New York Coliseum

The New York Coliseum was a

The Coliseum was planned by

The 323,000-square-foot (30,000 m²) Coliseum was located on the west side of Columbus Circle. It occupied the block from West 58th to West 60th Streets between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.[1] One block of 59th Street was decommissioned to make way for the complex.^[2]

The Coliseum contained four exhibition floors, including a 150-foot (46 m)-square, three-story void for exhibiting large items, such as sailboats and airplanes. The exhibition space did not contain any windows; its exterior was instead sheathed in plain white stone. The space had three separate entrances and could host up to six shows at the same time.

The sculptor Paul Manship was commissioned to design four plaques for the Coliseum. The four plaques depicted the federal, state, city, and TBTA seals. Just before the Coliseum was demolished, the MTA removed the plaques for restoration.^[6]

Christopher Gray of The New York Times criticized the complex as a "low point for New York's public buildings". He said that the visual relationship between the windowless convention space and the grid-shaped facade of the office building "was awkward at best".^[1] Gray quoted another magazine, Art News, as stating that the complex contained a "total lack of relation to its site".^[1] After the Coliseum's demolition was completed in 2000, Joyce Purnick of the Times wrote, "What was always wrong about the Coliseum was its original conception. It was, as an exhibition hall, broad and impenetrable, a wall of blond brick. There it sat at the gateway to Central Park—an unblinking barrier."^[7]

A U.S.

The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority's chairman, Robert Moses, first envisioned a convention center for New York City in 1944.^[9] Separately, in 1946, the Madison Square Garden Corporation proposed building a large sports arena along the western edge of Columbus Circle between 58th and 60th Streets, supplementing the existing Madison Square Garden (MSG) ten blocks south.^[10] The nine-story MSG annex would include a 25,000- to 27,000-seat arena, a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m²) convention space, and a 2,000-car garage. The convention space would the world's largest.^[11][12][13] The TBTA would build the new MSG building and issue bonds to finance construction, and the city would take over the building after the bonds were paid off. In this original plan, the structure would have been located above 59th Street.^[13] The cost of construction was projected at $25 million; the land itself was said to cost $5 million.^[12][13]

The plans were delayed in February 1947, when the New York State Assembly's Ways and Means Committee failed to act on a bill that would have authorized the construction of the new MSG building.^[14] Supporters of the project stated that New York City had already lost the opportunity to host several large expositions due to the inadequate facilities at the Grand Central Palace, the city's only convention center at the time.^[15] In April 1948, Governor Thomas E. Dewey signed a bill that authorized the MSG annex's construction.^[16] However, due to disagreements among the MSG Corporation's board of directors, the project was put on hold in April 1949.^[17] During this delay in the plans, several private interests purchased large tracts of land on the site of the proposed MSG annex.^[18] Negotiations resumed in October of that year, with the expectation that construction would begin in spring 1950. By this time, the project was known as the "Columbus Circle Coliseum".^[19] In The Power Broker, Moses biographer Robert Caro states that the Coliseum's name "reveals Moses' preoccupation with achieving an immortality conferred on the Caesars of Rome".^[20]

In May 1951, the city offered the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic a chance to build a new opera house and operate it tax-free on part of the Coliseum's land. The New York Times described it as Moses's "new approach" toward the project. At this point, the land for the Coliseum had still not been acquired.^[21] By July 1951, more than half the $1 million cost for the proposed Metropolitan Opera House's site had been raised.^[22] By January 1952, the opera had achieved $900,000 of the cost of acquisition, which had jumped to $1.2 million.^[23] However, the plan for a Metropolitan Opera House at Columbus Circle was dropped in March 1952.^[24] Moses later said that the problems surrounding the site included internal conflicts among the Metropolitan Opera's directors regarding whether the opera should simply rebuild its existing opera house.^[25]

The Columbus Circle Coliseum was included in the Columbus Circle Urban Renewal Plan, published in 1952.^[26] In April 1952, the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency advanced $40,000 toward slum clearing.^[27] Slightly more than half of the plot was to contain an apartment complex so Moses could receive two-thirds federal funding for clearing the slums on the site.^[21] The two-thirds federal funding for slum clearing could only be approved by the Federal Housing Administration if at least half the site were used for housing. Thus, housing took up the western 51% of the block, facing Ninth and Columbus Avenues, while the Coliseum took up the eastern 49%, facing Columbus Circle.^[28] By October 1952, Moses said that builders were ready to start construction on the Coliseum, but he emphasized that the MSG arena was no longer part of the plan.^[28] In December of that year, the plan to build a convention center and two 12-story residential towers was submitted to the New York City Board of Estimate and Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri.^[29] The Board of Estimate quickly voted to approve the Coliseum project because of an expected turnover in Housing and Home Finance Agency leadership, which in turn was occurring due to the election of President Dwight D. Eisenhower that year.^[30]

Construction and opening

As part of the Coliseum project, Moses condemned the area from West 58th to West 60th Streets on the west side of Columbus Circle.^[1] However, the start of construction was delayed by a lawsuit from a taxpayer who wanted an injunction on the acquisition.^[31] The Grand Central Palace held its last show in late 1953, and due to the delays in building the Coliseum, it was anticipated that New York City would not have a convention space for the following three years.^[32] An appeals court gave the city the right to acquire the land for the project in October 1953,^[33] and the city obtained the land in November of that year.^[34] The Coliseum project, as well as the related development of housing, was approved in December 1953.^[35] It replaced the Gotham National Bank Building^[36] as well as smaller tenement and retail buildings.^[1] In the original plan, there would have been a separate office building and convention center, but the two structures were combined in a late revision to the plan.^[37] There would also be a 900-space parking lot under the Coliseum.^[38]

The cornerstone for the Coliseum was laid on October 22, 1954.^[39] Seventy-five subcontractors from forty construction trades were hired to build the Coliseum.^[38] In May 1955, an accident occurred in which a 180-by-180-foot (55 by 55 m) component of the exhibition space collapsed while concrete was being poured into it.^[40][41] The accident injured 50 workers and killed one.^[42] A subsequent investigation found no evidence of criminal negligence.^[43]

The Coliseum opened on April 28, 1956, with three exhibitions: the New York International Auto Show, the National Photographic Show, and the International Philatelic Exhibition.^[1][4] One observer wrote of the new convention center, "The Coliseum is extraordinary in many ways. Its vastness must be seen—from the inside—to be believed".^[3] Ground was broken for the housing to the west of the Coliseum on May 1, 1956, three days after the center's official opening.^[44] It was complete by September 1957.^[45] The new housing development, called Coliseum Park, consisted of two 15-story buildings at 58th and 60th Streets with 590 units between them, as well as a 2-acre (0.81 ha) park separating the two buildings.^[46]

By the first anniversary of the Coliseum's opening, over three million people had visited the convention center. Additionally, 70% of the attached office building had been leased.^[47] The opening of the Coliseum, as well as other nearby projects such as a new tube for the Lincoln Tunnel, gave rise to a new zoning plan for the Far West Side of Manhattan.^[48] This rezoning allowed for a series of new developments in the formerly blighted Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.^[49] The number of renters in Hell's Kitchen also increased following the Coliseum's opening.^[50]

In 1959, a bilateral agreement was made between the United States and Soviet Union. As part of the agreement, the American National Exhibition was to be held in Moscow, and the Russians were to host the Soviet National Exhibition at the New York Coliseum from June 29, 1959, to late July 1959. Sputnik, the Soviet satellite launched in 1957, was a focal point amidst exhibits on Soviet industry and agriculture, as were musical and theatrical performances.^[51]

By 1967, the Coliseum had hosted 247 major events with a total of 24 million visitors. The Coliseum had a tax agreement with the city, wherein the city government would collect a portion of the TBTA's revenue rather than collect taxes on the Coliseum property. Within the first ten years of the Coliseum's opening, the city had collected almost $9.1 million from the TBTA.^[52]

Up to the end of 1986, the Coliseum hosted 1,246 events.

One particularly notable event was when Nirvana played at the Coliseum in 1993 during the height of their fame.

Closure and demolition

The Javits Center effectively supplanted the Coliseum as the major exhibit space in New York City. By the time of the announcement of the Javits Center, the Coliseum had become dated and redundant.^[57] In 1984, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), by now the parent of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, announced that it was placing the property for sale.^[58] The MTA and the city jointly owned the property, and all proceeds would go to improving the MTA's transit systems.^[59] In 1985, the architect Moshe Safdie revealed his plans for twin 70-story-high towers at the site.^[60] Representatives for over 100 developers and architectural firms showed interest in the redevelopment of the Coliseum.^[61]

The plan received opposition from the community.^[62] Many community members expressed concerns that the proposal did not fit in with the mostly residential character of the surrounding neighborhood of Lincoln Square. They stated that the twin towers would cast long shadows over Central Park, across the circle.^[60] Critics also expressed concern about the project's impact on traffic around Lincoln Square.^[63] Notable opponents included the Municipal Art Society, which, led by former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, filed a lawsuit to try to stop the project from being approved.^{[64]: 36 [65]}

The Coliseum was shuttered in 1986 with the expectation that it would be demolished as soon as an agreement with developers was finalized.

Due to continuing opposition from the community, Zuckerman downsized the proposal[72] so that the towers were 58 and 68 stories high.^[64]: 36 In January 1988, Salomon Brothers withdrew from the project due to the October 1987 stock market crash.^[73] After Zuckerman threatened to sue Salomon Brothers, they reached a settlement of between $55 million and $60 million.^[64]: 36 In December 1987, a state court ruled that the proposed building violated the city's own zoning ordinances and nullified the sale.^[74][75] New York City and Boston Properties renegotiated the deal to call for a 52-story structure with a reduced price of $357 million for the site.^[76] Boston Properties tapped David Childs to redesign the building.^[77] In the interim, the MTA, seeking to make some use of the site once the future of the Boston Properties site became unclear, reopened the Coliseum on an interim basis in 1992 for smaller events,^[36] primarily a thrice-a-year antiques show.^[78] Some homeless individuals also squatted at the building when it was abandoned.^[79]

The failure to close the sale of the New York Coliseum was having negative effects on the MTA's finances. In August 1990, the agency announced that several improvement projects worth $500 million would need to be delayed if the coliseum was not sold by the end of 1991.^[80] Zuckerman continued to negotiate with the MTA, but faced problems when Mayor David Dinkins refused to call Zuckerman's letter of credit until just before leaving office in 1993. In early 1994, newly elected mayor Rudy Giuliani requested that a third party appraise the site, which Zuckerman wanted to purchase for $100 million. While the third party determined that the New York Coliseum site was worth $57 million, MTA chairman Peter Stangl said that the site was worth $200 million.^[64]