Javits Center
655 West 34th Street | also 429 11th Avenue, 408 12th Avenue, 661 West 34th Street | Hudson Yards | built 1963
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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.
- 1975
Donald Trump proposes his own convention center on the 30th Street rail yard
After a federal court approved the sale in March 1975, Trump Enterprises held an option on two Penn Central rail yards, and Donald Trump offered to build a convention center on the 30th Street Yard for $110 million. In December 1975 he hired architect Der Scutt to design a 1.5-million-square-foot building, offering to waive the fee if it carried his family's name. The city and state chose the rail yard but rejected his offer; Penn Central still paid him a broker's commission.
“In December 1975, Trump hired Der Scutt to design a convention center on the 30th Street Yard's site ... Trump's offer to build the Convention Center was rejected…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1980
Ground is broken for the New York Convention Center on the Penn Central yard
The groundbreaking for the New York Convention and Exhibition Center, whose architects were I. M. Pei and Partners, took place on June 18, 1980. A few squatters on the site had been evicted that March so the old structures could be demolished, and in October the MTA issued $100 million in bonds to help pay for construction. Jerry Lowery, hired to book events, had 171 conventions lined up between mid-1984 and late 1986 by the end of 1981.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1984
The convention center is renamed to honor Senator Jacob K. Javits
By April 1984 Governor Mario Cuomo had said the center, which was running behind schedule, would get a new name before it opened, one that was easy to say and write. In December 1984, at his suggestion, the Convention Center Development Corporation renamed it for the former U.S. senator Jacob K. Javits. The structure was topped out on December 19, 1984.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1986
The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center opens on the Far West Side
James Ingo Freed of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners designed the convention center, a space-frame structure on Eleventh Avenue between 34th and 38th Streets. Built from 1979 to 1986, it opened on April 3, 1986, taking over from the New York Coliseum at Columbus Circle as the city's main convention venue. It was named for Jacob Javits, the longtime U.S. senator from New York.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1995
A review board says Teamster hiring at the Javits Center was steered to mob associates
On May 3, 1995, a court-appointed panel, the Independent Review Board, reported that since the center opened in 1986, Teamsters Local 807 foremen Robert Rabbitt Sr. and his son Michael had parceled out the plum jobs mainly to people with organized-crime ties and to their friends and relatives. Workers earned up to $350 for a Sunday shift, far above the usual local pay. Michael Rabbitt called the charges ridiculous and erroneous.
Source: Internet Archive
- 2014
Tarps and barrels catch leaks at the Javits Center despite its $465 million renovation
In January 2014 the New York Post counted dozens of tarps rigged to hoses draining into blue barrels beneath one section of the Javits Center's ceiling, despite a $465 million expansion and renovation that included a 6.75-acre green roof. Workers worried that standing water could breed mosquitoes. A center spokesman said there had been no recent reports of roof problems and that the roof work was 80 percent complete.
Source: Internet Archive
- 2017
Governor Cuomo breaks ground on the 1.2-million-square-foot Javits expansion
In March 2017 Governor Andrew Cuomo started work on the Javits Center's 1.2-million-square-foot expansion, with foundation work having begun the previous December. The first phase was a three-story building for generators and transformers. A consortium of Lendlease, Turner Construction and TVS was to add 90,000 square feet of exhibit space and a 55,000-square-foot ballroom, billed as the largest in New York.
Source: Internet Archive
- 2020
Linda Diaz and her band play an NPR Tiny Desk concert on top of the Javits Center
In October 2020 the band of Linda Diaz played an NPR Tiny Desk concert on the roof of the Javits Center, the first musicians to perform up there. They could not use NPR's studio in Washington, D.C., because of the risk of spreading COVID-19. The convention center had spent that spring as a temporary hospital for coronavirus patients, and its large events were canceled or postponed.
“In October 2020, Linda Diaz and her band became the first musicians to perform atop the Javits Center, which they used for an NPR Tiny Desk Concert…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2020
The Javits Center becomes a field hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic
In March 2020 the convention center was adapted into a temporary alternate care site for COVID-19 patients, first planned for 2,000 beds and later expanded to 2,910. Run with FEMA, it treated slightly under 1,100 patients and closed in May 2020 after the first surge passed. Large conventions scheduled over the following year were canceled or postponed.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2021
The Javits Center vaccination site begins operating around the clock
By March 6, 2021, the Javits Center was giving COVID-19 shots 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a week after the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was approved. That week it announced it had administered 100,000 vaccinations since becoming an inoculation center in January. Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and the state fairgrounds in Syracuse also ran around-the-clock clinics with the new single-dose vaccine.
Source: abcnews.go.com
- 2021
A $1.5 billion expansion brings the Javits Center to 3.3 million square feet
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the $1.5 billion expansion in January 2016, with a groundbreaking in March 2017. Construction was completed in May 2021, within budget, and added 1.2 million square feet, including 500,000 square feet of contiguous event space. The building now has about 3.3 million square feet of interior area.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Javits CenterWikipedia
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