New York Times Building

The New York Times Building is a newly completed skyscraper on the west side of Midtown Manhattan, New York. Its chief tenant is The New York Times Company, publisher of the The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, as well as other regional papers. Most of the external construction came to a completion during the second quarter of 2007, and The New York Times began moving into the building in mid April, though the internal projects are not yet completed (i.e. not all the elevators are fully functioning and the external hoist is not yet dismantled).

The project was announced on December 13, 2001, entailing the erection of a 52-story tower on the east side of Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st Street across from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Bus Terminal. The site selection represents the further westward expansion of Midtown along Eighth Avenue; a corridor that had seen no construction following the completion in 1989 of One Worldwide Plaza and the completion of the Hearst Tower in 2006. Construction is a joint venture of The Times Company, Forest City Ratner Companies - the Cleveland-based real estate firm constructing redeveloping the Brooklyn Atlantic rail yards, and ING Real Estate.

In addition, the new location keeps the paper in the Times Square area, which was named after the paper following its move to 42nd Street in 1904. The Times Company has most recently been located at 229 West 43rd Street.

The tower, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop and FXFOWLE Architects, with Gensler providing interior design, is known for its innovative feature where thousands of small ceramic tubes draped horizontally in front of the glass curtain wall, meant to "screen the double glazed, spectrally selective, low-emissivity, full-height glass wall around the building, thus reducing the building's cooling loads." The tower has numerous environmentally sustainable features. Principal among these is a work environment that maximizes natural light, maintaining a connection to the outside. Mechanized shades, working in concert with more than 20,000 dimmable fluorescent fixtures, maintain needed light levels while saving energy and preventing glare.

The tower will rise 748 feet (228 m) from the street to its roof, but the exterior curtain wall will extend 92 feet higher to 840 feet (256 m), and a mast will extend up to 1,046 feet (319 m). The building will have 1.54-million square feet (143,000 square meter) of gross space.

On November 11, 2006, the building reached its pinnacle height of 1,046 ft. (319 m) when the remaining piece of the spire was assembled. The building is currently tied with the Chrysler Building as the second tallest building in New York and the 6th tallest in the United States.

The story of the tower's construction is showcased at Liberty Science Center's new exhibition "Skyscraper! Achievement and Impact", the biggest exhibition ever made about tall buildings. A team from Liberty Science Center followed the construction of the building during two and a half years and created an interactive wall that explain the tower's construction through videos and photographs. A time lapse movie was also created showing the progress of the building through continuous photographs. The materials can be seen at the exhibition.