Times Square Tower, also known as 7 Times Square, is a 48-story office skyscraper at the southern end of Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located on the city block bounded by Broadway, 42nd Street, Seventh Avenue, and 41st Street, the building measures tall. The building was designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and developed by Boston Properties. The site is owned by the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services, though Boston Properties and Norges Bank have a long-term leasehold on the building.
Childs planned the facade as a glass curtain wall, with large billboards on lower stories as part of the 42nd Street Development Project. The foundation consists of shallow footings under most of the site, though parts of the plot abut New York City Subway tunnels and are supported by caissons. The steel superstructure includes a wind-resisting lattice of diagonal beams across the exterior of the tower, as well as a mechanical core. The building contains of floor space, much of which is devoted to offices. The lowest three stories contain retail space and an entrance to the Times Square subway station.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Park Tower Realty and the Prudential Insurance Company of America had planned to develop a tower for the site as part of a wide-ranging redevelopment of West 42nd Street. After the successful development of the nearby 3 and 4 Times Square, Boston Properties developed both 5 Times Square and Times Square Tower. Work started in 2001 after accounting firm Arthur Andersen was signed as the anchor tenant. Arthur Andersen's lease was canceled following the Enron scandal, and the building was completed in 2004 as a speculative development. In 2013, Norges Bank bought a partial stake in the leasehold.
Site
Times Square Tower, also known as 7 Times Square, is at the southern end of Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It occupies an entire city block bounded by Seventh Avenue to the west, 41st Street to the south, Broadway to the east, and 42nd Street to the north. The land lot is trapezoidal and covers , with a frontage of on Broadway. The 42nd Street side measures long and is parallel to the 41st Street side, which is long. Nearby buildings include 5 Times Square, the New Amsterdam Theatre, and the Candler Building to the west; the New Victory Theater and 3 Times Square to the northwest; One Times Square to the north; 4 Times Square and the Bank of America Tower to the northeast; and the Knickerbocker Hotel and Bush Tower to the east.
The site is directly bounded on all sides by New York City Subway tunnels. An entrance to the subway's Times Square–42nd Street station, served by the , is within the base of the building on 42nd Street. The entrance was developed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) as the main entrance for the Times Square station complex. The entrance predates Times Square Tower, having opened in July 1997. It features a bright neon and colored glass flashing sign with train route symbols and the word "Subway", as well as escalators. There is also an elevator within this entrance.
3, 4, and 5 Times Square, along with Times Square Tower, comprise a grouping of office buildings that were developed at Times Square's southern end in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theatres.
Previous buildings
The site of Times Square Tower had been occupied by hotels since 1885. The site was previously occupied by the 7- and 11-story Heidelberg Building, built in 1909. That building was mostly abandoned for much of its history, without even advertising signage, before being demolished in 1984 for the 42nd Street Redevelopment (see ). The foundation of the building was partially retained in the present tower. In 1996, the site became the Hansens Times Square Brewery, a 240-seat brewpub above the subway entrance, with large windows overlooking 42nd Street. Its rooftop sign had a British Airways-branded Concorde aircraft, measuring long and weighing .