125 West 55th Street facts for kids
Quick facts for kids 125 West 55th Street |
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125 West 55th Street along 55th Street.
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| Alternative names | Avenue of the Americas Plaza |
| General information | |
| Type | Office |
| Architectural style | Modernist |
| Location | 125 West 55th Street, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. 10019 |
| Coordinates | 40°45′49″N 73°58′44″W / 40.763607°N 73.979002°W |
| Construction started | 1988 |
| Completed | 1990 |
| Owner | J.P. Morgan Asset Management |
| Height | 100.6 m (330 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 22 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Edward Larrabee Barnes |
| Developer | Macklowe Properties |
| Structural engineer | Rosenwasser / Grossman Consulting Engineers, P.C. |
125 West 55th Street, also known as Avenue of the Americas Plaza, is a tall office building in New York City. It has 23 stories and is located in Midtown Manhattan. You can find it on 55th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. There's also another entrance on West 56th Street.
This building offers a lot of office space, about 57,000 square meters. It was built by The Macklowe Organization. The building was designed by a famous architect named Edward Larrabee Barnes. Each floor is quite large, about 2,136 square meters.
Many different companies have offices here. For example, Air France has its main U.S. offices on the second floor. Macquarie Bank also has an office in the building. Currently, Boston Properties owns and manages the building. You can also find the offices of Katz Media, which is part of Clear Channel Communications, here.
Building History
Building 125 West 55th Street cost about $60 million to build back in 1988. Before this skyscraper was built, the Saint Thomas Choir School was located on this spot. The choir school moved into a new building so the skyscraper could be constructed. The company Fisher Brothers helped build it.
Construction on the building started in 1988. The city of New York offered a special deal to encourage new buildings. If a building's foundation was started by May 13, 1988, it could be 20% larger! This was to help develop the western part of Midtown Manhattan. The builders hoped that companies would start moving in by May 1989. The building was fully finished in 1990.
In 1991, Air France decided to rent a large space in the building. They took about 2,740 square meters of office space on the second floor. They also had a small retail space on the first floor for selling tickets. Air France wanted a bigger ticket office and better reservation offices. They chose 125 West 55th Street because it had new fiber optics systems and was a modern building. Their old offices needed expensive upgrades. The street-level ticket office for Air France is no longer there.
Around 1992, Air France planned to move its main offices for the Northeast U.S. and its U.S. reservation center to this building. Also, around that time, Katz Communications signed a huge lease for about 15,793 square meters of space. This was one of the biggest leases in Manhattan in 1991! Other companies like the National Bank of Canada and Credietbank also had offices here.
In the summer of 1992, a law firm called LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae moved 1,200 employees into the building. They brought together their teams from several different places. The firm rented eight floors and the concourse level, totaling about 20,810 square meters. This was also one of the largest leases in New York City that year.
In 2008, Boston Properties bought the building for $444 million. In 2010, Katz Media Group renewed their lease until 2027. This meant Katz would continue to use over one-third of the building. They now have about 18,580 square meters of space. In 2010, MetLife helped with the building's finances. By 2011, the building was valued at $345 million.
Building Design
Thomas L. Waite, a writer for The New York Times, described the building in 1988 before it was finished. He said that the blue glass covering the building "may give it a pastoral sheen." This means it might look calm and natural, like a countryside scene. He also noted that its design was similar to another building called the Metropolitan Tower.
Who Works Here?
Many different businesses and restaurants are located at 125 West 55th Street:
- Au Bon Pain has a restaurant here.
- Starbucks has a coffee shop on the 56th Street side.
- Chop't, a salad place, is also on the 56th Street side.
- Estatorio Milos is a seafood restaurant on the ground floor.
- Macquarie Group has offices on the higher floors.
- iHeartMedia and its company, Katz Media, are located on floors 3-14 and 21.
Images for kids
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125 West 55th Street along 55th Street.
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The entrance at 120 West 56th Street
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The 120 West 56th Street entrance in 2009, showing an old Air France ticket office sign
Notes
- "125 West 55th Street." Macklowe Properties
- "Avenue of the Americas Plaza." Emporis
