229 West 43rd Street (formerly The New York Times Building, The New York Times Annex, and the Times Square Building) is an 18-story office building in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1913 and expanded in three stages, it was the headquarters of The New York Times newspaper until 2007. The original building by Mortimer J. Fox of Buchman & Fox stands on 43rd Street, as do a 1920s addition by Ludlow & Peabody and a 1930s addition by Albert Kahn. Shreve, Lamb & Harmon designed a wing on 44th Street in the 1940s. Columbia Property Trust owns most of the structure as an office building while Kushner Companies owns the lowest four floors as a retail and entertainment complex.
The 43rd Street sections of the building are designed in the French Gothic, French Renaissance, and Italian Renaissance styles and are a New York City designated landmark. The original building and its additions rise 11 stories from the street, except for a four-story wing on the eastern end of the site. The 43rd Street sections of the building are topped by a set-back five-story attic, interrupted by a seven-story tower with a pyramidal hip roof. The facade is constructed of light-colored Indiana limestone, brick, and terracotta and is divided horizontally into a two-story base, a nine-story midsection, and the attic and tower stories. The elevations are divided into vertical bays with a mixture of single windows, double windows, and arches. The building contains of office space and of retail space. Originally, each floor was devoted to a different division of the Times.
Due to overcrowding at the previous Times headquarters at One Times Square, the Times Annex was constructed to supplement the paper's printing plant and other mechanical divisions. The annex became the Times headquarters shortly after opening. As the Times circulation expanded and its issues grew longer, the building was expanded in 1922–1924, 1931–1932, and 1944–1947. The Times relocated its printing plant from the building in 1997 and announced plans for new headquarters two years later, relocating in June 2007. A partnership led by Tishman Speyer bought the building in 2004 and sold it three years later to AFI USA, which had trouble finding office tenants and sold the upper floors to The Blackstone Group in 2011. AFI USA operated the retail portion of the building until 2015, when Columbia acquired the offices and Kushner bought the retail.
Site The former New York Times Building is at 229 West 43rd Street, on the north sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, near Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S. The land lot is L-shaped, extending northward to 44th Street on the eastern half of the block. The lot covers , with a frontage of on 43rd Street and a depth of . In 1996, the city renamed the block of 43rd Street outside the building in honor of Adolph Ochs, a former publisher of The New York Times, the building's longtime occupant.
The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theatres. 229 West 43rd Street shares the city block with St. James Theatre, the Hayes Theater, and Sardi's restaurant to the northwest on 44th Street; 1501 Broadway to the east; and 255 West 43rd Street to the west on 43rd Street. Across 44th Street are the Majestic, Broadhurst, John Golden, Bernard B. Jacobs, and Gerald Schoenfeld theaters to the northwest; the Shubert and Booth theaters to the north; and One Astor Plaza to the northeast. The Times Square Theater, New Victory Theater, and 3 Times Square are directly across 43rd Street to the southeast, while the former Hotel Carter, American Airlines Theatre, and Lyric Theatre are to the south.
The building was developed as an annex structure for The New York Times. Prior to the New York Times Annex's development, the site was part of the Astor family estate and contained several brownstone townhouses. The easternmost section of the building was built on two land lots owned by the Astors: a lot that had been leased by the Shubert family, as well a lot. The central section was acquired in 1915 and replaced five buildings of five stories each, taking up a square site measuring 100 by 100 feet. The westernmost section, measuring , was acquired in 1928 and formerly contained a six-story apartment hotel named Yandis Court.
Architecture
229 West 43rd Street was originally known as the New York Times Annex and was built in four stages. The 43rd Street sections of the building are designed in the French Gothic, French Renaissance, and Italian Renaissance styles. The eastern third of the site was designed in 1912 by Mortimer J. Fox of Buchman & Fox. From 1922 to 1924, Ludlow and Peabody designed the central section as well as the attic stories. Albert Kahn designed the western section in 1931, including a second lobby and rooftop studio. A fourth section to the north was designed in 1947 by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon.
The George A. Fuller Company was the general contractor for the original section of the building, as well as for the central section on 43rd Street. The Cauldwell Wingate Company built the westernmost section on 43rd Street. Several other contractors were involved in the construction, including ironwork contractor Sexauer and Lemke.
Form The massing of 229 West 43rd Street is composed of several sections. The extreme eastern end of the site is only four stories high and is part of Fox's original design. Most of the building is 11 stories tall and was developed during all three periods of the building's construction. The 11-story section is topped by a five-story attic designed by Ludlow and Peabody, which is set back on all sides. A seven-story tower, also designed by Ludlow and Peabody, rises above the 11th floor between the central and eastern parts of the building. This gave the building the appearance of a chateau with a tower. After the first expansion in 1924, an account by the New York Times Company described the building as measuring from the lowest basement to the pinnacle of the rooftop flagpole. However, according to Emporis, the building's pinnacle is tall.
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's wing along 44th Street is 11 stories tall. The portion of the building on 43rd Street is a New York City designated landmark, but the 44th Street section is not protected by a landmark designation.
Facade The facade is constructed of light-colored Indiana limestone, brick, and terracotta. The southern and eastern elevations were decorated elaborately, since they could readily be seen from Broadway. The original section of the building contains one-over-one sash windows, while the expansions contain three-over-three or six-over-six sash windows. In all three sections, the windows originally had steel frames. Some of the original windows remain, while others have been replaced with those containing aluminum or steel frames.
Base On 43rd Street, the first two stories are made of rusticated blocks of limestone. The ground level is divided into sixteen vertical bays, twelve of which contain segmental arches with rusticated voussoirs. The arches formerly contained loading docks, most of which were converted to storefronts in a 2006 renovation. The piers between each bay, which also date to the 2006 renovation, contain globe-shaped lamps. The second story has thirteen bays of windows, mostly corresponding with the ground-story arches; the easternmost bay corresponds to a doorway rather than an arch. Seven of these bays contain two windows with a shared window sill, while the other six bays have one window with a sill. A frieze with a shell design, as well as a cornice, run above the second-story windows.
The bays containing the building's main entrance (the 8th to 11th bays from west) are designed in a different manner at the ground and second stories. The main entrance is off center and was previously three bays wide; the leftmost (8th) bay was added in 2006. The 9th and 10th bays contain doorways recessed into stone porticos. The 11th bay contains a revolving door surrounded by six windows at the ground level. The 8th bay is designed in a similar manner to the 11th bay. All four bays are separated by vertical pilasters and are flanked by elongated lamps. Within all the entrance bays, there are stone spandrel panels between the ground and second floors, as well as three triple-hung windows at the second floor. Two flagpoles hang from either of the 9th and 10th bays at the second floor. A sculpted gargoyle is placed between these two bays near the top of the second floor. Above this story is a frieze with reliefs, which contain a motif of two griffins flanking a shield.
At the extreme east end of the building, the four-story wing has a brick facade and three single-hung windows on either of the third and fourth stories. The lintels above each of the fourth-story windows have ogee moldings with finials at the center. There is a terracotta cornice and parapet above the fourth story; the cornice is held up by four corbels.
Midsection
Across the south and east elevations, the third to ninth floors are clad in brick, while the 10th and 11th floors are faced in terracotta. The south and east elevations contain vertical pilasters with decorative capitals at the ninth story. There are 14 bays across the south elevation and five bays across the east elevation. The east elevation and the five easternmost bays of the south elevation are part of Fox's original design. The four westernmost bays of the south elevation are part of Kahn's 1932 addition, while the five bays in the center are part of Ludlow and Peabody's 1924 addition.
On the south elevation, most of the bays are separated by single pilasters. The 9th and 10th bays from west are separated by double pilasters; a sign hangs from the fourth floor in the space between the two pilasters. Originally, there was a clock in the space occupied by this sign, which was destroyed by fire and replaced in 1963 with a digital clock. In a 2008 renovation, the tower received a sign measuring , as well as an analog clock face. On each story are five single windows with ogee moldings above them, as well as nine double windows without any moldings.
On the east elevation, the outer two bays are single openings while the inner three bays are double openings. These windows are similar to their counterparts on the south elevation and are all separated by single pilasters. Below the 11th story on the west elevation are blind openings and double- and triple-hung windows surrounded by dark brick. On the north elevation, the windows are grouped in threes and surrounded by light brick, with ogee moldings above the eleventh-story windows.
At the 10th and 11th floors, the south elevation contains nine arches and five bays of plain windows (corresponding to the bays with double and single windows respectively). The east elevation contains three arches in the center and two bays of plain windows on the outside. On both elevations, the arches are flanked by pilasters with tablet flowers. Each arch contains metal columns that divide it into thirds, as well as horizontal metal spandrels between the 10th and 11th stories. The plain bays have an unornamented window on the 10th story and a window with a balcony, ogee-molding lintel, and finial on the 11th story. Above the south and east elevations runs a frieze with shell motifs, as well as a terracotta cornice with brackets. The cornice is topped by a parapet, which contains relief panels alternating with pedestals. When the building was completed in 1913, there had been large signs on the facade.
Attic