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Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation
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Formerly: AOL Time Warner Center
Formerly: Columbus Centre
Formerly: New Coliseum
Built:
2000- 2004
Cost: $1,700,000,000
Designed by: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Type: Skyscraper
Stories: 69
Maximum height: 750 feet / 229 meters
Location: 10 Columbus Circle
City: New York
State: New York
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O
rientation is everything when it comes to this building. Its two towers are massed at the rear of the complex, with a lower structures known as the "podium" in front that engages the street-level observer and directs his gaze upward. The combination gives the illusion of a mountain. At the same time, the towers mass is felt by the observer because of their angles, embracing the viewer allowing them to become overwhelmed by the building's presence. The construction of such a huge complex was necessitated by what was the largest media merger of its time. By the late 1990's, America Online had shed its Quantum Link heritage and become the leading internet provider in the United States. It leveraged its power to buy the Time Warner media company, known for its magazines, cable television stations, and movies. At the time it was heralded as the wave of the future, and the logical place to consolidate all that power was New York City. Times Square was already undergoing a massive revitalization thanks to rival media company Disney, so AOL needed another place to stake its claim. It chose Columbus Circle, which had become run down, but not so notorious as Times Square. The AOL Time Warner Center was intended to spark the rebirth of the area, the way the Renaissance Center helped downtown Detroit. To make that happen, the area needed a critical mass of businesses. So the complex includes a luxury hotel, luxury condominiums, shops, restaurants, and a concert hall. Following the lead of broadcast television networks NBC, and CBS, AOL Time Warner's cable network CNN built a studio at street level so people can see in and viewers at home can see out. In a sense, this building represents the AOL Time Warner company coming full-circle. AOL got its start by transmitting games over telephone lines into Atari 2600 machines in the 1980's. The symbol of Atari was the fuji. Now AOL has constructed a massive edifice with similar properties as the fuji that gave AOL its start.
** There is some confusion about the number of floors in this building. According to a May, 2003 article in the New York Times, the building actually has 69 floors, though it was marketed to potential home buyers as having 80 floors.
**The complex is designed to allow cellular telephones to work anywhere, including inside the elevators.
**There is a special communication system inside the complex that allows police are firefighters to communicate in an emergency.
**The foundation of the complex is 434 feet deep.
**The north end of the podium is 315 feet tall (20 stories).
**The south end of the podium is 349 feet tall (24 stories).
**The complex incorporates One Central Park, a group of 198 luxury condominiums.
**At the time of the building's completion, the four penthouses sold for between $25,000,000 and $35,000,000.
**This was the site of the 26-story New York Coliseum, which was demolished in 2000.
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