Steinway Tower
111 West 57th Street | also 107 West 57th Street, 116 West 58th Street, 106 West 58th Street | Midtown | built 1924
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1916
A new zoning law and two lawsuits stall Steinway's plan for a 57th Street building
Steinway & Sons announced plans for a new building and agreed to buy town house properties on West 57th and 58th Streets for nearly $1 million, and architects filed for a ten-story building. In July 1916 the city's new Zoning Resolution barred business use on that block of 58th Street because it was residential, and Steinway rescinded its purchase agreements. The sellers, including Hermann Biggs and Estelle Anderson, sued in some of the first zoning test cases, and Steinway lost in July 1920. It then had to take title to the properties, and the zoning was amended to allow business there.
- 1925
The Philharmonic Society and the Oratorio Society are based in Steinway Hall for decades
Two of the city's oldest musical institutions were based in Steinway Hall from 1925. The Philharmonic Society of New York, founded in 1842 and the country's oldest continuous symphony orchestra, stayed until 1962. The Oratorio Society, an amateur chorus founded by Leopold Damrosch in 1873, remained until 1958. Other musical tenants included the Musicians Emergency Fund and the National Orchestral Association.
“Philharmonic Society of New York ... (1925-62); the Oratorio Society of New York, an amateur chorus founded in 1873 by Leopold Damrosch ... (1925-58)…”
- 1925
Steinway Hall opens as Steinway & Sons' flagship showroom
Warren and Wetmore designed the 16-story neoclassical building, which cost $3 million. Its opening on October 27, 1925, featured Willem Mengelberg and 35 New York Philharmonic musicians, broadcast over radio. Steinway & Sons used the five lowest floors, and the basement held a "piano bank" of more than 300 pianos.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1928
Paley's young CBS network broadcasts from Steinway Hall's penthouse
In 1928-29 the penthouse of Steinway Hall served as a radio studio for William Paley's fledgling Columbia Broadcasting System, while CBS concerts went out over the air from the building's recital hall. By the 1940s the penthouse had become a recording studio, one of the oldest in the city.
“In 1928-29, the penthouse of Steinway Hall was used as a radio broadcasting studio for William Paley's fledgling Columbia Broadcasting System…”
- 1928
Vladimir Horowitz and Sergei Rachmaninoff give a duo piano recital
Vladimir Horowitz and Sergei Rachmaninoff played a duo piano recital at Steinway Hall in 1928. A 2001 New Yorker article noted that nearly every twentieth-century virtuoso walked through the first-floor reception room on the way to the Concert and Artists Department in the basement.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1930
Columbia Concerts Corporation forms in Steinway Hall and grows into a classical-music giant
Columbia Concerts Corp. was created in Steinway Hall in 1930 by merging several leading independent concert bureaus. After a reorganization in 1942 it was known as Columbia Artists Management (CAMI), which became one of the world's largest booking firms for classical music, opera, theater and dance. The building's third-floor recital hall, which had done poorly under Steinway's management in the 1920s, was handed to CAMI for its recitals, and CAMI kept its headquarters there until 1959.
“Columbia Concerts Corp. was formed in Steinway Hall in 1930 through the merger of a number of leading independent concert bureaus.”
- 1935
The Chalif School of Dancing moves into Steinway Hall after losing its own building
The Chalif School of Dancing, which the first Russian ballet master to teach in America started in 1905, occupied 163-165 West 57th Street after the building went up in 1916, until foreclosure in 1933. The school then moved into Steinway Hall, where it stayed from about 1935 to 1955. Columbia Artists Management, also a tenant in the hall, bought the former Chalif building in 1959.
- 1955
A 13-year-old Barbra Streisand makes her first recording in Steinway Hall's penthouse studio
The penthouse housed one of the city's oldest recording studios, known from the 1940s as the Harris Smith Studios, where Charlie Parker and Miles Davis cut jazz records. It later became Nola Penthouse Sound Studios, founded by engineer Vincent J. Nola. In 1955 it recorded Barbra Streisand's first recording, made when she was 13.
- 1958
Manhattan Life Insurance buys Steinway Hall and covers its Apollo sculpture with a Statue of Liberty
Steinway sold its building to the Manhattan Life Insurance Company in April 1958 for $3 million, about what it had cost to build, after its president concluded the hall was a luxury the company could no longer afford. Steinway stayed on as a tenant. Manhattan Life called it the Manhattan Life Building and altered the facade to show its name, its founding year of 1850 and a relief replica of the Statue of Liberty. The logo panels covered Leo Lentelli's Apollo sculpture until 1990.
- 1972
Colbert Artists Management makes Steinway Hall its base for opera and classical stars
Colbert Artists Management, founded in 1948 by Henry and Ann Colbert, has been based in the building since 1972. The agency represented opera and concert performers including Joan Sutherland for her whole American career, Christa Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Alfred Brendel and the Juilliard String Quintet.
- 1981
Kohn Pedersen Fox makes Steinway Hall its head office
Kohn Pedersen Fox, founded in 1976 by Eugene Kohn, William Pedersen and Sheldon Fox, has had its head office in Steinway Hall since 1981. Earlier architects had also worked in the building: Pietro Belluschi and Eduardo Catalano, who designed the Juilliard School, in the late 1950s and 1960s, and Kallmann McKinnell, creators of Boston City Hall, in the 1970s.
- 1997
A Steinway Hall recital becomes the first classical concert streamed live online
Pianist Jeffrey Biegel gave, at Steinway Hall, the first classical music recital to be sent live over the internet, with both audio and video. Steinway & Sons repurchased the building a couple of years later.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
The city designates Steinway Hall a landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission made Steinway Hall a city landmark in November 2001, protecting it from demolition. Steinway & Sons had repurchased the building in early 1999 for roughly $62 million to $63 million, which let it begin collecting rent from tenants.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
The city landmarks Steinway Hall's rotunda as developers promise to restore it
In September 2013 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the rotunda of Steinway Hall as a landmark, with support from the developers JDS and Property Markets Group. That October the developers presented their tower plans and promised to restore the rotunda in exchange for approval. The commission approved the plans, despite doubts from preservationists and some of its own members.
“…the LPC designated the rotunda as a landmark that September ... promising to restore Steinway Hall's rotunda in exchange for the LPC's approval…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2018
Prosecutors charge a subcontractor with stealing wages from 520 workers building the tower
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. indicted the subcontractor Parkside Construction in May 2018, accusing it of shorting 520 workers on the tower of $1.7 million in pay and hiding about $42 million in wages from insurance officials. The owners, Francesco and Salvatore Pugliese, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud in 2021 and received conditional discharges. Unions had protested the project, which aimed to be the city's tallest non-union tower, with inflatable rats.
“…stealing $1.7 million from 520 workers on the project by purposely shorting their hours and failing to pay them overtime…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2020
High wind tears the tower's crane loose and slams it into the facade
On October 29, 2020, strong wind knocked the tower's construction crane loose and drove it into the facade, scattering debris on the street below. Investigators blamed an unsecured cable. On November 15, a glass curtain wall panel fell 56 floors into a nearby street, and on December 24 another pane fell from the 58th Street side, with nobody hurt.
“…knocked the tower's construction crane loose, causing it to smash into the facade and scatter debris on the street below…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2022
A 1,428-foot tower rises above the preserved Steinway Hall
SHoP Architects designed the residential tower built atop Steinway Hall, whose construction wrapped up in 2022. Its width-to-height ratio is about 1:24, and it is described as the thinnest skyscraper in the world. JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group began work in 2014 and restored the hall's facade and rotunda as part of the project.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2026
Bonhams opens the former Steinway showroom and rotunda to the public
In September 2024 the auction house Bonhams leased the former piano showroom, and its space in the building opened in February 2026. The opening let the public into the landmarked rotunda for the first time in more than ten years. The four-story commercial space covers about 42,000 square feet.
“The Bonhams space in the building opened in February 2026, opening the rotunda to the public for the first time in over a decade.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 111 West 57th StreetWikipedia
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