Times Square Tower

Times Square Tower, also known as 7 Times Square, is at the southern end of Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. It occupies an entire city block bounded by Seventh Avenue to the west, 41st Street to the south, Broadway to the east, and 42nd Street to the north. The land lot is trapezoidal and covers , with a frontage of on Broadway. Nearby buildings include 5 Times Square, the New Amsterdam Theatre, and the Candler Building to the west; the New Victory Theater and 3 Times Square to the northwest; One Times Square to the north; 4 Times Square and the Bank of America Tower to the northeast; and the Knickerbocker Hotel and Bush Tower to the east. An entrance to the subway's Times Square–42nd Street station, served by the , is within the base of the building on 42nd Street. The entrance was developed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) as the main entrance for the Times Square station complex. The entrance predates Times Square Tower, having opened in July 1997. It features a bright neon and colored glass flashing sign with train route symbols and the word "Subway", as well as escalators. 3, 4, and 5 Times Square, along with Times Square Tower, comprise a grouping of office buildings that were developed at Times Square's southern end in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theatres. The foundation of the building was partially retained in the present tower. a 240-seat brewpub above the subway entrance, with large windows overlooking 42nd Street. Its rooftop sign had a British Airways-branded Concorde aircraft, measuring long and weighing . ==Architecture==

Times Square Tower was designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and was developed by Boston Properties. The New York Times cites Gordon Smith Corporation as the curtain wall consultant, though the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat states Permasteelisa worked on the curtain wall. Jaros, Baum & Bolles was the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineer, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers was the geotechnical engineer, and Vollmer Associates was the site civil engineer. and measures to its architectural tip. Form and facade The building is part of the 42nd Street Development Project and, thus, could bypass many city zoning rules such as those relating to floor area ratio (FAR). The tower follows the 42nd Street Development's zoning rules, which do not require setbacks or sky exposure planes at higher stories, and which also allow a much higher FAR for usable space. Consequently, Times Square Tower occupies its entire site, On average, the building is wide from west to east. As a result of the small site, the 42nd Street facade has an aspect ratio of 9, and the 41st Street facade has an aspect ratio of 4.5. Times Square Tower's facade itself is composed of eleven separate designs. The building contains diagonal patterns on its exterior, which form part of the steel superstructure (see ). The Gordon H. Smith Corporation provided Building Envelope Consulting services for the project. Structural features Substructure Underneath the site is durable Hartland bedrock, which is covered in some places by soil or weathered rock. The southern lot line is adjacent to the IRT Flushing Line subway tunnel (used by the ) under 41st Street, which runs about beneath the lowest basement level and below the street level. Rust buildup was sandblasted from some of the preexisting foundations, which were incorporated into Times Square Tower's foundations. Most of the building is constructed on shallow foundations. Near the Flushing Line tunnel, the south wall is supported by mini-caissons that are about in diameter, while the southeast and southwest corners are supported by caissons measuring across. The corner caissons are made of three smaller caissons with steel cores, which are grouted together. The New York City Department of Buildings granted the builders a waiver to use higher-strength material for the caissons. Superstructure The building's steel weighs on average. A belt truss wraps around the building from the second floor to just below the fifth floor; it transfers wind loads from the upper stories to the base. The columns around the base are spaced apart, twice as wide as the upper stories. By contrast, in typical buildings, the diagonal beams intersect the corner columns at the same story on each side, strengthening the tube but blocking views where the diagonal beams intersect. Because of the small floor area, the structural engineers minimized the size of the mechanical core to increase the usable space. though its gross floor area is . The office space takes up the approximately remainder of the building. Some of the office space has been customized. For example, Gensler designed two stories for law firm Brown Rudnick with materials such as marble floors, wooden ceilings, and metal-and-glass partitions. Law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, which occupied three stories, designed its space with a conference center and glass walls. Clothing retailer Ann Taylor's twelve stories were designed by HOK, which arranged private offices at the center of each floor, surrounded by workstations. Most of Ann Taylor's private offices were designed in two sizes, while Ann Taylor's workstations were arranged in groups of four and came in 15 layouts. Ann Taylor's offices also had a bar and cafeteria, as well as storage space for clothing. == History ==

Development Early plans The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), an agency of the New York state government, had proposed redeveloping the area around a portion of West 42nd Street in 1981. Four towers designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee were to be built around 42nd Street's intersections with Broadway and Seventh Avenue. These towers would have been redeveloped by George Klein of Park Tower Realty, though the Prudential Insurance Company of America joined the project in 1986. Furthermore, as part of the West Midtown special zoning district created in 1982, the New York City government had allowed new buildings in Times Square to be developed with an increased floor area ratio. To ensure the area would not be darkened at nightfall, the city passed zoning regulations that encouraged developers to add large, bright signs on their buildings. Opposition from the Durst Organization, along with Prudential and Park Tower's inability to secure tenants for the proposed buildings, led government officials to allow Prudential and Park Tower to postpone the project in 1992. By then, Prudential had spent $300 million on condemning the sites through eminent domain. The partners retained the right to develop the sites in the future, and the ESDC's zoning guidelines remained in effect. The Hansens Times Square Brewery, with its Concorde rooftop sign, opened on the site in 1996. Prudential and Klein dissolved their partnership in 1996. and he developed 4 Times Square there. Prudential and Park Tower decided to market the three other sites after the successful development of 4 Times Square. In March 1997, Prudential indicated its intent to sell the sites' development rights or lease the sites to developers. The northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street was taken by Reuters, which enlisted Rudin Management as its development partner and built 3 Times Square on that corner. In June 1997, Marriott International proposed a 700-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel for the south side of 42nd Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, on what is now the Times Square Tower's site. Boston Properties plans By the end of 1997, several developers including Durst, Burton Resnick, Steven Roth, and Jerry Speyer were reportedly bidding for the Disney site at the southwest corner of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Klein partnered with The Blackstone Group in his bid. The same month, Philip Johnson and Alan Ritchie proposed a 40-story structure on the southwest corner and a 49-story structure on the southeast corner. This plan included a facade system designed by Fernando Vasquez and Sussman/Prejza, which consisted of rectangular panels clipped onto the spandrels, allowing advertisements to be shown directly on the facade. Herbert Muschamp of The New York Times regarded the scheme as having "earned a place in the history of ideas", despite being similar to a previous plan for the site. Boston Properties, operated by Mortimer Zuckerman, would take majority ownership, Real estate experts had considered the southeast-corner site to be the less valuable of the two sites due to its relatively small area. Boston Properties did not want to start construction until a major tenant had been secured. The Walt Disney Company and HBO were both reportedly considering offices on either site, but HBO reneged in early 1999, and Disney would not occupy enough space in the southeast-corner site to be considered an anchor tenant. Boston Properties was reviewing five proposals for tenants by January 2001, and it made an offer to Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells, then the world's largest law firm. Simultaneously, accounting firm Arthur Andersen was facing eviction from 1345 Avenue of the Americas, where it had fourteen floors. Arthur Andersen began negotiating with Boston Properties since there was little other space that the firm could occupy elsewhere. The company agreed in principle to lease some of the space in July 2000 Two months later, the lease was finalized and Boston Properties acquired the site. Arthur Andersen was negotiating to receive $10 million in tax exemptions from the city government. The Concorde above the former Times Square Brewery was removed. Times Square Tower and its three neighboring developments would collectively add almost of office space. All four projects were being marketed with a Times Square address, which until the early 1990s had not been popular in the city's real estate market. At the time, rents for commercial space around Times Square were increasing drastically. Excavations began in June 2001 However, the expected demand did not arise. Arthur Andersen became involved in the Enron scandal during late 2001 and early 2002 but initially committed to its space at Times Square Tower. By March 2002, the firm was considering abandoning its lease at Times Square Tower. Boston Properties wished to terminate the firm's lease to avoid prolonged legal issues, and the developer had already received five offers from other firms to occupy that space. Arthur Andersen's lease was formally terminated in June 2002. Boston Properties started marketing Times Square Tower to law firms, which took up large amounts of space, making them desirable tenants for the developer. Less than a week after Arthur Andersen's lease was canceled, law firm Pillsbury Winthrop negotiated to occupy part of the building, though Pillsbury instead decided to occupy 1540 Broadway, citing lower rents there. Despite the lack of a main tenant, Times Square Tower was being built by late 2002. Law firm O'Melveny & Myers became the first tenant to sign a lease at Times Square Tower in January 2003, occupying eight stories. O'Melveny & Myers's lease allowed Boston Properties to market the other stories at their official asking rates of . Meanwhile, the September 11 attacks had prompted Thornton Tomasetti to revise plans for the building's structural system. The subway entrance had to remain open during construction. Usage Times Square Tower opened in April 2004. Marketing of the retail space began that month following the removal of construction scaffolding. The law firm Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, leased about that July. A month later, clothing retailer Ann Taylor leased part of the retail space and twelve office stories, bringing Times Square Tower to three-quarters occupancy. With about , Ann Taylor was the largest tenant of the tower. According to the magazine Real Estate Weekly, Times Square Tower's completion "sealed the [42nd Street Development] with architectural, financial and operational success". The spheres were donated to the New York Hall of Science, a science museum in Queens. Ruby Tuesday leased some retail space in 2007 for a two-story restaurant. By then, much of the building was occupied. Six tenants, including four law firms, collectively occupied . Target continued to run advertising on nine of the building's signs for several years; in 2009, Target changed the billboards so they displayed artwork honoring New York City. In subsequent years, the space was leased to tenants such as law firms Cohen Rabin Stine Schumann, Ashurst LLP, White and Williams LLP, and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. At the time, Ann Taylor, O'Melveny & Myers, and law firm Pryor Cashman were among the largest tenants, while Ann Taylor and Ruby Tuesday occupied the retail space. Boston Properties sold a 45 percent leasehold stake to Norway's central bank Norges Bank in September 2013 for $684 million. In 2018, Boston Properties started renovating the sky lobby with a tenants' cafeteria. After Ascena went bankrupt in 2020, Boston Properties tried to recover millions of dollars in unpaid rent, as it could not lease Ascena's office space to another tenant unless Ascena broke its lease. A Pink Taco restaurant opened at Times Square Tower in 2023. ==References==