Penn 1 (originally One Penn Plaza and stylized as PENN 1) is a skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is located between 33rd Street and 34th Street, west of Seventh Avenue, and adjacent to Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. One Penn Plaza is the tallest building in the Pennsylvania Plaza complex of office buildings, hotels, and entertainment facilities.

Penn 1
Looking North
Map
Alternative namesOne Penn Plaza
General information
StatusCompleted
TypeCommercial and office
Location250 West 34th Street
Manhattan, New York
Coordinates40°45′5″N 73°59′35″W / 40.75139°N 73.99306°W / 40.75139; -73.99306
Construction started1970
Completed1972
OwnerVornado Realty Trust
Height
Roof229 m (751 ft)
Technical details
Floor count57
Floor area2,586,525 sq ft (240,296.0 m2)
Lifts/elevators44
Design and construction
Architect(s)Kahn & Jacobs
Structural engineerJames Ruderman
References
[1]
Location next to Madison Square Garden
One Penn Plaza seen from the east

The building is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10119; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes as of 2019.[2]

Architecture

edit

The skyscraper was designed by Kahn & Jacobs and completed in 1972. It reaches 750 feet (230 m) with 57 floors. The tower has three setbacks: at the 7th, 14th, and 55th floors. From its location on the west side of Manhattan, most south, west and north-facing tenants have unobstructed views of the Hudson River. One Penn Plaza is built with structural steel and concrete, with grey solar glass and anodized aluminum on the outside walls. Mechanical rooms are located on the 12th and 13th floors; placing these on lower floors instead of the top of the building allowed equipment to be installed before the structural steel framework was complete and shaved six to nine months off the building's construction schedule.[3]

The building has 14 entrances and 44 elevators in seven banks. An underground parking garage provides 695 spaces for cars and is accessible from both 33rd and 34th Streets. Direct passageways at each end of the building provide underground connections to the Long Island Rail Road concourse of Pennsylvania Station, which is located one block to the south. The ground floor is leased to several commercial tenants, The top floors include a retail space of 142,000 square feet (13,200 m2) which was formerly occupied by a three-story Kmart store (closed in 2020[4]), and before that a Woolworth.[5]

A public plaza and fountain are located on the west end of the building. Unlike traditional fountains, steam is dispensed in the winter and fog is dispensed in the summer to prevent water from splashing out during gusty wind conditions.[6]

History

edit

One Penn Plaza is currently owned by Vornado Realty Trust. It was previously owned by Helmsley-Spear Inc., which sold the building for $420 million in the late 1990s.[7]

In 2009, plans were made to install a cogeneration plant in order to heat the building more efficiently.[8] By 2010, it was reported that when the new plant was activated, it cut the building's carbon output nearly in half.[9] The lobby was refurbished in 1995[10] and underwent another refurbishment in 2019.[11] The building had been rebranded as Penn 1 by 2021.[12][13] A restaurant called The Landing opened on the second floor of the rebranded Penn 1 in 2022.[14][15]

More than 80 percent of the action in the 2011 independent film Margin Call was shot on the 42nd floor of the building, which had recently been vacated by a trading firm.[16]

Tenants

edit

Additionally, Publicis formerly occupied the fifth floor and part of the fourth floor.[19]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "One Penn Plaza". Skyscraper Center. CTBUH. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  2. ^ Brown, Nicole (March 18, 2019). "Why do some buildings have their own ZIP codes? NYCurious". amNewYork. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  3. ^ Žaknić, Ivan; Smith, Matthew; Rice, Dolores B.; Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (1998). One Hundred of the World's Tallest Buildings. Victoria, Australia: Images Publishing Group. p. 58. ISBN 9781875498321. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  4. ^ Tyko, Kelly (February 6, 2020). "Sears and Kmart store closings continue. Is your location closing in early 2020?". USA TODAY. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  5. ^ Holusha, John (August 25, 1996). "Kmart Coming to Manhattan With 34th Street Store". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  6. ^ Barron, James (July 24, 1997). "Penn Plaza Solves Wind Problem With a Special-Effects Fountain". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  7. ^ Bagli, Charles V. (January 18, 1998). "Helmsley, Poised to Sell Empire, Mends Fences Along the Way". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  8. ^ Appelbaum, Alec (February 24, 2009). "Towers in Manhattan Gather Heat from Power Generators". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  9. ^ Colvin, Jill (November 16, 2010). "One Penn Plaza Flicks the Switch on Power Plant That Almost Halves Carbon Footprint". DNAinfo New York. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  10. ^ a b "1 Penn Plaza". The Real Deal. March 13, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  11. ^ Cohen, Michelle (October 31, 2018). "Vornado releases new renderings of $200M Penn Plaza redevelopment". 6sqft. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  12. ^ Coen, Andrew (November 2, 2021). "Vornado Inks 757K SF of NYC Office Lease in Third Quarter". Commercial Observer. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  13. ^ Small, Eddie; Glodowski, Amanda (October 24, 2021). "Midtown's office market is having a moment". Crain's New York Business. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  14. ^ Orlow, Emma (February 3, 2022). "A Popular Southeast Asian Dessert Pop-Up Settles Down in the East Village - and More Openings". Eater NY. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  15. ^ Fabricant, Florence (February 8, 2022). "El Quijote in the Hotel Chelsea Reopens". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  16. ^ Wallace, Benjamin (October 13, 2011). "Zachary Quinto on His Latest Film, 'Margin Call' -- New York Magazine". New York Magazine. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  17. ^ "Contact-General". Cookie Jar Entertainment. Archived from the original on January 11, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  18. ^ "Our Offices". WSP. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  19. ^ Barbarino, Al (February 13, 2014). "Publicis Takes 114,000SF at 1 Penn Plaza". Commercial Observer. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
edit