IAC Building

555 West 18th Street | Chelsea | built 2007

Open on the map8 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 2004

    The Resnicoff family ground-leases the lot to the Georgetown Company, which builds IAC's headquarters

    In 2004 the Resnicoff family, long-time owners of land in West Chelsea, ground-leased the lot at 555 West 18th Street to the Georgetown Company. Georgetown developed the site as the headquarters for Barry Diller's IAC. The office building has about 200,000 square feet.

    Source: therealdeal.com

  2. 2007

    Barry Diller insists on white windows, and Frank Gehry delivers glass that is half white

    When Gehry first showed Diller a model, white material stood in for the window panes, and Diller fell for the idea of white glass. Gehry said Diller stayed fixated on it for a long time, though it cannot be done. Gehry finally produced windows that are half white through an engineering innovation, and Diller accepted them. Diller also insisted on a glass skin rather than the titanium Gehry is known for.

    Source: Internet Archive

  3. 2007

    Diller picks the bathroom tiles and a boardroom table with hidden computers

    Barry Diller took part in even the smallest details of the building. He chose the bathroom tiles and studied rug samples, and the boardroom has a bold oval table that hides a small computer for each person, which slides out when needed. Gehry and Diller both said their collaboration went well, though a Times columnist heard it said that the demanding executive drove the architect a little crazy at times.

    Source: Internet Archive

  4. 2007

    Staff start working in the building in February, and Diller himself is the last to arrive

    Some employees, who joked that they were guinea pigs, had worked in the building since February 2007, and it had been officially open for under two weeks when a Times columnist visited in April. The one New York employee not yet moved in was Diller, away on vacation while workers rushed to finish his sixth-floor office before Monday. The columnist also found the site so far from a subway stop that reaching it in a rainstorm meant getting soaked.

    Source: Internet Archive

  5. 2007

    A 120-foot video wall in the lobby plays art made for it, including NYU student work

    The lobby holds a video wall 120 feet wide and 11 feet high, built by Prysm with laser phosphor technology and visible to commuters on the West Side Highway. Trollback + Company designed its modules around themes like dating, travel and shopping, and two pull live data from the web. In fall 2007 an NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program class called Big Screens presented student works made for the wall, and the class is now held annually in December.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2007

    Frank Gehry completes his first full building in New York City

    The IAC Building at 555 West 18th Street is completed in 2007 and is Frank Gehry's first full-building design in New York City. Its ten stories read as two tiers of twisting glass sections, the upper smaller than the lower. IAC chief Barry Diller required a smooth glass facade rather than the wrinkled titanium Gehry first planned.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2016

    November

    IAC's building owner sues the facade installer over dripping window sealant

    HTRF Ventures, an IAC subsidiary that owns the building, sued facade installer Permasteelisa North America in Manhattan Supreme Court. The owner claimed the window sealant was installed badly and was dripping off in globs. Permasteelisa had been paid $18.2 million in 2006 to double glaze the panes, which were meant to be hermetically sealed, and the suit described a melting look, discoloration, silver bubbles and fog.

    Source: therealdeal.com

  8. 2023

    IAC buys the land under its Gehry-designed headquarters

    In 2023 IAC buys the land beneath its headquarters at 555 West 18th Street for $80 million. The building's lobby originally held what was then the world's largest high-definition screen.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 72 buildings with stories in Chelsea