51 Astor Place
also 51C Astor Place, 51A Astor Place, 45 4th Avenue | East Village | built 2012
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 2002
Cooper Union sells its Astor Place engineering building
Facing budget shortfalls, Cooper Union sold its engineering building on this site in 2002, ending decades of academic use on a block that had earlier held a coffee shop. Developer Edward J. Minskoff Equities acquired the site to build a new commercial tower.
- 2008
Cooper Union's plan to replace its engineering building with a Fumihiko Maki tower becomes public
In February 2008 a rendering surfaced of a 440,000-square-foot mixed-use building by the Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki. It was to replace the Cooper Union engineering building at 51 Astor Place, across from the 1859 Foundation Building. Developer Edward J. Minskoff would lease the site from Cooper Union for 99 years, and the future of a connected Starbucks was uncertain.
Source: gothamist.com
- 2013
The $300 million tower goes up on speculation with no anchor tenant, and preservationists object to its style
Developer Edward J. Minskoff built the black-glass tower without a lead tenant, hoping finance and technology firms would lease space, and it cost about $300 million. Locals nicknamed it the Death Star. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation opposed it mainly because its style differs sharply from the surrounding neighborhood, and the building's high rents were also seen as wearing down the neighborhood's character.
“The building was built on spec, without an anchor tenant for the building.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
The finished building houses IBM's Watson Group, with a red Jeff Koons rabbit in the lobby
The new building has three retail spaces on its ground floor and offices above, and IBM is its anchor tenant, with the Watson Group headquartered here. Other occupants include St. John's University, Mail Online, Intuit and Claren Road Asset Management, a Carlyle Group subsidiary. A red sculpture of a rabbit by the artist Jeff Koons stands in the lobby.
“The lobby includes a red Jeff Koons sculpture of a rabbit.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
A black-glass tower by Fumihiko Maki replaces the engineering building
Architect Fumihiko Maki designed the 13-story, $300 million office tower completed in 2013, clad in black glass, black granite, and silver fins, with a red Jeff Koons rabbit sculpture in the lobby. IBM became anchor tenant, basing its Watson Group there, while preservationists nicknamed the building "the Death Star" for clashing with the surrounding neighborhood.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 51 Astor PlaceWikipedia
- 51 Astor PlaceVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks
Nearby
- 59 4th Avenue3 entries
- Cooper Union Foundation Building7 East 7th Street | 17 entries
- The Livingstone206 East 9th Street | 3 entries
- Hamilton-Holly House4 St Marks Place | 12 entries
- Astor Place Tower445 Lafayette Street | 6 entries
- Charles L. Carpenter House210 East 9th Street | 2 entries