Time Warner Center

Time Warner Center is a mixed use (office/commercial and residential) twin-tower building^[2][3] in New York City. Developed by The Related Companies and AREA Property Partners (formerly known as Apollo Real Estate Advisors), its design by David Childs and Mustafa Kemal Abadan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill,^[4] consists of two 750 ft (229 m) twin towers bridged by a multi-story atrium containing upscale retail shops. Construction began in November 2000, following the demolition of the New York Coliseum, and a topping-out ceremony was held on February 27, 2003. The property had the highest-listed market value in New York City, $1.1 billion, in 2006.^[5] Originally constructed as the AOL Time Warner Center, the building encircles the western side of Columbus Circle and straddles the border between Midtown and the Upper West Side. The total floor area of 2.8 million square feet (260,000 m²) is divided between offices (notably the offices of Time Warner Inc. and an R&D Center for VMware), residential condominiums, and the Mandarin Oriental, New York hotel. The Shops at Columbus Circle is an upscale shopping mall located in a curving arcade at the base of the building, with a large Whole Foods Market grocery store in the basement.

History

The top of the towers as seen from Tenth Avenue

Construction was delayed for nearly 15 years after Mortimer Zuckerman's Boston Properties initially won a bidding contest to buy the property from the New York Coliseum's owners, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Boston proposed to build two 63-story buildings to be designed by Moshe Safdie on the 4.5-acre (18,000 m²) Coliseum site in 1985. Unsuccessful competitors for the site included Donald Trump who proposed building a 137-story, 1600-foot (488 m) high building which would have been the world's tallest at the time.^[6]

Boston's winning bid was $455 million for the site. It was to be the headquarters of Salomon Brothers. The building ran into intense opposition (including most prominently Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) who were concerned it would cast a shadow on Central Park. In 1988 a court ruled that the building violated the city's own zoning ordinances. At about the same time, Salomon Brothers backed out.^[7] A renegotiated deal called for the building to be 52 stories with Boston paying a lower price of $357 million for the site. David Childs was tapped to redesign the building.

The building still languished until 2000 when the Coliseum was finally demolished. The Time Warner Center was the first major building to be completed in Manhattan after the September 11 attacks, although it was already under construction in 2001. While some New Yorkers noted the uncanny resemblance of the Time Warner Center to the fallen Twin Towers, the building's developer disclaimed to the press any intentional similarity.^[8]

The Sunshine Group was in charge of marketing the building. Sandie N. Tillotson bought the top floor of the then uncompleted north tower for $30 million shortly after the September 11 attacks. It was a record for a condominium at the time.^[9] That sale would be eclipsed in 2003 when Mexican financier David Martinez paid $54.7 million for a penthouse condo, then a record for New York residential sales.

In January 2014, Time Warner formally announced it was moving in late 2018 to 30 Hudson Yards, also developed and owned by Related. Time Warner sold its stake in the Columbus Circle building for $1.3 billion to Related and two wealth management funds.^[10]

Design

The Center, which now has 55 floors, advertises the building as having 77 levels.^[11]

A multistory cable-net atrium intersects the Center's two 55-story towers. Spanning 30 meters across and 50 meters tall, the cable structure was the largest in North America at the time of its completion.^[12]

The lobby and shops in Time Warner Center

The building has several street addresses, including 10 Columbus Circle for offices, 25 Columbus Circle for the south tower that was named "One Central Park" and 80 Columbus Circle for The Residences at Mandarin Oriental. The address One Central Park West, meanwhile, belongs to the Trump International Hotel and Tower across the street. Upon the completion of the Time Warner Center, Trump made a "little joke" at the Time Warner Center’s expense by hanging a large sign on his building gloating, "Your views aren’t so great, are they? We have the real Central Park views and address."^[13]

The building has an entrance to the 59th Street – Columbus Circle station of the New York City Subway near Columbus Circle's south end.^[14]

Tenants

The center has ground floor tenants including designer shops and restaurants.^[15] Whole Foods Market operates the Columbus Circle store in the Time Warner Center. The 68,000 square feet (6,300 m²) store opened on February 5, 2004.^[16] In 2005 the wine shop in the store closed after the store pleaded no contest to state charges of illegal operation. Whole Foods planned to replace the center with an expanded coffee bar, a gelato counter, and additional checkout lines.^[17] Upper floors include the restaurants Masa, Per Se and Porter House New York.

The complex is also home to three entertainment areas. CNN primarily broadcasts from the Time Warner Center, along with its studios in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta is now only used for weekend programming. The CNN studios, from which Anderson Cooper 360° and Erin Burnett OutFront, among other shows, are broadcast live. CNN's Jeanne Moos, known for her offbeat "man on the street" reporting, frequently accosts her interview subjects just outside the building. Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall, as well as In 2005, Jazz at Lincoln Center announced a partnership with XM Satellite Radio which gave XM studio space at Frederick P. Rose Hall to broadcast both daily jazz programming and special events such as the Artist Confidential show featuring Carlos Santana.^[18][19] Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show, Anderson recorded in Jazz at Lincoln Center's The Allen Room for a year before moving elsewhere.

In January 2014, Time Warner announced they would relocate CNN to Hudson Yards.^[20]

In popular culture

• In the 2007 film Enchanted, Robert's office is shown to be inside Time Warner Center.
• Late in the 2008 film Cloverfield, one of the building's towers has fallen over against the other. The characters climb the undamaged building and crawl across to the fallen tower to effect a rescue.
• In the 2009 NBC TV series Kings, the King's Hall is located in an unnamed building and was filmed in the Allen Room, part of Jazz at Lincoln Center which overlooks Columbus Circle from the sixth floor of the Time Warner Center.
• The building appears in the opening credits for CSI: NY.
• In the 2011 film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the Time Warner Center is shown during construction in 2002.

Gallery

• 

  Time Warner Center taken from Central Park

• 

  Time Warner Center viewed from Columbus Circle

• 

  Columbus Circle, as viewed from Time Warner Center's 150-foot-tall (46 m) glass curtain wall

• 

  Taken from the opposite side of Columbus Circle

See also

• Buildings and architecture of New York City
• List of tallest buildings in New York City
• Masa (restaurant)
• Per Se (restaurant)

References

Notes

Further reading

• Dirk Stichweh: New York Skyscrapers. Prestel Publishing, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-7913-4054-9.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Time Warner Center.

• 10 on the Park at Time Warner Center
• One Central Park – Residential sales and information
• Mandarin Oriental Hotel New York
• Time Warner – Corporate Website
• The Related Companies – Corporate Website
• 360° virtual tour at onlinexplore.com
• SOM.com Project Page
• Information about Time Warner Center