One Vanderbilt

One Vanderbilt (also One Vanderbilt Place^[1]) is a proposed supertall skyscraper^[2] on the corner of 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Proposed by New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and developer SL Green Realty as part of a planned Midtown East rezoning, the tower would stand next to Grand Central Terminal.^[3][4] It is being designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. When completed in 2020,^[5] the 67-floor, 1,600,000-square-foot (150,000 m²) skyscraper's roof will be 1,414 feet (431 m) high and its spire will be 1,514 feet (461 m), making it the city's third-tallest building, after One World Trade Center and the Central Park Tower – and making it taller than the nearby Chrysler Building.^[6][7] TD Bank has signed on as an anchor tenant for the building.^[8] SL Green Realty has agreed to make $220 million in improvements to public transportation around the building site.^[8]

History

In July 2014, there was a dispute with Grand Central Terminal's owners over air rights, and the terminal's lawyers threatened to sue for $1 billion.^[9]

On September 24, 2014, Andrew Penson, the owner of Grand Central Terminal, made an offer of $400 million in exchange for building One Vanderbilt. SL Green would spend $210 million to build transportation improvements for the subway and commuter rail stations below.^[10] Penson would sell 1.3 million square feet of air rights, which came with the station when he bought it in 2006. The floor area, which he bought at $61 per 1 square foot (0.093 m²), would be nearly 10 times as much, at $600 per square foot, for the same amount of area in September 2014. SL Green rejected the offer as a "publicity stunt", because in its September 2014 proposal to the city, for $400 per square foot, SL Green wanted to build a tower twice as big as the zoning rules permitted.^[11]

As of September 2014, few details were known about the construction timeline;^[12] however, the projected completion date of 2020 was revealed December 2014.^[5]

In February 2015, Vanderbilt Avenue, between 42nd and 47th Streets, was rezoned due to the Vanderbilt Corridor Rezoning Text Amendment, which allows redevelopment on the corridor.^[13]

Architecture

The building would take up a block bounded by Madison Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue, and 42nd and 43rd Streets. Air rights from 110 East 42nd Street, the former Bowery Savings Bank building, would need to be transferred to One Vanderbilt.^[14]

The base would include a 4,500 square feet (420 m²) lobby.^[15] It would also:

...be set back seven feet from the property line, allowing pedestrians a new view of Grand Central Terminal via One Vanderbilt's southeast corner at 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, which he said was the most frequent exit point from the terminal....The use of terra cotta in the building's design would counter the existing office buildings on Madison Avenue and make a connection—a "selective recall"—to Grand Central.^[7]

The new building would also coincide with the MTA's East Side Access project, and station improvements due to One Vanderbilt's construction would provide extra capacity for over 65,000 new passengers going into the New York City Subway at Grand Central – 42nd Street.^[16][17] An underground connection between Grand Central Terminal and One Vanderbilt, new mezzanines and exits for the subway station, and a commuter waiting room in the building's lobby, are some of the proposed improvements to the station.^[3] These improvements would cost over $200 million.^[18] Outside, Vanderbilt Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets would become pedestrian-only.^[3] The station improvements were necessary in exchange for the tower's construction to be allowed.^[12]

The building is advocated for by the Landmarks Preservation Commission due to its proposed environmentally friendly, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-conforming model.^[15]

References