One Times Square
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
One Times Square is the name of the building in Times Square upon which the famous New Year's Times Square Ball drop is performed annually. It was originally built by the New York Times in 1904 as a headquarters for their operations. Upon completion, the 25 story, 365 foot (110.6 m)[1] skyscraper was acknowledged as the second tallest building in the world.
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[edit] History
The New York Times held a celebration of the opening of its new headquarters with a display of fireworks on January 1, 1905, at midnight. This celebration at Times Square has been held for 102 years and continues to this day. The famous New Year's Eve Ball drop tradition began in 1907. The dropping of the ball was adapted from the United States Naval Observatory practice of lowering a time ball with a flag to signal the time of noon. This goes back to the mid 1800s.
Less than ten years after moving to One Times Square, The New York Times moved its corporate headquarters to a nearby building, 229 West 43rd Street, in 1913. The Times retained a classified advertising branch office in the building until it sold the Times Tower in 1961. The Times is now headquartered in the New York Times Building on nearby Eighth Avenue.
In 1928, the famous electric news ticker display near the base of the building was first used to announce the results of the US presidential election of 1928. Spanning the base of the entire building, the sign was originally made of 14,800 lamps. The ticker was dark between 1975 and 1980, when Newsday sponsored the revival of the display. The ticker is now sponsored by Dow Jones, the parent of The Wall Street Journal.
During World War II in the early 1940s, the ball lowering was stopped for two years due to wartime blackouts and energy conservation. A celebration was still held, but the crowds observed a minute of silence for the wartime efforts.
[edit] From building to billboard
The Times sold the building to Douglas Leigh in 1961. Leigh then sold the building to Allied Chemical in 1963. Allied Chemical greatly modified the building's facade, replacing intricate granite and terracotta elements with marble facing and simple concrete paneling. This refurbishment made a majority of the building's exterior a sheer wall, with the exception of floor-to-ceiling windows on the 16th floor. The 16th floor was a restaurant space for some time, allowing diners to eat their meals in Art Deco elegance at eye level with the glittering towers all around the square. However, the restaurant space has been closed since the 1980s.
Because of the extensive cost of renovating the building with central air conditioning, the building currently has no tenants and is only used to hold dozens of colorful advertisements. Additionally, the operators of One Times Square have noted that the building makes more revenue as a collection of advertisements than it would full of tenants. Brian Turner, president of Sherwood Outdoor, a partner in the building that drops the ball every New Year's Eve, is quoted as saying, "Who needs pain-in-the-butt tenants when you've got the largest sign tower in the world?" In 2000, it was reported that the building's 26 signs bring in monthly rent checks ranging from $100,000,000 to $250,000,000.[2]
In recent times the building has had a few tenants. In the late 1990s, a Warner Bros. retail store filled the first three floors; however, the vast majority of the building remained vacant. In 2006, the first three floors were occupied by a JC Penney location, which closed after less than 3 months. The building is currently planned to house a Walgreens opening this year.[3]
In late 2006, the iconic NBC Peacock that hung above the Panasonic Jumbotron was replaced with the logo of News Corp, the parent company of Fox. Weeks later, the Budweiser billboard that hangs above the jumbotron was expanded into a complete LED High definition screen, and the Cup Noodles ad that had hung above the former Peacock logo and Budweiser ads was taken down and replaced by a new Chevy billboard that features a clock. In late 2007, Toshiba contracted the uppermost sign on One Times Square. It displays the iconic New Year's countdown on its screen, as well as messages, greetings, and advertisements for the company.
