CitySpire
150 West 56th Street | also 137 West 55th Street, 156 West 56th Street | Midtown | built 1987
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1911
A garage built in 1911 occupies much of the future tower's site
Before CitySpire, the site beside City Center is largely taken up by a garage built in 1911. Developer Ian Bruce Eichner later buys about 297,300 square feet of unused development rights from the neighboring theater, which opened in 1924 as Mecca Temple for the Shriners and came under city control in 1943, to build the tower.
Source: cityrealty.com
- 1984
Developer Bruce Eichner announces a 72-story tower beside City Center, built with the theater's air rights
In May 1984 Eichner announced a Murphy/Jahn design with 22 floors of offices below 49 stories of condominiums, an octagonal plan and a domed roof. It depended on buying unused air rights above the landmark City Center theater next door, a sale expected to raise $10 million to $14 million for its resident companies. Critics said the price was low and the building too large.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1985
The Board of Estimate approves City Center Tower by 7 to 4, the last sign-off
In August 1985 the Board of Estimate approves the project by a 7-4 vote, giving it final approval from all city agencies. Eichner needed about a dozen city bodies and private philanthropies to agree, and the deal marked the first time anyone had bought air rights from a theater. He agreed to give $3 million each to the City Opera and City Ballet and to spend $5.5 million on City Center's stage and backstage areas.
Source: cityrealty.com
- 1986
Falling concrete hits three Joffrey Ballet staff beside the rising tower
Susan Guszynski of the Joffrey Ballet, a City Center tenant, writes a letter in late 1986 to the city's Department of Buildings. She alleges that falling concrete struck three Joffrey staff members over the course of one week in October. The department later receives four more complaints of falling objects, one of them a piece of facade that came off the tower's roof.
“Susan Guszynski of the Joffrey Ballet wrote to the Department of Buildings alleging three Joffrey staff had been hit by falling concrete during one week that October.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1987
Condo sales open with TV ads starring Dick Cavett, Carol Channing and Lauren Hutton
Marketing began in March 1987 with commercials starring Cavett, Channing and Hutton along with Robert Joffrey, Lynn Redgrave and Tommy Tune. Even so, only 60 of the 340 condominiums were in contract by August, a slow start blamed on a shortage of small apartments and the area's nonresidential character. The advertisements were also criticized for showing only white people.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1987
The topped-out tower exceeds its approved height, forcing a second public review
By mid-1987 the structure stood 11 or 14 feet above its approved height. Three feet came from a measuring discrepancy, but the rest came from Eichner's decision to add two inches of cement to every floor slab. The tower had to go back through public review, and in December 1987 the City Planning Commission rejected the extra height.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1988
Mayor Koch orders the completed dome dismantled
CitySpire's dome is finished in August 1988, apparently breaking the tentative settlement over the tower's excess height. Community Board 5 had alerted the Department of Buildings, but its stop-work order comes only after the dome is done. In November Mayor Ed Koch orders the dome dismantled, and its ribs are partly removed so the tower exceeds its permitted height by only 1.5 feet.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1989
The Board of Estimate lets CitySpire keep its dome in exchange for small dance studios
The dome was finished in August 1988 against a tentative settlement, and Mayor Ed Koch ordered it dismantled that November. The Board of Estimate approved a trade in March 1989 by a 6 to 5 vote, letting the dome be completed in return for dance studios in the base. A fire damaged the dome in May 1989 and was ruled arson, and the studios were still unfinished in 1995.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1990
CitySpire becomes the first building cited for noise, as wind whistles through its dome
In December 1990 the Department of Environmental Protection fined CitySpire, the first building it cited individually for noise. Hundreds of people complained of a loud whistle, audible several blocks away, blamed on wind passing through the dome's louvers. A judge fined the managing agent $220 in April 1991, and the roof noise stopped in October 1992.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1990
Murphy/Jahn's octagonal tower is finished with a dome inspired by City Center
The 75-story, 814-foot tower has an octagonal plan, and its dome echoes the one on the neighboring City Center. The stone and glass facade steps back at floors 46 and 62. A through-block passage linking 55th and 56th Streets is part of 6½ Avenue. When completed, only the Sears Tower topped it among concrete towers in the country.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1991
CitySpire's owner files for bankruptcy after banks foreclose on construction loans
European American Bank foreclosed on construction loans in November 1990, and at the end of February 1991 the building's owner, a limited partnership led by Eichner, filed for Chapter 11. A reorganization plan was approved in September 1992. The bank's parent ABN AMRO then took over the residential section, which sold out by 1994, while the Bank of Nova Scotia renamed the commercial section Midland Tower.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1997
A pedestrian arcade finally opens, twelve years after its approval
In late 1997 the passage through CitySpire between West 55th and 56th Streets is finally completed after a $1 million renovation paid by the office and condominium owners. David W. Dunlap of The New York Times observes that the railroad took only seven years to go from authorization to its golden spike, while the arcade took twelve from approval to opening. The opening completes a chain of walkways from 51st to 57th Street.
“CitySpire's pedestrian arcade was finally completed in late 1997... it had taken twelve years between the arcade's approval and its opening.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2012
A CitySpire triplex penthouse is listed for $100 million with Robert De Niro's son
Prudential Douglas Elliman lists a three-floor penthouse on the 73rd floor of CitySpire at $100 million, billed as the priciest apartment in the country. The unit has 11,000 square feet, six bedrooms and nine bathrooms. Raphael De Niro, son of actor Robert De Niro, is the listing broker.
Source: dnainfo.com
Further reading
- CitySpireWikipedia
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