Metropolitan Tower

146 West 57th Street | also 145 West 56th Street, 142 West 57th Street | Midtown | built 1986

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

  1. 1982

    April

    The Little Carnegie cinema closes without warning after more than 50 years

    The Little Carnegie Theater on West 57th Street played Atlantic City one last time on a Sunday night in April 1982 and then shut, ending a run of more than 50 years as one of the city's best-known cinemas. Its building was among four- and five-story structures on a midblock site stretching to 56th Street, the site where Metropolitan Tower would rise, which Feinberg Realty & Construction had assembled by buying out tenants' leases. The firm planned a 350,000-square-foot building of apartments, offices and stores, designed by Schuman Lichtenstein & Claman.

    Source: Internet Archive

  2. 1984

    September 8

    A construction crane topples on the tower's foundation site, trapping its operator

    On the afternoon of September 8, 1984, a crane collapsed on the lot just east of the Russian Tea Room where the foundation of the planned 78-story tower was being laid. Operator Thomas O'Brien, 45, was pinned in the wreckage for over half an hour after losing a finger and part of his right foot. He was credited with averting worse by swinging the 300-foot boom away from neighboring buildings and workers, so it came down on construction debris on the open lot.

    Source: Internet Archive

  3. 1985

    January

    Ads promise a 78-story residence for a building whose plans show 65 floors

    In January 1985 newspaper ads described Metropolitan Tower as a 78-story residence, while plans on file with the Buildings Department showed 65 floors. Developer Harry Macklowe had left floors 17 through 29 out of his numbering, jumping from 16 to 30, skipped the unlucky 13 and not counted the equipment floor. Community Board 5 chairman Irene Zelnick wrote to the city's consumer affairs commissioner calling it fraudulent advertising, while Macklowe's lawyer said the idea was borrowed from Donald Trump.

    Source: Internet Archive

  4. 1985

    October 2

    The tower tops out as the city's tallest residential building

    Developer Harry B. Macklowe's Metropolitan Tower topped out on October 2, 1985, and was completed in 1987 as, at the time, New York City's tallest residential building. Designed by Schuman, Lichtenstein, Claman & Efron with contributions from Bill Derman and Sheldon Werdiger, the 716-foot, 68-story tower combines an 18-story rectangular base with a 48-story triangular residential shaft, built of reinforced concrete rather than steel.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1986

    March

    Macklowe spends $500,000 on graphics and $300,000 on a film to sell the tower

    By March 1986 the developer was selling the tower on a lavish scale. He spent $500,000 on graphics, four times his usual budget for similar projects, and printed 20,000 copies of an oversized 84-page brochure styled like a 1930s Life magazine story, each carrying his printed signature. He put $300,000 into a 14-minute sales film with a brief cameo by himself, hired publicist Bobby Zarem for $75,000 a year, and lit the tower with floodlights so it could be seen from suburban New Jersey and Westchester.

    Source: Internet Archive

  6. 1986

    The Russian Tea Room's owner sues over falling glass and a sidewalk shed, and Macklowe tears the shed down

    Several glass panes cracked as the facade was completed, and shards reportedly fell onto nearby streets, though no one was hurt. In late 1986 James Stewart-Gordon, who owned the neighboring Russian Tea Room with his wife Faith, sued Macklowe, complaining that glass falling from the building and a sidewalk shed in front of the site were hurting the restaurant's trade. After a New York state judge imposed a fine of $5,000 a day, Macklowe destroyed the shed.

    “After a New York state judge levied a $5,000 daily fine, Macklowe destroyed the shed.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 1987

    New York magazine's poll ranks the tower among the city's ten most disliked structures

    A 1987 New York magazine survey of over 100 prominent New Yorkers placed Metropolitan Tower among the ten most disliked structures in the city. Paul Goldberger of the Times had faulted the plans for showing little regard for the architectural traditions of its neighborhood. After completion he was kinder, writing that the building did not ruin 57th Street and crediting the decision not to reface 140 West 57th Street in glass. Macklowe said decades later that he never got the compliments.

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 1987

    A single Japanese buyer purchases 36 condominium units

    Shortly after Metropolitan Tower opened in 1987, a single Japanese buyer purchased 36 of its apartments, one of the largest residential transactions in the building. Control Data Corporation also leased 117,000 square feet, nearly half of the tower's office space, that year.

    Source: Wikipedia

  9. 2006

    BlackRock buys the tower's office condominium for $196 million

    Ownership of Metropolitan Tower's office portion changed hands repeatedly after its 1987 opening: Pacific Eagle bought it in 1994 for $59.1 million, L&L Acquisitions and Investcorp paid more than $160 million in 2002, and BlackRock acquired 98.6 percent of it in 2006 for $196 million.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown