Hearst Tower
959 8th Avenue | also 301 West 56th Street, 305 West 56th Street, 304 West 57th Street | Hell's Kitchen | built 1928
Open on the map15 entries
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1921
William Randolph Hearst buys the Eighth Avenue site for his headquarters
Hearst had envisioned a Manhattan headquarters as early as 1895 and purchased at least six midtown properties while searching for the right spot. In 1921 he finally acquires the Eighth Avenue site between 56th and 57th Streets, betting that the area around Columbus Circle would grow into an extension of the city's theater district.
Source: hearst.com
- 1926
Hearst drops a Thomas Lamb theater plan and turns to Joseph Urban for the Eighth Avenue site
The Eighth Avenue site first drew a plan from the architect Michael Bernstein for three low commercial buildings with a movie theater. A year later Hearst switched to Thomas Lamb, a leading theater architect, for a six-story theater and office building. That scheme was dropped in mid-August 1926 in favor of Joseph Urban's design, the one that was built. Urban's commission came about three months before he was also named architect of a new Metropolitan Opera house planned for the neighboring 57th Street lots.
- 1927
Hearst writes an editorial cheering New York's new architecture before building begins
On May 29, 1927, under two months before work began on the Hearst Magazine Building, the Hearst papers carried an editorial about American architecture that he had written himself. In it he praised New York for building in a style that was new rather than copied from earlier periods, called it an expression of the nation's energy and imagination, and attacked the 'old fogies' who stood in the way. The Landmarks Commission later noted that the character Hearst praised could apply to his own building.
“Hearst's newspapers ran an editorial on American architecture which Hearst himself had written.”
- 1927
Sculptor Henry Kreis, age 28, carves the six allegorical groups on the Hearst base
Henry Kreis, a sculptor from Essen, Germany, who had come to the United States in 1923, was 28 when he made the six allegorical groups on the building's entrances and chamfered corners. He had earlier won work from Joseph Urban on the Hutton residence in Palm Beach, where he became foreman of fifteen carvers. The Hearst figures brought Kreis public attention and, after more training under Paul Manship and Carl Paul Jennewein, federal commissions including a Bronx post office and buildings in Washington.
“Kreis' twelve dramatic figures brought him to public attention…”
- 1928
William Randolph Hearst finishes a six-story base meant to carry a tower
Hearst commissioned the Hearst Magazine Building from Joseph Urban and George B. Post & Sons; excavation began by June 1927 and it was finished in 1928 for $2 million. The U-shaped, six-story base was designed to support a tower added later, but the Great Depression stalled those plans. The Landmarks Preservation Commission protected its facade on February 16, 1988.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1937
Hearst gives up financial control of his empire with $126 million in debts
William Randolph Hearst went on buying around Columbus Circle until 1930, but had to sell off holdings within the decade. In 1937 he relinquished financial control of his publishing empire, which was weighed down by unprofitable newspapers and inflated mortgages and owed a total of $126 million. The six-story magazine building was left as the lone survivor of his grand scheme for a 'Hearst Plaza' around Columbus Circle.
“In 1937 Hearst relinquished financial control of his publishing empire.”
- 1946
Architects file unbuilt plans to finally crown the Hearst base
From the start, Hearst's six-story base is structurally reinforced to carry a future office tower. Between 1945 and 1947 the firm George B. Post & Sons draws plans for nine additional stories, filing them in 1946, but the addition is never built, leaving the reinforced base waiting decades for a tower.
Source: hearst.com
- 1988
The city designates Joseph Urban's Hearst base a landmark
In 1988, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the six-story International Magazine Building a landmark, calling it an important monument in the city's architectural heritage. Sculptural groups at its corners personify Comedy and Tragedy, Music and Art, Sport and Industry, and Printing and the Sciences, part of Joseph Urban's design meant to evoke the building's purpose of shaping public thought.
Source: hearst.com
- 2001
Hearst hires Norman Foster to finish a tower it began planning in 1926
In February 2001 the Hearst Corporation announced it had turned to Norman Foster of Foster & Partners to design an addition to its six-story magazine building at 959 Eighth Avenue, a project the Times said could finally complete a headquarters started about 75 years earlier. The base had been built to carry a tower, but the Depression and World War II intervened. A Hearst spokeswoman said Foster was to preserve Joseph Urban's original vision while serving a growing media company, and that size, schedule and design were still undecided.
Source: The New York Times
- 2001
Landmarks commission approves Foster's tower for Hearst after a 2-hour-40-minute review
On November 27, 2001, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved Foster's plan to run a 597-foot tower of faceted steel diamonds up through the landmark base. The whole review, from Hearst's opening statement to the vote, took only 2 hours and 40 minutes. Chairwoman Sherida Paulsen said the addition completed the theatrical spirit of Urban's design, while one commissioner, Deborah Gardner, abstained, fearing the landmark would read as a screen around the new tower.
Source: The New York Times
- 2002
Hearst wins over a wary Clinton neighborhood with Columbus Circle subway improvements
When Hearst first floated a tower in 2000, residents were ready to fight over light, noise and traffic. By July 2002 the opposition had largely failed to appear, because Hearst officials opened a dialogue and made concessions. In exchange for six extra stories, the company agreed to open a new subway entrance inside its West 57th Street frontage, rework turnstiles and stairways, and add three elevators for disabled riders. A few residents still called the plan a monstrosity.
Source: The New York Times
- 2003
Demolition begins inside the Hearst base as tower work starts on April 30
Before construction began, Good Housekeeping moved to another Hearst building and about two thousand employees were relocated. Work started on April 30, 2003, and the 1928 interior was gutted that summer while the landmark limestone facade stayed up, shored and cleaned for $6 million. The first steel went up in March 2004, and the tower topped out on February 11, 2005.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2005
Norman Foster names the lobby's glass waterfall Ice Falls
For much of its four-year design the lobby's three-story glass waterfall had the dull working title 'the water feature.' In April 2005, after seeing a mock-up of its icy glass blocks, Norman Foster named it Ice Falls. The $6.9 million, 27-foot-tall, 75-foot-wide wall is fed only by rain collected on the roof, held in a 14,000-gallon basement tank and reused.
Source: The New York Times
- 2006
Norman Foster's diagrid tower finally rises from the Hearst base
Nearly eight decades after the base opened, work on Norman Foster's tower began on April 30, 2003, and it was completed in October 2006, bringing the building to 597 feet and 46 stories. Its triangular diagrid frame used about 20 percent less steel than usual, and it became the first New York City building to earn LEED Gold certification for its overall design.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
Firefighters rescue two technicians from a buckled scaffold 500 feet above Eighth Avenue
On the afternoon of June 12, 2013, the middle motor of the tower's window-washing scaffold lost power while two technicians from Tractel Harness were servicing the equipment, folding the platform into a V about 500 feet above Eighth Avenue. Rescuers removed windows on the 44th floor and brought the men inside in a rescue that took about 90 minutes. Both were unhurt, and an FDNY chief said they had never been in danger of falling.
Source: nbcnewyork.com
Further reading
- Hearst Tower (Manhattan)Wikipedia
Nearby
- Central Park Place301 West 57th Street | 3 entries
- Random House Tower230 West 56th Street | 6 entries
- Museum of Arts and Design2 Columbus Circle | 8 entries
- National Bible Institute School and Dormitory340 West 55th Street | 4 entries
- 5 Columbus Circle (United States Rubber Company Building)1790 Broadway | 8 entries
- Spyscape250 West 55th Street | 5 entries