Columbus Circle

Coordinates: 40°46′05″N 73°58′55″W / 40.76806°N 73.98194°W / 40.76806; -73.98194

The statue of Columbus by Gaetano Russo in the middle of Columbus Circle with the Time Warner Center in the background.

Columbus Circle, named for Christopher Columbus, is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South (West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the southwest corner of Central Park. It is the point from which all official distances from New York City are measured. The name is also used for the neighborhood a few blocks around the circle in each direction. To the south of the circle lies Hell's Kitchen, also known as "Clinton", and the Theater District, and to the north is the Upper West Side.

The circle

Completed in 1905 and renovated a century later, the circle was designed by William P. Eno – a businessman who pioneered many early innovations in road safety and traffic control – as part of Frederick Law Olmsted's vision for Central Park, which included a "Grand Circle" at the Merchants' Gate, its most important Eighth Avenue entrance.

The monument at the center of Columbus Circle, created by Italian sculptor Gaetano Russo,^[1] was erected as part of New York's 1892 commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing in the Americas. Constructed with funds raised by Il Progresso, a New York City-based Italian-language newspaper, the monument consists of a marble statue of Columbus atop a 70-foot (21 m) granite rostral column decorated with bronze reliefs representing Columbus' ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. Its pedestal features an angel holding a globe.

Renovations to the circle completed in 2005 included new water fountains by WET, of Fountains of Bellagio fame; wooden benches; and plantings encircling the monument. The inner circle measures approximately 36,000 square feet (3,300 m²), and the outer circle is approximately 148,000 square feet (13,700 m²). The redesign, by the Olin Partnership of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the recipient of the 2006 American Society of Landscape Architects’ General Design Award Of Honor. In 2007 Columbus Circle was awarded the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence silver medal.^[2]

Neighborhood

View of Columbus Circle, looking east at Central Park South from inside the Time Warner Center

Time Warner Center, the world headquarters of the Time Warner corporation, is located on the west side of Columbus Circle on the site of the old New York Coliseum. The complex also hosts the Shops at Columbus Circle, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the New York City studio headquarters of CNN and the Mandarin Oriental, New York hotel. On the north side of Columbus Circle is the Trump International Hotel and Tower, with its noted steel globe. This building had been an office tower, the headquarters of the Gulf+Western conglomerate, which was stripped to its steel skeleton and reclad in a new facade. Prestigious restaurants in the center include Landmarc, Per Se and Masa.

On the northeast lies the Merchant's Gate to Central Park, dominated by the USS Maine National Monument. The USS Maine monument was designed by Harold Van Buren Magonigle and sculpted by Attilio Piccirilli, who did the colossal group and figures, and Charles Keck, who was responsible for the "In Memoriam" plaque.^[3] An imposing Beaux-Arts edifice of marble and gilded bronze, it was built in 1913 as a memorial to sailors killed aboard the battleship USS Maine, whose mysterious 1898 explosion in Havana harbor precipitated the Spanish–American War.

The address 2 Columbus Circle, on the southern side of the circle, is where Actors' Equity was founded in 1914, in the old Pabst Grand Circle Hotel, a building torn down in 1960 in order to construct a distinctive new tower designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone to house the Huntington Hartford Gallery of Modern Art. Vacant since the city's Department of Cultural Affairs departed in 1998, it was listed as one of the World Monuments Fund's "100 most endangered sites". The building's radical transformation by architect Brad Cloepfil into the new home for the Museum of Arts & Design continues to raise hackles^[4] for the failure of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission to hold hearings on its worthiness for designation.

Columbus Circle during construction of the original subway in 1900

240 Central Park South, a balconied moderne apartment building across Broadway from the museum, is on the southeast side of the circle. Built in 1941, it is a city-designated landmark with a new addition, a green roof, atop its retail base.

Transportation

From its inception, Columbus Circle has been a major transportation hub. The M5, M7, M20, M104 buses all serve the circle. Under it is the 59th Street – Columbus Circle subway station (1 2 A B C D trains).

In popular culture

Columbus Circle appears in a number of films, including Columbus Circle, It Should Happen to You, The Devil Wears Prada, Eyes of Laura Mars, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Taxi Driver, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Enchanted, I Am Legend, Cloverfield, The Other Guys, Tower Heist, and the end credits of The Odd Couple (TV series). Columbus Circle also appeared in the movie Ghostbusters as the site where the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man begins his trip towards 55 Central Park West, and is used as the somewhat serendipitous dominant location in the movie August Rush.

Columbus Circle is also the location of English indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs' music video, "Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning)". It was featured on the band's second studio album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob.

Columbus Circle also appears in the game Lego Marvel Super Heroes as a place for players to fight a Sentinel and to access a vehicle call-in point.

Gallery

Columbus Circle, circa 1907

• Around Columbus Circle today
• 

  The Museum of Arts & Design at 2 Columbus Circle

• 

  The USS Maine National Monument at the Merchant's Gate entrance to Central Park

• 

  Trump International Hotel and Tower

• 

  The Time Warner Center,
  which replaced the
  New York Coliseum

• 

  Six Columbus, a boutique hotel at 6 Columbus Circle

See also

• NYC portal

References

Notes

Bibliography

• New York City History – Columbus Circle
• Olin Partnership – Columbus Circle
• WET Design

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Columbus Circle.

• ASLA 2006 Professional Awards – Columbus Circle
• McGraw-Hill Best of 2005 Awards – Columbus Circle
• MichaelMinn.net – Columbus Circle
• NYCDOT traffic cams facing Columbus Circle
• Smithsonian's Inventory of American Sculpture Entry
• "But for Columbus there would be no America"

Structures on Broadway in Manhattan 1-599 (Battery Pl. - W. Houston St.) 1 Broadway 2 Broadway Bowling Green 26 Broadway (previously occupied by Lautman's Dairy) Cunard Building 52 Broadway Adams Express Building 65 Broadway 1 Wall Street AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company Trinity Church Equitable Building Equitable Life Building Marine Midland Building Zuccotti Park One Liberty Plaza Fulton Center Corbin Building American Surety Building 195 Broadway Astor House Woolworth Building City Hall Park New York City Hall Broadway–Chambers Building 280 Broadway 287 Broadway Appleton Building 359 Broadway 361 Broadway (James S. White Building) 462 Broadway Mechanics' Hall E. V. Haughwout Building New Era Building Scholastic Building Singer Building 600-1499 (W. Houston St. - Times Sq.) Cable Building Canterbury Hall Grace Church Church of the Messiah Grand Central Hotel 770 Broadway Strand Bookstore Tisch School of the Arts Grace Church Union Square Flatiron Building Madison Square Baudouine Building Gilsey House Grand Hotel Radisson Hotel Martinique Hotel McAlpin Herald Square Haier Building Knickerbocker Theatre Marbridge Building Metropolitan Opera House (former) Rialto Theatre Times Square One Times Square (previously occupied by Pabst Hotel) Condé Nast Building The Knickerbocker Hotel 1500-1800 (Times Sq. - Columbus Cir.) 1500 Broadway (previously occupied by Hotel Claridge) 1501 Broadway One Astor Plaza Astor Theatre Minskoff Theatre New York Marriott Marquis Morgan Stanley Building Palace Theatre Brill Building Winter Garden Theatre Central Theatre Capitol Theatre Ellen's Stardust Diner Paramount Plaza Studebaker Building Broadway Theatre 1717 Broadway 1740 Broadway Random House Tower Columbus Circle North of Columbus Cir. Museum of Biblical Art Dauphin Hotel Beacon Theatre The Apthorp Bretton Hall Goddard Institute for Space Studies Barnard College Audubon Ballroom United Palace Dyckman House Church of the Good Shepherd

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