Iconic Glass Structures – One Vanderbilt

Usually, we take some time each week to look at an iconic glass structure. This week’s entry is a little different because it’s the first “iconic” glass building that hasn’t actually been built yet! The fact that One Vanderbilt isn’t lighting up the skyline yet doesn’t stop us from admiring the plan for this 63-story tower.

One Vanderbilt will reside in East Midtown Manhattan, right next door to the Grand Central Terminal. It was designed by Kohn, Pedersen Fox Associates for SL Green Realty Corp. The finished height of the tower will be 1,401 feet, which makes it slightly shorter than the 1,454-foot Empire State Building and about 350 feet taller than the Chrysler Building.

Construction on the glass tower is expected to completed by 2021, but the project has had a slow start. It was held up for more than a year by a lawsuit that claimed the One Vanderbilt tower infringed upon the air rights of the Grand Central Terminal. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and the settlement cleared the way for construction on the tower to begin.

The lawsuit wasn’t the only challenge for the building. The City Council needed to approve a five-block rezoning for the tower and other proposed construction projects. Both the designers and city officials hope the tower and the other planned projects will inject new life into the area’s aging office district.

When it is complete, the new glass tower will be the home of anchor tenant TD Bank, and will feature nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in transit improvements as well as a pedestrian plaza. The tower will cost an estimated $3B. When completed, the glass and steel structure, comprised of four distinct, interlocking sections, will offer 1.75 million square feet of occupiable office space.

One Vanderbilt tower will come to a point, similar to the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. It will have direct connections to the city’s subway system, and will be designed to give street level pedestrians a complete view of the historic Grand Central Terminal building’s façade. The view of the Grand Central Terminal has been obscured for years by other construction around the building, which was demolished to make room for One Vanderbilt Tower.

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Photo Credit: KPF