was completed in 1928. Above it is the Hearst Tower addition, designed by
Norman Foster Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (born 1 June 1935) is an English architect. Closely associated with the development of high-tech architecture, Lord Foster is recognised as a key figure in British modernist architecture. Hi ...
and finished in 2006. The building's main entrance is on Eighth Avenue. The original structure is clad with stone and contains six pylons with sculptural groups. The tower section above has a glass-and-metal facade arranged as a
diagrid A diagrid (a portmanteau of diagonal grid) is a framework of diagonally intersecting metal, concrete, or wooden beams that is used in the construction of buildings and roofs. It requires less structural steel than a conventional steel fram ...
, or diagonal grid, which doubles as its structural system. The original office space in the Hearst Magazine Building was replaced with an atrium during the Hearst Tower's construction. The tower is certified as a
green building Green building (also known as green construction, sustainable building, or eco-friendly building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's li ...
as part of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (
LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...
) program. Hearst Magazine Building developer
William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...
acquired the site for a theater in the mid-1920s, in the belief that the area would become the city's next large entertainment district, but changed his plans to construct a magazine headquarters there. The original building was developed as the base for a larger tower, which was postponed because of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. A subsequent expansion proposal, during the 1940s, also failed. The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the Government of New York City, New York City agency charged with administering the city's Historic preservation, Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting Ne ...
designated the facade of the original building as a city landmark in 1988. After Hearst Communications considered expanding the structure again during the 1980s, the tower stories were developed in the first decade of the 21st century.


Site

The Hearst Tower is on the border of the
Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, or Midtown West on real estate listings, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, ...
and
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...
neighborhoods of
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, New York, U.S. Located two blocks south of
Columbus Circle Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eighth Avenue, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, ...
, it is bounded by 56th Street on the south, Eighth Avenue on the east, and 57th Street on the north. The building faces Central Park Place on the north, 3 Columbus Circle on the northeast, and
Random House Tower The Random House Tower, also known as the Park Imperial Apartments, is a 52-story, mixed-use tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is owned by real estate companies SL Green Realty and Ivanhoé Cambridge. Since its opening, the offi ...
on the east. It is one block south of
Deutsche Bank Center Deutsche Bank Center (also known as One Columbus Circle and formerly Time Warner Center) is a mixed-use building on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building occupies the western side of Columbus Circle and strad ...
(formerly Time Warner Center) and
2 Columbus Circle 2 Columbus Circle (formerly the Gallery of Modern Art and the New York Cultural Center) is a nine-story building on the south side of Columbus Circle in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building fills a small city block ...
. The base of the Hearst Tower has three street addresses: 951–969 Eighth Avenue, 301–313 West 56th Street, and 302–312 West 57th Street. The site is a nearly-square lot covering and measuring . Entrances to the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
's 59th Street–Columbus Circle station are in the base of the tower. The Hearst Tower, and the Hearst Magazine Building at its base, are near a former artistic hub around a two-block section of West 57th Street between
Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue, also known as Avenue of the Americas, is a major thoroughfare in 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 b ...
and
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...
. The hub had been developed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, after the opening of
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
on Seventh Avenue in 1891. The area contained the headquarters of several organizations, such as the
American Fine Arts Society The Art Students League of New York Building (also the American Fine Arts Society and 215 West 57th Street) is a building on 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh in the Frenc ...
, the
Lotos Club The Lotos Club is a private social club in New York City. Founded primarily by a young group of writers and critics in 1870 as a gentlemen's club, it has since begun accepting women as members. Mark Twain, an early member, called it the "Ace of ...
, and the ASCE Society House. Although the original Hearst Magazine Building was just outside the artistic hub, its proximity to these institutions was a factor in the choice of its location. By the 21st century, the arts hub had largely been replaced with
Billionaires' Row Billionaires' Row is a group of ultra-luxury residential skyscrapers, and the neighborhood surrounding them, near the southern end of Central Park in the Midtown Manhattan, Midtown section of Manhattan in New York City. Several of these buildin ...
, a series of luxury skyscrapers around the southern end of
Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
. Immediately prior to the construction of the Hearst Magazine Building in the 1920s, the site was referred to as the Hegeman site. Sixteen people had owned the land, which was largely vacant except for an open-air movie theater and some stores.


Architecture

The original six-story structure, known as the Hearst Magazine Building or the International Magazine Building, was designed by architect
Joseph Urban Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872 – July 10, 1933) was an Austrian-American architect, illustrator, and scenic designer. Life and career Joseph Urban was born on May 26, 1872, in Vienna. He received his first architectural commission at age 19 wh ...
and the architectural firm
George B. Post George Browne Post (December15, 1837November28, 1913) was an American architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition. Active from 1869 almost until his death, he was recognized as a master of several contemporary American architectural genres, an ...
& Sons. Completed in 1928 and intended as the base of a future tower, the Hearst Magazine Building was designed in early
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
style. Henry Kreis designed six sculpture groups at the third story. The Hearst Magazine Building is the only survivor of an unbuilt entertainment complex which its developer,
Hearst Communications Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
founder
William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...
, envisioned for Columbus Circle in the early 20th century. The tower, designed by
Norman Foster Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (born 1 June 1935) is an English architect. Closely associated with the development of high-tech architecture, Lord Foster is recognised as a key figure in British modernist architecture. Hi ...
, was completed in 2006—almost eight decades after the base was built. The Hearst Corporation and
Tishman Speyer Tishman Speyer is an American multinational corporation based at 45 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. The conglomerate invests in high-profile real estate properties, has developed multiple buildings around the world, and has owned famou ...
developed the tower;
WSP Global WSP Global Inc. is a Canadian consulting firm working mostly in the built environment. It was created in 2012, following Montreal-based Genivar's takeover of British firm WSP Group plc. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. After the pu ...
was the structural engineer, and
Turner Construction The Turner Construction Company is an American construction company with presence in 20 countries. It is a subsidiary of the German company Hochtief. It is the largest domestic contractor in the United States as of 2020, with a revenue of $14.4 ...
was the main contractor. The two sections have a combined height of , with forty-six stories above ground. Its base occupies nearly the whole lot and originally contained floors, arranged in a "U" shape, flanking a courtyard on the west. Along much of the base, the third through sixth stories are slightly set back from the lowest two floors. The original building's roof was above ground. The upper stories are more deeply set back from the lowest six floors on the north, east, and south sides Each of the upper stories has a footprint of , with the longer dimension extending from east to west. The setbacks above the sixth floor contain a skylight wide. The Hearst Tower has of office space. According to the
New York City Department of City Planning The Department of City Planning (DCP) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for setting the framework of city's physical and socioeconomic planning. The department is responsible for land use and environmental review, p ...
, the building has a
gross floor area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured in square metres or square feet) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the bui ...
of . The tower received a zoning bonus which enabled its maximum floor area to be expanded by six floors or , a twenty-percent increase from the previous maximum allowed floor area of . The Hearst Corporation agreed to improve access to the subway station underneath in return, adding three elevators and reconfiguring the station's circulation areas. Without the zoning amendment, the Hearst Corporation might have had to pay up to $10 million for additional
air rights In real estate, air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the Earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning or renting land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by oth ...
, as the company had already used up all the air rights above the Hearst Magazine Building.


Facade


Base

The cast-limestone facade of the Hearst Magazine Building, now the base, is a
New York City designated landmark 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 c ...
with of surface area. It is divided horizontally into the two lowest stories, three intermediate stories, and a sixth-story attic. The base's northeastern and southeastern corners are
chamfer A chamfer ( ) is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fur ...
ed (angled). A
balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...
is in front of the third-story windows, supported by a shelf with notches and interrupted by the chamfered corners. A
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...
is above the fifth story, except in the
bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...
above the entrance arches on Eighth Avenue and 57th Street and at the chamfered corners. With the construction of the Hearst Tower, the base's facade was retrofitted to meet updated city seismic codes. Because the original office space was replaced with an atrium in the Hearst Tower's construction, the windows on the third through sixth stories of the facade now illuminate the atrium. The main entrance, at the center of the Eighth Avenue
elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
, contains a large archway flanked by a pair of smaller, rectangular doorways. The archway has gray granite panels at its base and
voussoir A voussoir ( UK: ; US: ) is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.“Voussoir, N., Pronunciation.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7553486115. Acces ...
s and a beveled keystone at its top, overlapping with a balcony. The
barrel-vaulted A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
vestibule inside the archway contains embossed octagonal
coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, al ...
s. The far western end of the vestibule has an entrance with a bronze frame and four glass doors beneath a bronze-and-glass transom. There is a subway entrance on the right (north) side of the Eighth Avenue entrance vestibule. On either side of the entrance arch, the Eighth Avenue elevation contains glass and metal storefronts at ground level and seven sash windows on the second story. On 57th Street, a former secondary entrance was altered to create a storefront topped by a window. There is another subway entrance on the left of the original doorway. The remainder of the ground-story facades at 57th and 56th Streets also contain glass and metal storefronts, with loading docks on the far western section of the 56th Street facade. The base contains six pylons, which are supported by stone pedestals with sculptural groupings on the third story and topped by sculpted urns above the sixth story. The pylons indicate that the building was originally planned as a theater. The centers of the Eighth Avenue and 57th Street facades are identical, with two pylons each. The left pylon on both entrances contains sculpture groups depicting comedy and tragedy, and the right pylon contains sculptures representing music and art. Similar pylons rise in front of the northeast and southeast corners of the base. The northeast-corner pylon contains a group representing printing and the sciences, and the southeast-corner pylon has a group representing sports and industry. Between the pairs of pylons on Eighth Avenue and on 57th Street, on each of the third through sixth stories, is a tripartite window with fluted stone
spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...
s. The Eighth Avenue and 57th Street elevations contain seven bays, on either side of the vertical bay, which are set back above the second story. The third through fifth stories of these elevations have
sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...
s, slightly recessed behind the main facade, and the sixth-story windows are flush with the cast-stone facade. The setback and window arrangement are carried around to the eight eastern bays on 56th Street. The two westernmost bays on 57th Street and the twelve westernmost bays on 56th Street are not set back above the second story, and do not contain third-story balustrades. The third-through-fifth story bays on the western section of the 56th Street facade are grouped into six pairs, separated by
pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s which were designed to emphasize the upper, never-built stories.


Tower

A
clerestory A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...
wraps around the seventh through tenth floors atop the base, structurally separating the tower from the base. The tower facade has a triangular framing pattern known as a
diagrid A diagrid (a portmanteau of diagonal grid) is a framework of diagonally intersecting metal, concrete, or wooden beams that is used in the construction of buildings and roofs. It requires less structural steel than a conventional steel fram ...
(short for "diagonal grid") above the tenth floor, which is the tower's structural support system. The diagrid divides the tower's sides horizontally into four-story segments and diagonally into alternating upright and inverted triangles, which intersect at "nodes" along points of the facade. The arrangement of the diagrid creates chamfered "birds' mouths" at the tower's corners at the 14th, 22nd, 30th, and 38th floors. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote that the beams and "birds' mouths" run at a 75-degree angle to the horizontal floor slabs; another author cites the beams as running at a 65-degree angle. The structural system, similar to the
Commerzbank Tower Commerzbank Tower is a 56-story, skyscraper in the Bankenviertel, banking district of Frankfurt, Germany. An antenna tower, antenna spire with a signal light on top gives the tower a total height of . It is List of tallest buildings in Germany ...
in Frankfurt and
30 St Mary Axe 30 St Mary Axe, previously known as the Swiss Re Building, is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. Its nickname, The Gherkin, is due to its resemblance to the vegetable. It was completed in Decem ...
in London, was developed in conjunction with Ysrael Seinuk. The triangles in the diagrid are prefabricated panels, which were manufactured by the Cives Steel Company in New York and Virginia. Each of the triangles is tall. The diagonal beams are typically long by wide. The columns are bolted, rather than welded, to each other at the nodes. The diagrid required of structural
steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
, twenty percent less than what would have normally been required for a building of similar size. More than ninety percent of the steel in the diagrid is recycled. The exterior curtain wall was constructed by Permasteelisa, which mounted 3,200 glass panels on the facade. The panels are typically tall by wide, although 625 of them were built to custom specifications. Because of the facade's intricate design, the tower's window cleaning rig took three years and $3 million to plan. It incorporates "a rectangular steel box the size of a
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" on the roof, which hoists a mast and a hydraulic boom arm. Sixty-seven sensors and switches are housed in the box. A window-cleaning deck hangs from the hydraulic boom arm, supported by six wire-rope strands. The rig, installed in April 2005 on of elevated steel track circling the tower's roof, snapped in 2013 and trapped two window cleaners.


Features


Structural features

The Hearst Magazine Building is supported by steel columns on its perimeter. The original framework was intended to support at least seven additional stories. Joseph Urban's original plans for the tower no longer exist but, by some accounts, it would have been up to 20 stories tall. The Hearst Magazine Building had six elevator shafts, double or triple the expected number of elevators for a building of its size. A white-brick penthouse was completed above the sixth story for future expansion of the elevators. The Hearst Magazine Building's original framework was removed when the Hearst Tower was built in the 2000s. Its structure was hollowed out for the atrium of the expanded building, and new columns were installed behind the facade. "Mega columns" extend down from the perimeter of the tower, and the existing frame and new columns are connected with beams at the third and seventh stories. Eight "super-diagonals" slope from the third to the tenth floors. The Hearst Tower has twenty-one elevators. Its stairways and elevators are in a service core along the west side, the only one that does not face a street. The original plan called for the service core to be at the center of the tower, but it was redesigned after the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
in 2001 as a security precaution against possible attacks from the street. The offset core also enables the office floors to have an
open plan Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan that makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices. The term can also refer to landscaping of ...
, without interior columns. To compensate for the offset service core and lack of interior columns, the tower's weight is supported by the exterior diagrid (which is braced by the service core). Since the 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 bed ...
under the Hearst Tower varies in depth, the tower's foundation was built with two methods. Bedrock is only a few feet under half of the basement, and spread footings were used. Under the other half of the basement, where bedrock is a maximum of down, twenty-one caissons were installed.


Interior

The Hearst Magazine Building initially contained office space with ceilings. The original building's office space was replaced with a atrium when the tower was built. The atrium has a volume of . The lobby, accessed by escalators from the Eighth Avenue entrance, is on the third story of the original building. The escalators run through a waterfall, which uses recycled water from the building's
green roof A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...
. The waterfall is complemented by ''Riverlines,'' a
fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...
by Richard Long. The atrium has two mezzanines; one contains a 380-seat cafeteria, and the other houses an exhibition area. The cafeteria, Cafe 57, is used by Hearst employees and visitors. The north side of the atrium has a screening room. Two storefronts are at ground level under the atrium: an
anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ', which itself comes from the Greek (). Anch ...
space with about , and another space with about . The tower begins with the tenth story, which is high and slightly above the roof of the atrium. Each tower story covers , and has ceilings. The floors were designed to house many Hearst publications and communications companies, including ''
Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...
'', ''
Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...
'', ''
Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' (stylized in all lowercase; ) is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on women aro ...
'', ''
Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...
'', ''
Good Housekeeping ''Good Housekeeping'' is an American lifestyle media brand that covers a wide range of topics from home decor and renovation, health, beauty and food, to entertainment, pets and gifts. The Good Housekeeping Institute which opened its "Experiment ...
'', and '' Seventeen''. In addition to Hearst offices, the tower has a staff fitness center on the 14th floor. Executive rooms are on the 44th floor. The tower has several design features intended to meet
green building Green building (also known as green construction, sustainable building, or eco-friendly building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's li ...
standards as part of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (
LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...
) program. The limestone-clad floor slabs of the atrium and office floors contain
polyethylene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bott ...
tubes for heated (or cooled) water to regulate temperature and humidity. A tank in the basement collects rainwater from the building's roof, some of which is pumped through the lobby's waterfall. The furniture and lights were designed to be energy-efficient. Two executive stories have daylight dimming systems, which dim when there is sunlight; the other office stories have daylight switching systems, which turn off when there is sunlight. About 85 percent of the material from the old building's interior was recycled for use in the tower's construction.


History

William Randolph Hearst moved to New York City in 1895, and became a successful magazine magnate over the following three decades. Almost immediately after moving to the city, Hearst envisioned the creation of a large Midtown headquarters around Columbus Circle in the belief that the area would become the city's next large entertainment district. From 1895 to the mid-1920s, Hearst bought several large plots around the circle for his headquarters. Hearst also believed that Manhattan's
Theater District A theater district (also spelled theatre district) is a common name for a neighborhood containing a city's theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences ...
would extend to Columbus Circle and became interested in theater partially because of his mistress, actress
Marion Davies Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies left the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...
. Hearst hired Joseph Urban for several early-20th-century theater projects, and the men became close friends.


Original development

By early 1924, Hearst had obtained an option to acquire a 200-by-200-foot site along Eighth Avenue from 56th to 57th Street, near the 57th Street artistic hub. That April, he acquired the property title for the site. Hearst gradually acquired large areas of land around the intersection of Eighth Avenue and 57th Street, though none of the other sites were developed.
Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
director Otto Hermann Kahn had begun planning a new
opera house An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...
to replace an existing building at 39th Street and Broadway at the same time, spending $3 million in late 1925 to acquire the site west of Hearst's lot. Plans for the 57th Street opera house were made public in January 1926, but the Met abandoned the plans two years later. In conjunction with the canceled opera house, Hearst originally planned to construct a two-story office and retail building with a 2,500-seat theater designed by Michael Bernstein. This was subsequently changed to a six-story office and theater building, designed by Thomas W. Lamb. Hearst's magazines were slated to be published three blocks west, on a block bounded by 11th and 12th Avenues between 54th and 55th Streets. The 11th Avenue site was abandoned by August 1926 and Hearst had replaced Lamb, hiring Urban to design a magazine headquarters for the Eighth Avenue site. The proposed magazine headquarters was a
skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...
and Hearst hired George B. Post & Sons, who had experience building skyscrapers. Excavation of the Hearst Magazine Building had begun by June 1927. The section of Eighth Avenue between 42nd and 59th Streets was experiencing rapid development, with surrounding real-estate values increasing 200 percent since the beginning of the 1920s. This was, in part, due to the development of the
Independent Subway System The Independent Subway System (IND; formerly the ISS) was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway. It was first constructed as the IND Eighth Avenue Line, Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan in 1932. ...
's Eighth Avenue Line and zoning regulations which permitted skyscrapers along that section of Eighth Avenue. By January 1928, the Hearst Magazine Building was nearly completed, having cost $2 million (equivalent to $ million in ).


Hearst Magazine Building

Urban and Post drew up plans for a street-level 1,000-seat concert hall shortly after the Hearst Magazine Building was finished, with a 600-seat secondary auditorium in the basement and a planned 1929 completion date. The Hearst Corporation acquired the land under the building in 1930 for $2.25 million or $2.5 million. With the onset of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
shortly after the Hearst Magazine Building's completion, planning for its upper stories stalled for over a decade. The ''
New York Evening Journal :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 ...
'', one of Hearst's newspapers, transferred ownership of the building to Hearst Magazines in 1937 as part of a reorganization of Hearst Corporation properties. At the time, the building was valued at $3.253 million (equivalent to $ million in ); Hearst owed $126 million (equivalent to $ billion in ) and was selling his holdings. He considered borrowing an additional $35.5 million, part of which was to repurchase the Hearst Magazine Building, but ultimately reconsidered. In 1945, George B. Post & Sons prepared plans for nine additional stories. The plans were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings the following year, when the tower was estimated to cost $1.3 million. The additional stories were never completed; a
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the Government of New York City, New York City agency charged with administering the city's Historic preservation, Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting Ne ...
(LPC) report about the building did not specify a reason for this. The Hearst Magazine Building retained most of its original architecture throughout the 20th century, though the ground-level storefronts were replaced in 1970. The Hearst Corporation again began planning a tower atop the Hearst Magazine Building in the early 1980s. A restoration of the building had then been recently completed. During much of that decade, the Hearst Corporation rapidly acquired media companies such as magazines, publishers, and television stations. In 1982, the LPC began considering city-landmark designation for the Hearst Magazine Building. Further discussions of landmark status took place in 1987, and the LPC granted landmark status to the building's facade on February 16, 1988. The designation meant that the LPC had to approve any proposed changes to the Hearst Magazine Building exterior. Beyer Blinder Belle proposed a 34-story green-glass tower during the late 1980s, which did not come to fruition.


Tower addition

The Hearst Magazine Building was too small to house all the Hearst Corporation divisions, although it was the company's headquarters. By the beginning of the 21st century, the building contained the ''Good Housekeeping'' offices, corporate offices, and Hearst's media division; the corporation's other magazines were published in several nearby buildings. In 2000, the Hearst Corporation announced plans to consolidate all its divisions by completing its long-delayed tower. Planning for the tower had been fueled in part by the development of other media headquarters nearby, such as the planned
New York Times Building The New York Times Building is a 52-story skyscraper at 620 Eighth Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets near Times Square, on the west side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Its chief tenant is the New York Times Company, ...
and the
Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Nast (businessman), Condé Montrose Nast (1873–1942) and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the FiDi, Financial Dis ...
Building at
4 Times Square 4 Times Square (also known as 151 West 42nd Street or One Five One; formerly the Condé Nast Building) is a 48-story skyscraper at Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Located at 1472 Broadway, b ...
. Hearst reportedly met with Polshek Partnership early in the planning process. In February 2001, the Hearst Corporation announced that it had hired Norman Foster to design a tower addition. Foster's selection, which followed his failed bid to design the New York Times Building, led one architect to say: "My guess is Hearst wanted to outdo the ''Times''." Despite the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
later that year, the Hearst Corporation decided to proceed with the project. Foster said that the board felt that "If we don't do anything, he terroristshave won". Following the attacks, Foster and Hearst decided to restrict visitor access to part of the atrium and relocate the tower's core away from the street. Other parts of the design were also reviewed, but the tower's glass facade was retained. Foster's team designed over one hundred plans for the tower. He filed plans for the construction of the Hearst Tower that October, and the LPC approved the tower one month later. Hearst had consulted with the community to allay any concerns, and the approval took less than three hours. The only major opponent was the
Historic Districts Council The Historic Districts Council (HDC) is a New York City-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that serves as the advocate for New York City's historic buildings, neighborhoods, and public spaces. HDC's YouTube channel provides a large catalog o ...
, whose executive director said that the tower "does not respond to, respect, or even speak to its landmark base". The Hearst Tower was the first major skyscraper in Manhattan built after the September 11 attacks. Before the start of construction, ''Good Housekeeping'' moved to another Hearst Corporation building, and two thousand employees were relocated. Work on the Hearst Tower began on April 30, 2003, and the Hearst Magazine Building's interior was demolished in the middle of that year. The original framework was left intact until new steel beams were installed, and the landmark facade was preserved and cleaned for $6 million. Steel construction began in March 2004. The floor slabs were installed at an average rate of one floor every four days, and the curtain wall was installed at a rate of one floor every six days. The Hearst Tower was
topped out In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed at the top of a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is ofte ...
on February 10, 2005. The first employees moved into the tower during the last week of June 2006, but it was not officially completed until that October. The Hearst Tower cost a total of $500 million. Shortly after completion, it was the first New York City building to receive a LEED Gold certification for its overall design. Because of the building's environmental features, its operating costs were 25 percent lower than those of a typical similar-sized skyscraper. The LEED certification was upgraded to Platinum in 2012. Although the upper floors were quickly occupied, the ground-floor retail space remained vacant for several years; any retail lease had to be approved by several Hearst Corporation officials, and the space's asking price was per month. The space was not occupied until 2011, when cookware retailer Sur La Table opened a store.
Panera Bread Panera Bread is an American multinational chain of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States and Canada. Its headquarters are in Fenton, Missouri. The chain operates as Saint Louis ...
leased a ground-level storefront in 2022, intending to open a
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
store; the shop opened that November.


Impact

Before the tower's construction, the Hearst Magazine Building was considered an indication of unexecuted plans. One observer, writing to the LPC in 1982, said that the structure was designed in "an unusual style, by an unusual (and unusually talented) designer". Architectural writer Eric Nash wrote in 1999 that the Hearst Magazine Building was a vestige of the original tower that had been planned on the site. Two years later,
Herbert Muschamp Herbert Mitchell Muschamp (November 28, 1947 – October 2, 2007) was an American architecture critic. Early years Born in Philadelphia, Muschamp described his childhood home life as follows: "The living room was a secret. A forbidden zone. ...
of ''The New York Times'' wrote that, despite Urban's experience with both theatrical design and architecture, the Hearst Magazine Building was little more than a standard Art Deco building. Christopher Gray, another ''Times'' reporter, described the structure as having a funereal quality. William Randolph Hearst left little indication of what he thought the Hearst Magazine Building represented. Critics noted the tower's contrast with the older base. The architectural critics Justin Davidson and Edwin Heathcote both described the tower as floating above the base due to the sharply differing architectural styles.
Nicolai Ouroussoff Nicolai Ouroussoff () is a writer and educator who was an architecture critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times''. Biography Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to a family from Russia, he received a bachelor's degree in Russia ...
of ''The New York Times'' wrote that the tower "may be the most muscular symbol of corporate self-confidence to rise in New York since the 1960s", even as its design clashed with that of the Hearst Magazine Building. The architectural writer
Paul Goldberger Paul Goldberger (born December 4, 1950)Brennan, Elizabeth A.; Clarage, Elizabeth C''Who's who of Pulitzer Prize winners'' Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999. Cfp.87on Paul Goldberger
regarded the Hearst Tower as the city's best-looking skyscraper since
140 Broadway 140 Broadway (formerly known as the Marine Midland Building or the HSBC Bank Building) is a 51-story International Style (architecture), International Style office building on the east side of Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway between Cedar and Li ...
, which had been completed in 1967. Not all analysis was positive; an ''
Architectural Record ''Architectural Record'' is a US-based monthly magazine dedicated to architecture and interior design. Its editor in chief is Josephine Minutillo. ''The Record'', as it is sometimes colloquially referred to, is widely-recognized as an important ...
'' writer likened the tower to a misplaced military structure, while Herbert Muschamp called it a "glass square peg in a solid square hole". The Hearst Tower addition received the 2006
Emporis Skyscraper Award The Emporis Skyscraper Award was an award for architectural excellence regarding the design of buildings and their functionality. The award was presented annually by Emporis, a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. ...
as the best skyscraper in the world completed that year. The
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...
' 2007 List of America's Favorite Architecture ranked the Hearst Tower among the top 150 buildings in the United States. The tower received a British Construction Industry Award in 2007, and it was a runner-up for the
Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
' Lubetkin Prize. The Hearst Tower received the 10-Year Award from the
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is an international body in the field of tall buildings, including skyscrapers, and Sustainable design, sustainable urban design. A non-profit organization based at the Monroe Building in ...
in 2016, which cited the tower's "structural complexity" as a consideration in its value and performance. Since 2018,
Hearst Television Hearst Television, Inc. (formerly Hearst-Argyle Television) is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications, made up of a group of television and radio stations, and the Hearst Media Production Group, a distributor ...
stations have used on-screen graphics based on the diagrid of the tower's facade.See, for example:


See also

*
Art Deco architecture of New York City Art Deco architecture flourished in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s. The style broke with many traditional architectural conventions and was characterized by verticality, ornamentation, and building materials such as plastics, metals, ...
*
List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), formed in 1965, is the Government of New York City, New York City governmental commission that administers the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. Since its founding, it has designated ove ...


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

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External links

* * {{Authority control 1928 establishments in New York City 1920s architecture in the United States 2006 establishments in New York City Eighth Avenue (Manhattan) Foster and Partners buildings Hearst Communications Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan High-tech architecture Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certified buildings Mass media company headquarters in the United States Modernist architecture in New York City New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Office buildings completed in 1928 Office buildings completed in 2006 Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan Skyscrapers on 57th Street (Manhattan) Midtown Manhattan