1500 Broadway
1500 Broadway | |
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![]() 1500 Broadway in November 2021 | |
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General information | |
Status | Completed |
Type | Skyscraper |
Architectural style | Modernism |
Location | 1500 Broadway Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
Coordinates | 40°45′24″N 73°59′08″W / 40.75667°N 73.98556°W |
Completed | 1972 |
Owner | Tamares Group |
Height | |
Roof | 392 ft (119 m) |
Top floor | 33 |
Technical details | |
Floor area | 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) |
Lifts/elevators | 5 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Leo Kornblath |
Developer | Arlen Realty and Development Corporation |
Structural engineer | Rosenwasser / Grossman Consulting Engineers, P.C. |
1500 Broadway (also known as Times Square Plaza) is an office building on
The facade is made of bronze aluminum and contains tinted-glass windows. The lowest four stories of the facade were renovated in the late 1980s, and there is also a pair of curving
The New York City Board of Estimate approved a zoning regulation encouraging the construction of theaters in new office buildings near Times Square. Subsequently, National General Pictures announced plans in January 1970 for a skyscraper with movie theaters, and Arlen Realty was hired as the building's developer. The building's cinema opened December 12, 1972, and the first office leases were signed in March 1974. The structure was almost completely vacant when it opened, and it did not approach full occupancy until the mid-1980s. The structure was sold in 1988 to the 1500 Realty Company, and it was resold in 1995 to a partnership that included Tamares Group.
Site
1500 Broadway is on the eastern side of Times Square, between 43rd and 44th Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S.[1][2] While the building carries a Broadway address, it is actually on the east side of Seventh Avenue.[2] The section of Broadway and Seventh Avenue between 43rd and 45th Streets is officially listed on city maps as "Times Square",[3][a] but the adjoining section of Broadway was converted into a permanent pedestrian plaza in the 2010s.[4][5] 1500 Broadway's rectangular land lot is bounded by Times Square to the west, 44th Street to the north, and 43rd Street to the south. The lot spans 25,569 square feet (2,375.4 m2), with a frontage of 203.77 feet (62.11 m) on Broadway and a depth of 125 feet (38 m).[2]
The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's
Prior to the development of the current 1500 Broadway, the southeast corner of Broadway and 44th Street was occupied by the Hotel Claridge,[6][7] built in 1910 as the Rector Hotel.[7][8] From 1941 to 1966, that building had contained a billboard advertising Camel cigarettes, which emitted steam jets.[9] The northeast corner of Broadway and 43rd Street contained a two-story commercial structure at 1500–1504 Broadway, owned by the family of George Innes-Ker, 9th Duke of Roxburghe, from 1920 to 1963.[10] The two-story structure, a shoe shop,[11] itself replaced the Barrett House hotel, where playwright Eugene O'Neill was born.[12]
Architecture
The structure was built as a joint venture between
Facade
The facade is made of bronze aluminum and contains tinted-glass windows.[14][19] At ground level, there was originally an arcade with shops and a marquee on the Broadway side.[14] The lobby, and two foyers for a movie theater on the second and third stories, were visible behind the marquee.[21][22] The marquee measured 72 feet (22 m) long and 9 feet (2.7 m) high.[23] The Artkraft-Strauss Corporation designed a series of vertical light tubes on the facade, which stretched from a third-floor chandelier outside the building, spanning the length of the marquee, to another third-floor chandelier. According to the movie theater's architect Drew Eberson,[c] this was intended to give the impression that the theater was "opening its arms to Broadway".[21]
The lowest four stories of the facade were renovated in the late 1980s, when Clark Tribble Harris & Li designed a new entrance on 43rd Street with a portico made of stainless steel and black granite.[18] When the Walt Disney Company built the Times Square Studios within the lowest part of the building in the late 1990s, a curving, 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) screen was placed on the northwest corner of the building.[24] The facade also features a pair of curving news tickers, as well as a 585-square-foot (54.3 m2) screen overlooking Broadway and Seventh Avenue.[25] Unlike other buildings on Times Square, the building did not contain any digital advertisements until 1997, when the owners installed a 40-by-40-foot (12 by 12 m) advertising screen above the seventh-story setback.[26] Another screen, measuring 52 by 31.5 feet (15.8 by 9.6 m), was installed in 2001 and originally advertised the Wrigley Company.[27]
Features
When 1500 Broadway was built, the base contained a movie theater designed by Drew Eberson.[21][23] The structure was originally supposed to contain two screens, with 1,000 and 1,500 seats.[28][20] The larger screen would have been stacked above the smaller one, and both auditoriums would have been decorated with white marble, bronze, and wood.[20] As constructed, the building contained a single-screen cinema with 1,445 seats.[21] Patrons entered a 14-foot-tall (4.3 m) lobby with marble walls, where a pair of escalators led to the cinema.[23] The auditorium itself was clad in vinyl with teak doors. Each seat was made of fiberglass and upholstered in orange; the bottoms of the seats were painted white so people could easily determine whether a seat was occupied.[21][23] There was an orchestra level with 932 seats and a mezzanine with 513 seats.[22][23] The curtain was decorated in olive, burnt orange, and copper colors,[21] which harmonized with the auditorium's general color scheme.[23]
The lobby was originally shaped like an "L". When the lobby was renovated in the late 1980s, it was converted into a rotunda with curved walls, two ornamental columns, and a ceiling measuring 25 feet (7.6 m) high. The walls and floor were clad in white marble accented with red, gray, and black granite. This project involved removing some of the storefronts.[18]
1500 Broadway hosts Times Square Studios and
History
After World War II, development of theaters around Times Square stalled, and the area began to evolve into a business district.[32] By the 1960s, city officials were encouraging the westward expansion of office towers in Manhattan, and there were few efforts to preserve existing theaters.[33][34] This changed in 1967, when the New York City Board of Estimate approved a zoning regulation encouraging the construction of theaters in new office buildings near Times Square.[35] The legislation allowed developers to increase the maximum amount of office space in their buildings if they erected a theater at their base.[21][36]
Development and early years
National General Pictures announced in January 1970 that it had signed a lease for a 32-story skyscraper with two movie theaters, which was to be built on the site of the Claridge Hotel.[19][14] Arlen Realty was to be the building's developer.[37] National General would be the flagship tenant, which was to be known as the NGC Realty Building[19][20] or the National General Building.[14] When 1500 Broadway was announced, it was one of six office buildings being planned for the immediate neighborhood,[36][38] and demand for office space in Manhattan had already begun to wane.[38] The National General Building was also one of several new buildings near Times Square with theaters, along with One Astor Plaza and the Uris Building, although these structures contained Broadway theaters rather than cinemas.[36] During the building's construction, Arlen Realty hired artists Nassos Daphnis and Tania to paint a 16-story-tall street art mural on the building's steel frame. The street art was covered by the building's facade as construction progressed.[37][39]
The building's cinema opened December 12, 1972, with the premiere of
Years after the building opened, it continued to struggle with low occupancy rates. By 1975, the building's space was only being rented for $6 to $7 per square foot ($65 to $75/m2), well below the $11 per square foot ($120/m2) that experts said was necessary for the building to break even.[46] A Chase Bank branch in the building had closed in 1976 after just two years of operation.[47] Newsweek wrote in 1977 that the building remained half empty, even though the office space was still relatively new.[48] In 1979, as part of an ongoing redevelopment of Times Square, architect Frederick DeMatteis proposed creating a three-story "deck" surrounding 1500 Broadway and several other nearby buildings; the deck would have supported numerous skyscrapers.[49] A second screen was added at the National Theater in 1982.[50] The building did not reach near-full occupancy until the mid-1980s, when space was being rented out for $18 to $24 per square foot ($190 to $260/m2).[51] During the 1980s, Garth Drabinsky of Cineplex Odeon Corporation took over the National Theater and renovated its two screens.[52]
Sales and renovations

The structure was sold in 1988 for about $88 million, or approximately $200 per square foot ($2,200/m2).[53] The new owners, known as the 1500 Realty Company, had wanted to buy the building because it had windows on all sides, the offices did not require asbestos abatement, and the neighborhood was improving. However, the structure had 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) of vacant space; brokers said potential tenants were dissuaded by the lack of security, poor maintenance, and rundown lobby. This prompted the owners to renovate the lower section of the building's facade and enlarge the lobby. The renovation attracted six tenants who collectively leased 130,000 square feet (12,000 m2).[18] The building's owners went bankrupt in the 1990s.[54] 1500 Broadway was 96 percent occupied by 1994, when a $75 million mortgage loan on the building was sold.[55]
The building was sold in September 1995 to a partnership[54][56] who paid Crossland Savings Bank $55 million.[57] The building's stakeholders included the Tamares Group,[58] Intertech,[59][60] Charles Bendit,[26] and Essex Capital Partners.[61] Rushbury Limited, an investment trust, bought a 6.25 percent ownership stake in 1996.[58] At the time, the ground level included electronics stores and souvenir shops.[62] After the building was sold, Intertech announced plans to renovate 1500 Broadway's mechanical systems and public spaces for $6 million.[57] Most of the tenants' retail leases were set to expire over the next several years,[60] and these tenants gradually moved out.[63] Intertech's executive vice president said, "One of the reasons we bought 1500 Broadway in 1995 was its potential for signage", as the building had never contained any advertisements.[64] As such, Intertech announced plans in early 1997 to install an advertising screen,[26][65] the first such screen to be installed on the building in its history.[65][66] To attract potential tenants, Bendit's firm Taconic Investment Partners replaced the building's wiring.[67]
Although clothing chain
Late 1990s to present

The building had about 65 tenants at the end of the 1990s.[75][76] According to The New York Times, the building's occupants included "lawyers, accountants, salesmen, public relations people, and the staffs of two magazines", namely Essence and Latina; its largest tenant was public-relations firm Edelman, which employed 300 people at the building.[75] 1500 Broadway was also known as Times Square Plaza by 2000.[12] Another billboard, promoting the Wrigley Company, was installed on 1500 Broadway in mid-2001.[27] Major tenants during the 2000s included stock exchange NASDAQ, which leased 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m2) immediately after the September 11 attacks; although NASDAQ quickly moved out, the exchange continued to sublease the space for 20 years.[77] In addition, Edelman continued to occupy a large part of the building until 2009.[78]
By the early 2010s, the building's tenants included Chinese Communist Party–owned newspaper
Critical reception
Paul Goldberger criticized the building as having brought "nothing more than Third Avenue banality to a part of town that, whatever its social problems, has always been visually spectacular."[91] Robert A. M. Stern similarly described the building as a "banality", especially as contrasted with the Hotel Claridge.[7] Just before the building's late-1990s renovation, a writer for Crain's New York described 1500 Broadway as "a plain black box with dowdy retail space".[72]
References
Notes
- ^ As the two roads intersect at a very shallow angle, they are nearly parallel through Times Square. Broadway is west of Seventh Avenue to the north of 45th Street and east of Seventh Avenue to the south of 44th Street.[3] Because Broadway between 42nd and 47th Streets was closed in the 2010s, 1500 Broadway only faces Seventh Avenue.[4][5]
- ^ Other sources cited the building as being 32,[14] 34,[17] or 35 stories high.[18]
- ^ Eberson was the son of prolific movie palace designer John Eberson.[21]
Citations
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- ^ from the original on April 21, 2023. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
- ^ Goldstein, Matthew (May 17, 1999). "Durst's Uninsured". Crain's New York Business. Vol. 15, no. 20. p. 1. ProQuest 219162088.
- ^ a b Elstein, Aaron (August 30, 2024). "Nasdaq to vacate former Times Square headquarters". Crain's New York Business. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ .
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- ^ a b c d "Pictures: Claridge Hotel Part of New Building For Natl. Genl. Corp.; Two Theatres". Variety. Vol. 257, no. 9. January 14, 1970. p. 30. ProQuest 1014858362.
- ^ a b c d "Nat'l General Building Twin Flagships in Broadway Skyscraper". The Independent Film Journal. Vol. 65, no. 4. January 21, 1970. p. 8. ProQuest 1505867839.
- ^ .
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- ^ a b c d Larsen, Soren (December 1999). "Times Square Studios New York City: Disney's Imagineers and Hlw Concoct an Attention-Getter On a Prominent Site Amid the Cacophony of Times Square" (PDF). Architectural Record. pp. 138–139. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 27, 2024. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
- ^ from the original on August 21, 2024. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
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- ^ "New Film Theatres In Skyscraper". Back Stage. Vol. 4, no. 11. January 23, 1970. p. 17. ProQuest 963312994.
- ISBN 978-0-8041-3778-2. Archivedfrom the original on August 21, 2024. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
- ^ Hartnett 1999, pp. 52–53.
- ^ a b c d e f Hartnett 1999, p. 52.
- ^ Stern, Mellins & Fishman 1995, p. 441.
- ^ Stern, Mellins & Fishman 1995, p. 444.
- ^ Schroeder, Robert J. (April 21, 1969). "Broadway's Theatres: 'Too Valuable to Keep'". New York Magazine. Vol. 2. pp. 47–48. Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
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- ^ "Okay 1,500-Seater For NGC On Site Of Claridge Hotel". Variety. August 11, 1971. p. 4.
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- ^ "A Race for Space". Newsweek. Vol. 90, no. 10. September 5, 1977. pp. 72, 74. ProQuest 1879156470.
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Sources
- Hartnett, Jeffrey C. (December 1999). "GMA moves to Times Square Studios". Broadcast Engineering. Vol. 41, no. 14. pp. 50–56. ProQuest 204175378.
- Stern, Robert A. M.; Mellins, Thomas; Fishman, David (1995). New York 1960: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Second World War and the Bicentennial. New York: Monacelli Press. OL 1130718M.
External links
Media related to 1500 Broadway at Wikimedia Commons