1251 Avenue of the Americas (Exxon Building)

1251 Avenue of the Americas | also 123 West 49th Street | Times Square | built 1970

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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1967

    August

    Rockefeller Center announces the Exxon Building, the first of three towers planned along Sixth Avenue

    In 1963 Esso, later renamed Exxon, proposed a new building for Rockefeller Center because the company had outgrown the space it already occupied. The center's managers hired Harrison & Abramovitz to design three new towers west of Sixth Avenue, on the blocks from 47th to 50th Streets. Plans for the Exxon tower, at 1251 Avenue of the Americas, were formally announced in August 1967, with the McGraw-Hill and Celanese buildings to follow.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1971

    The 750-foot Exxon Building opens as the tallest and first finished of the XYZ towers

    Harrison & Abramovitz's 54-story tower is the X in the XYZ group, taller than 1221 and 1211 Avenue of the Americas, and was the first to open. It is a plain cuboid with narrow vertical stripes of glass and limestone, a seven-floor base, and a sunken plaza with a two-tier pool facing Sixth Avenue. Because buildings over 500 feet tall surround it, it is hard to spot from more than a few blocks away.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1972

    Exxon moves its corporate headquarters into the new Sixth Avenue tower

    Exxon moved its corporate headquarters into the tower in 1972, the year after the building was finished. The company co-owned it with Rockefeller Center's managers and held a stake until 1986, when Mitsui bought the building. Harrison & Abramovitz designed it as one of three new towers for the west side of Sixth Avenue.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1986

    Exxon sells its headquarters tower to a unit of Mitsui Real Estate for $610 million

    In 1986 Exxon sold the building that had been its headquarters since the early 1970s to a unit of Mitsui Real Estate Development for $610 million. Three years later the company announced that it would move its headquarters and about 300 employees to Irving, Texas, and John Walsh of its Friendswood Development subsidiary said New York's costs were too high. Exxon's New York offices went to Brooklyn.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1989

    Exxon announces that it will move its headquarters and 300 employees to Texas

    Exxon announced in 1989 that its headquarters would leave Manhattan for Irving, Texas, taking about 300 employees to the Las Colinas area. John Walsh, president of the Exxon subsidiary Friendswood Development Company, said New York costs were too high. The company's remaining New York offices moved to Brooklyn.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2013

    May

    The tower earns LEED Silver certification for existing buildings

    In May 2013 the U.S. Green Building Council awarded 1251 Avenue of the Americas silver certification under its LEED rating system for existing buildings. The tower is owned by Mitsui Fudosan, the Japanese real estate company, and ranks among the hundred tallest buildings in the country.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2020

    A lobby renovation by FXCollaborative adds Kan Yasuda marble sculptures and a Hiroshi Senju waterfall painting

    FXCollaborative finished a 20,000-square-foot renovation of the grand lobby in 2020, keeping the mid-century east plaza fountain and cantilevered entry canopies. New art includes four interactive Carrara marble sculptures by Kan Yasuda and a luminous waterfall painting by Hiroshi Senju. The lobby also holds an artist-authorized replica of the Picasso tapestry for the ballet Mercure.

    Source: fxcollaborative.com

Further reading

Nearby

All 91 buildings with stories in Times Square