Deutsche Bank Center

The center is on the west side of Columbus Circle, on the border of Hell's Kitchen and the Upper West Side, in Manhattan, New York City, United States. It occupies an irregular plot of land bounded by 60th Street to the north, the Coliseum Park apartment complex to the west, and 58th Street to the south. The eastern boundary consists of Eighth Avenue, Columbus Circle, and Broadway from south to north. The land lot covers , with a frontage of on Columbus Circle and a depth of . The building is near Trump International Hotel and Tower to the northeast, Central Park to the east, 2 Columbus Circle and 240 Central Park South to the southeast, and Central Park Place to the south. As part of the construction of what was then Time Warner Center, the existing subway staircase was refurbished and an elevator was added to the subway entrance. Because the building did not include a zoning bonus, the developers did not need to fund a renovation of the subway station, as Hearst Communications was obligated to do when it built Hearst Tower one block south. Deutsche Bank Center occupies the site of the New York Coliseum, The Coliseum opened in 1956 as New York City's main convention center, being superseded by the Javits Center in the 1980s. Around the same time, the area around Columbus Circle was being redeveloped, in part because of the Coliseum's success. This prompted the Coliseum's owner, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), to place the building up for sale in 1985. An agreement on the site's redevelopment was not finalized until 1998, and designs for the Coliseum replacement itself were not in place until 1999. ==Architecture==

Deutsche Bank Center was designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Specific portions of the interior were designed by different architects. AOL Time Warner, Apollo Global Management, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Palladium Company, and the Related Companies were the developers. Stephen M. Ross, CEO of the Related Companies, said that SOM had been selected since they "create great architecture but also speak the language of business". Bovis Lend Lease was the construction manager for much of the interior, including mechanical systems. Another 80 to 100 subcontractors were also hired for different parts of construction. Deutsche Bank Center includes towers to the north and south, joined at the base. The building is split into eight different ownership units: the basement parking garage, the Shops at Columbus Circle mall, Jazz at Lincoln Center's facilities, the original AOL Time Warner office space, the six other office stories, the condominium units in the north and south towers, and the Mandarin Oriental New York hotel. About of mechanical and underground space is not counted under zoning law. Deutsche Bank Center uses a total of of glass, as well as of steel and of concrete. Form and facade The base of Deutsche Bank Center measures wide, as measured from north to south, by deep. The space between the towers is on axis with 59th Street and Central Park South. The western and eastern facades of both towers are aligned 30 degrees counterclockwise from the axis of Eighth Avenue and Central Park West. Both towers are 55 stories tall with a roof height of . The pinnacle of each tower consists of a lantern measuring tall. The base of Deutsche Bank Center contains a limestone facade with large window openings, which taper off into glass bands. Atop the towers are glass parapets that absorb natural lights. The structure consists of a grid of stainless-steel cables apart vertically and apart horizontally. Laminated-glass panels measuring thick are placed within the cables. The southeast corner of the building, at Eighth Avenue and 58th Street, contains a triangular wedge-shaped glass structure measuring about tall. As part of an agreement with the New York City government, the structure could not include advertising. Prow Sculpture, an art installation by David Rome, was then installed in the structure by 2004. This consists of 12 sets of 36 translucent panels, each supported by vertical trusses. The panels each contain light-emitting diodes that change color once every few minutes. The garage spans three stories and has sensors to monitor how many vehicles are parked in the garage. At ground level, the lobby for the south tower's residences is on 58th Street while the north tower's hotel and condominium lobby is on 59th Street. In addition, there are office lobbies on both 58th and 59th Streets; that on 58th Street originally served the Time Warner lobby. Mall Deutsche Bank Center has a four-story retail mall, the Shops at Columbus Circle, which opened in 2004 along with the rest of the complex. Designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects, The mall's ground-floor tenants include designer shops and restaurants. Among the first retail tenants in the mall were a Whole Foods Market, as well as an Equinox gym, both in the basement. as well as other eateries such as Porter House New York The mall is designed to follow the curve of Columbus Circle, measuring long. A passageway, extending north and south from the atrium, Jazz at Lincoln Center Within the base of Deutsche Bank Center is Frederick P. Rose Hall, a complex for Jazz at Lincoln Center, designed by Rafael Viñoly. It consists of three venues. The Rose Theater, on the fifth floor, is the primary venue for Jazz at Lincoln Center, with 1,100 to 1,300 seats. The Appel Room, originally the Allen Room, is above the atrium with a large glass wall facing Columbus Circle, with space for up to 600 seats. Dizzy's Club is named after trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and contains 140 seats. as well as the Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame. Rose Theater is acoustically separated from the rest of Deutsche Bank Center. The auditorium, weighing , is supported by 26 insulating gaskets on concrete footings. The gaskets consist of steel plates measuring thick, between which are neoprene synthetic-rubber pads. There are also neoprene pads, measuring thick, on the wall of the auditorium. Steven H. Sommer of Bovid Lend Lease, the hall's construction manager, compared the layout to "a small cardboard box in a larger cardboard box packed with Styrofoam peanuts". Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show, Anderson, recorded in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room from 2011 to 2012. Studios The eighth floor of the north tower has studios originally designed for Time Warner's subsidiary CNN. The CNN studios covered The spaces covered floors four through nine. The black-box studios overlooked the park, as did one of the newsrooms, designed for financial news subsidiary CNNfn. CNN's studios in Time Warner Center operated until the network relocated to 30 Hudson Yards in 2019. Offices At the building's completion, it had a total office area of approximately . The Time Warner offices originally accommodated 1,600 employees on 17 floors in the building's southern section. , almost all of the building's office space, including both the Time Warner office space and the other space, is occupied by Deutsche Bank. The Mandarin Oriental New York spans floors 35 through 54, taking up in Deutsche Bank Center. The interior decorations were mostly created by Hirsch Bedner Associates, The only entrance to the hotel is from 60th Street, where there are elevators to the hotel lobby. The ground-floor vestibule, designed as an ellipse, occupying sixteen stories. The south tower has 133 or 134 residences, Ismael Leyva Architects designed the One Central Park residences, with furnishings by Thad Hayes. Leyva's furnishings include granite floors and counters, as well as marble tiles and appliances. The residential condominiums all have ceilings measuring high, with full-height windows providing views of the Hudson River to the west. though this story is actually the 53rd-story penthouse. Unlike the other residences, the penthouses were originally offered as unfurnished spaces. until he sold it in 2023. Mechanical features Deutsche Bank Center includes a system of four emergency diesel generators for the residential tenants, each capable of . The base is powered by two diesel generators, also capable of . Two service rooms were installed by Zwicker Electric. As part of the construction of Time Warner Center, its developers spent $21 million on technological advances. From the building's opening, the entirety of Time Warner Center was equipped with Wi-Fi, A direct Ethernet connection was also included in the building when it was built, and each residence had an in-house internet phone service. In addition, residents received a notebook computer that served as their "digital concierge", where they could look up the building's restaurants, stores, and entertainment areas. The security screening systems at the elevators contained fingerprint readers. While the Wi-Fi services were available to visitors for a fee, the other tech services were only offered to residents and Mandarin Oriental hotel guests. == History ==

Planning After putting the Coliseum up for sale in 1985, the MTA received numerous bids for the redevelopment of the site. Mortimer Zuckerman's Boston Properties won the bidding contest, with plans to erect a headquarters for Salomon Brothers on the site, to be designed by Moshe Safdie. The community heavily opposed Zuckerman's initial plan, and the sale was nullified in 1987, with Salomon Brothers withdrawing from the project. Competing plans New York City and Boston Properties first hired David Childs in 1987 to design the Coliseum replacement, to be known as Columbus Center. Childs's initial plan, released in June 1988, called for a set of brick-and-glass towers rising as high as . Similar to what would ultimately be built, the complex would have been composed of twin towers. Childs's plan faced heavy opposition from the community, leading to a redesign of the project. with a twin-towered complex rising , as well as a pedestrian bridge connecting the two towers. This plan, too, faced political opposition and lawsuits. Related CEO Stephen Ross had proposed converting the Coliseum into a Kmart store, though nothing came of that plan. with the MTA outlining several criteria for the shape of the proposed development, as well as a stipulation that the winner could not seek tax breaks. The city and MTA received nine proposals for the site that November. The Municipal Art Society displayed models of these proposals to gauge public opinion for the project. By May 1997, the city and MTA had selected five finalists: Related Companies, Trump Organization, Tishman Speyer, Bruce C. Ratner & Daniel Brodsky, and Millennium Partners. New York state officials tentatively considered selecting Millennium Partners' bid that July, to be designed by James Polshek. To the surprise of the developers submitting the bids, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani announced he would revoke a tax break that he had promised to give to the winning bidder. Giuliani also threatened to block any potential sale of the Coliseum unless the project contained a theater of 1,000 to 2,000 seats for Lincoln Center. The mayor's demand for a theater had hitherto been unknown to the public, but Lincoln Center executives expressed interest in the proposal. In February 1998, the city and state agreed that the new building would have a 1,100-seat concert hall for Jazz at Lincoln Center, as well as rehearsal rooms and educational spaces. The facility would cost $40 to $45 million, of which Jazz at Lincoln Center would raise $20 million and the city would raise $18 million. Ross and Himmel had convinced Time Warner CEO Richard D. Parsons the previous year to join the project. Nevertheless, city officials were mainly considering Millennium's and Related's bids by June 1998. Millennium had proposed two luxury hotels and 450 residential condominiums, while the city government backed Related's bid because of Time Warner's involvement. By then, Childs, who had designed Related's proposal, had designed five separate plans for the site. Plan selection and finalization The city selected Time Warner and Related's $345 million bid in late July 1998. Childs was again hired to design the building, which would contain 425 hotel rooms, 375 condos, an auditorium for Jazz at Lincoln Center, and a 12-screen movie theater. There would also be a shopping mall, office space for Time Warner's headquarters, and studio space for CNN and NY1. While the Coliseum's demolition was ongoing, the Columbus Center project was still undergoing design changes. As late as February 2000, when the Coliseum's interior had been demolished, the structural steel had already been ordered. The building would be called the AOL Time Warner Center, in advance of the merger between AOL and Time Warner. believed to be the largest construction financing ever for a real estate development in New York City at the time. The remainder of the $1.7 billion development cost would come from equity of Apollo, Related, AOL Time Warner, and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. Including furnishings, the building was expected to cost $2.2 billion. City officials had indicated that Time Warner would receive a large tax abatement for the project, but the New York City Department of Finance ruled in 2001 that the project was ineligible for such incentives under the 1996 request for proposals. Further tweaks were made to the design, including reducing the hotel from 400 to 251 rooms to allow for the construction of office space. Construction 2000 and 2001 A groundbreaking ceremony for the building occurred on November 14, 2000. At the time, the project was planned to employ 2,300 workers. By early 2001, the first large retail tenant had leased space in the building's mall, and the developers were interviewing restaurateurs to operate six eateries in the mall. That June, Central Parking was hired to run the three-story parking garage in the complex's basement. The condos ranged from $1.8 million for a two-bedroom unit to $35 million for a penthouse unit. Additionally, since many roads into Manhattan were closed after the attacks, concrete deliveries were delayed, prompting concerns that the building's construction would also be held up. Despite the attacks, the Time Warner complex had reached 19 stories by the end of 2001. Even though a few prospective buyers had withdrawn, forty apartments had sold for a cumulative $200 million between September and December 2001. These included Sandie N. Tillotson, who bought the top floor of the north tower for $30 million shortly after the attacks, then a record for a condominium. Five retailers also leased space in the months after the attacks. Several officials, including mayor Michael Bloomberg, signed a steel beam that February to mark the topping-out of the lower floors' steel superstructure. A speech was given to honor workers who helped with the September 11 recovery effort. By then, sixty of the residential units had been sold. Eighty percent of the retail space had been leased by mid-2002, as was forty percent of the residential units. At the time, AOL Time Warner's stock value was declining, New York magazine compared AOL Time Warner Center to a situation where "your marriage is a wreck, you hate each other, everybody thinks you should get divorced, and yet you’re still building a lavish new home together." During construction, Bovis Lend Lease received several notices of minor construction violations from the New York City Department of Buildings. During a heavy windstorm in September 2002, a piece of debris flew off the construction site, injuring a carpenter and two passersby. The carpenter ultimately died of his injuries, and a forklift driver was also killed on the eighth floor that year. In October 2002, California pension fund CalPERS and MacFarlane Partners offered to buy a half-ownership stake in the retail space, the office space not occupied by AOL Time Warner, and the center's parking structure. The sale to CalPERS and MacFarlane was finalized in February 2003, with the partners receiving a 49.5 percent stake; the stake was estimated at $500 million. That year, the Department of Finance valued AOL Time Warner Center at $820 million, a 275 percent increase from the previous year's valuation of $220 million. The construction process continued to experience difficulties; in April 2003, a fire damaged the fourth through seventh stories, including part of Jazz at Lincoln Center's future space. There were also thirty-nine open construction violations by late 2003, when around sixty percent of the condos had been sold. By September 2003, the company had voted to rebrand itself as Time Warner, with the building to be known simply as "Time Warner Center". Despite Time Warner's problems, in the two years after the September 11 attacks, residential prices at Time Warner Center were increased five times. The rooms were decorated for free and were left in place for six months so the remaining 77 apartments could be sold. AOL Time Warner sought four companies to sponsor the new building, one each in the electronics, technology, automotive, and financial-services segments; the sponsors would have retail or exhibit space in the building. The first sponsor, electronics company Samsung, signed an agreement in mid-2003. Lincoln Motor Company was the automotive sponsor, while First Republic Bank was the financial-services sponsor. At the end of 2003, Credit Suisse First Boston provided $620 million to refinance part of the development's construction loan. Opening The development was opened in phases starting in 2003. The first part of Time Warner Center to officially open was the Mandarin Oriental New York, which opened on November 15, 2003, Time Warner Center's formal opening ceremony was held on February 5, 2004, with a benefit party being hosted upon the completion of the Shops at Columbus Circle. At the time of the mall's opening, over four-fifths of the 40 stores and 10 restaurants were open. There were concerns among retail-industry experts that Time Warner Center's "vertical mall" concept would not be successful since high-rise malls in New York City had historically not been successful. Final touches were still being placed on the building when, in April 2004, a piece of metal sheeting fell off the facade. This prompted Bloomberg to order that all work on the building be temporarily halted, since this was the fourth time since 2002 that debris had fallen from the building. The retail complex also faced challenges, such as an early 2004 fire in the Per Se restaurant, the first to open in the mall. Jazz at Lincoln Center opened in October 2004, almost a year after the rest of the complex had been completed. In total, the project had cost $1.8 billion. at $40 to $45 million, the unit was the most expensive residence recorded in Manhattan at the time. Other early residents included designer Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill and musician Ricky Martin, as well as architect Jon Stryker, who used Time Warner Center as a temporary apartment because he did not want to rent a residence. The south tower's residents also included Saudi royal Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, art collector Tobias Meyer, producer Verna Harrah, and businessmen Gregory Olsen and John Kluge. Those of the north tower included ten doctors; businessmen Alan B. Miller, Michael Spencer, and Gerard Cafesjian; and two daughters of Turkish businessman Sakıp Sabancı. By late 2004, the apartments were about 85 percent sold. About a quarter of the original buyers were foreign buyers, and a third of the total buyers used shell corporations to obscure their identities. The property had the highest-listed market value in New York City, $1.1 billion, in 2006. The building's last condominium was sold that March. By that time, a monthly parking pass alone ran from $550 to $600, more expensive than a one-bedroom residence in several Southern and Midwestern U.S. cities. Time Warner Center had become a popular destination by 2008; its presence had helped raise the value of surrounding properties by as much as 400 percent since 2004. Average condominium prices had risen 127 percent since the building's opening, with condos being listed at between $7 and $60 million. One unit in Time Warner Center was listed on the market in 2007 and was not sold for more than a decade. In 2013, Time Warner announced its intention to move most of its offices to 30 Hudson Yards on the west side of Manhattan. The following January, Time Warner sold its stake in the Columbus Circle building for $1.3 billion to the Related Companies, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and GIC Private Limited. The companies funded the purchase of the office space with a five-year, $675 million mortgage from Deutsche Bank and Bank of China. By the 2010s, the residential apartments of Time Warner Center were acquired by a large number of extremely wealthy residents. In 2015, The New York Times found that Time Warner Center's condominium owners had included seventeen people on Forbes magazine's ''The World's Billionaires'' list, as well as five major art collectors, eight chief executives, and celebrities such as singer Jimmy Buffett, football player Tom Brady, and talk show host Kelly Ripa. The controversy in part influenced the United States Department of the Treasury to regulate large all-cash property sales in Manhattan starting in 2016. Deutsche Bank use In May 2018, Deutsche Bank announced it would lease all of office space for 25 years, relocating from 60 Wall Street beginning in the third quarter of 2021. The move represented a reduction in space for the bank, which had occupied at 60 Wall Street. Following the news, Related Companies announced that the building would be officially renamed "Deutsche Bank Center" upon the company's arrival. In May 2019, Related refinanced the office portion of the development with a $1.1 billion loan from Wells Fargo. After announcing plans to drastically reduce its overseas activities in mid-2019, Deutsche Bank returned two of the floors, covering , to the Related Companies. Meanwhile, the CNN studios had relocated to Hudson Yards by late 2019. Time Warner Center was renamed to Deutsche Bank Center in May 2021, with Time Warner signage being replaced with that of Deutsche Bank over a one-week period. The bank was scheduled to relocate 5,000 employees to the building, but the relocation was delayed. The bank's employees were being relocated by July 2021. == Critical reception ==

When the original design was announced in July 1998, Herbert Muschamp wrote for The New York Times that the glass facade was a "major improvement" compared to Childs's earlier proposals of the late 1980s, but he believed that the design was "skillful, earnest and devoid of meaning". At the end of the year, Muschamp was even more negative, characterizing the building as an example of "architecture of denial" and derided it as indicating "an utter lack of awareness that New York today differs dramatically from the city in the 1930's". Peter Blake, editor of Architectural Record, wrote of the project in late 1998: "Manhattan is about to have a building of singular klutziness imposed upon it." Both Muschamp's and Blake's complaints originated from the fact that the original plans resembled the setback-laden massing of older stone-faced apartment buildings on Central Park West, except with a glass cladding. Muschamp disliked the "lanterns" that were to be placed atop the towers, and he found the facade of the base to be "infected" by "aesthetic backsliding", but overall he thought the design to be a homage to the city's Art Deco architecture. The plans also faced opposition from community groups that considered the building to be too large. though the building's developers denied any intentional similarity to the fallen Twin Towers. Peggy Deamer of the Journal of the American Institute of Architects wrote in 2004: "Shouldn't the designers have broadened the notion of context beyond the building envelope?" In spite of criticism over the building's size, architectural critics generally approved of Time Warner Center when it was completed. Muschamp said of the completed building: "...The mood is modern noir. The two towers are worthy descendants of Radio City." Even though Goldberger did not like the building's size, he said, "If you don’t look up, you could like this building", though he regarded it as "a theme-park version of a sophisticated urban building". A writer for Reason magazine said that, while critics did not praise Time Warner Center as they did the Hearst Tower or the New York Times Building, "they do agree the commercial behemoth deserves its place in this emerging pantheon of buildings". The American Institute of Architects' 2007 survey ''List of America's Favorite Architecture'' ranked the Time Warner Center among the top 150 buildings in the United States. ==See also==