Grand Central Tower (also known as 175 Park Avenue) was a scrapped plan for a skyscraper atop Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The skyscraper was first proposed in 1954 by the terminal's owner, New York Central Railroad, which wished to sell the site or its air rights in response to financial shortfalls. Penn Central, a later owner of Grand Central, put forth a separate plan for a skyscraper in 1968. Due to public opposition, neither plan was built.
The 1954 plan included two competing proposals for the replacement of Grand Central Terminal: one by I. M. Pei and another by Fellheimer & Wagner. Pei's original plan called for an 80-story tower, which would have been the world's tallest building, while Wagner's proposal called for a 55-story H-shaped structure. Though Wagner's proposal did not proceed, Pei modified his plans in 1956, creating a hyperboloid-shaped tower with an hourglass-shaped elevation, for which plans were never published. The neighboring Pan Am Building was approved in 1958 because it was located behind, rather than above, the terminal; it was completed in 1963.
The 1968 proposal was designed by Marcel Breuer and would have been tall. The plan itself drew major opposition from the public and architects, as it would have resulted in the destruction of the terminal. Opponents, including former U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the architecture critics Emily Genauer and Wolf Von Eckardt, criticized both its architecture and its symbolism. Breuer modified his plan in 1969, but the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected both proposals, since the existing building was a designated city landmark. The rejections prompted a decade-long legal battle; the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of the city in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, preventing the tower's construction.
1950s plans Background Grand Central Terminal, the New York Central Railroad's main terminal in New York City, was designed by Reed & Stem and Warren & Wetmore; it was completed in 1913. Proposals for a skyscraper had existed since even before the terminal opened. As part of the construction of Grand Central Terminal, the station's architects had proposed a 23-story tower set back from the sidewalk on 42nd Street, which would run outside the terminal's entrance. The structure, with doughnut-shaped floor plans surrounding an internal light court, was to have been accessed from the corners of the terminal's Main Concourse. The tower was excluded from the final plans, and the Main Concourse's eastern staircase (proposed as part of the office tower) was not built as a result.
The station's decline came after World War II, with the beginning of the Jet Age and the construction of the Interstate Highway System. With passenger volumes at Grand Central Terminal having declined dramatically from the early 20th century, there were proposals to demolish and replace the station. Vehicular traffic around Grand Central Terminal also increased in the late 1950s. At the same time, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad retained a partial interest in the terminal's operation. Under the city's zoning, sites were assigned a certain amount of air rights or development rights, which dictated how much floor area was allowed for a building on that lot. The site had a large amount of unused air rights that could be used to develop a substantially larger structure. The New York Central was paying taxes on the building's unused air rights, and the company wanted to sell the property or its air rights to allow the construction of a skyscraper there. Further, while early proposals for buildings in the Terminal City area generally complemented the original design, later proposals called for replacing the terminal entirely.
Competing proposals Initially, New York Central's chairman Robert R. Young had been negotiating with developer Erwin S. Wolfson and their mutual friends Herbert and Stuart Scheftel to determine how the Grand Central site could be redeveloped. After these discussions broke down, two competing plans for the replacement of Grand Central Terminal were proposed in 1954: one by I. M. Pei and another by Fellheimer & Wagner. The proposals were publicized that September. The New York Times editorial board wrote that, although the terminal was valuable because it provided convenient rail connections to suburban communities, the land was a prime candidate for redevelopment for that very reason.
Pei's proposal, revealed on September 7, 1954, was suggested by Young and developer William Zeckendorf. The proposal called for an 80-story, tower spanning a footprint of . With an advertised height of —composed of a office section and a observation tower—it would have become the world's tallest building. The New York Herald Tribune wrote that the building would have had a glass elevator on its side.
Fellheimer & Wagner's proposal was announced on September 17, 1954, on the suggestion of New Haven Railroad president Patrick McGinnis and developer Erwin S. Wolfson. Fellheimer & Wagner's lead architect, Alfred T. Fellheimer, had supervised the design of Grand Central Terminal forty years earlier. Fellheimer viewed the terminal as a "Chinese wall" blocking the path of Park Avenue, 43rd Street, and 44th Street, and creating traffic jams and heavy pedestrian traffic. The building was to be composed of an H-shaped tower and six shorter structures, roughly twice the width of Pei's proposed tower. Two wings were to extend north and south of the crossbar of the "H". There was to be retail on the lower levels and a helipad near the roof. In addition, the building was to have a 2,400-space parking garage, and 43rd and 44th streets were to continue under the building at ground level. Rising 55 stories and spanning at least , it was advertised as the world's largest office building; however, Chicago's Merchandise Mart had just over 4 million square feet, while the Pentagon had . Fellheimer's plan would have included a rooftop helipad, restaurants and shops, and 2,400 parking spots. It would have 43rd and 44th streets cross through the building, straighten the route of the Park Avenue Viaduct directly through the building, and open Depew Place to the public.
Reaction and cancellation The plans by Fellheimer & Wagner and I. M. Pei prompted Architectural Forum magazine to publish an editorial endorsing the preservation of Grand Central's Main Concourse. Architectural Forum also wrote to hundreds of prominent architects and urban planners, asking them to support the terminal's preservation. The directors of the two railroads received 235 letters, most of which urged the railroads to save the terminal. Notable detractors included Fellheimer; Marcel Breuer and Minoru Yamasaki, both of whom consulted for the New Haven Railroad; and George Howe, a modernist. A 65-story tower called Grand Central City, just north of the terminal, was proposed in February 1955.; This proposal was forgotten the next month, when Zeckendorf was named the partner for any new development in the vicinity of Grand Central, including further planning for a skyscraper adjacent to or above Grand Central Terminal.;
Zeckendorf and Pei's modified plans, which were never publicized, were completed in 1956. Unpublished drawings indicate that Pei's second design was supposed to be a tower shaped like a hyperboloid. This structure would have had a circular floor plan that tapered toward the middle and widened at the top and bottom, creating an hourglass-shaped elevation. The floors would have ranged in width from at its base to at the center. The facade itself would have consisted of a lattice of diagonal support beams. At the base, the building reportedly would have been sturdy enough to survive a nuclear bomb. Although Pei later said that he had no memory of drawing up the hyperboloid plans, he did remember details of the plans themselves. In a 2010 video, he recalled having tried to persuade urban planner Robert Moses to construct the hyperboloid, but to no avail.
Neither Pei's nor Fellheimer's designs were ultimately carried out. Pei's hyperboloid tower faced extensive criticism from both professionals and the general public, and its most avid supporter, Robert Young, killed himself in 1958. The railroads faced significant financial shortfalls, and the economy as a whole had started to decline, leaving Zeckendorf unable to finance the project. Details of the hyperboloid plan were presented in a 2024 retrospective of Pei's work.
Pan Am Building and continued threats A design for a 50-story Grand Central City tower was announced in 1958.; That structure, built to the north of the terminal,; was approved because it did not involve modifying the terminal building itself. The Grand Central City project, which became known as the Pan Am Building, was completed in 1963.;
New York Central continued to decline, and in 1968 it merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form the Penn Central Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad had started demolishing Penn Station's original station building in 1963, replaced by the current Pennsylvania Station and the Madison Square Garden above it. The demolition of Penn Station directly resulted in the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). The LPC designated Grand Central Terminal as a city landmark in August 1967; this designation initially applied only to the terminal's exterior. The landmark designation had been granted in part because of the opposition to the 1950s skyscraper plans. Even though the public generally saw the Main Concourse as more significant, it did not receive landmark status until 1980.
In September 1967, New York Central proposed constructing a 45-story building directly above the Main Concourse, spanning . This building required approval from the LPC and from the New York City Planning Commission due to its impact on the terminal's esthetics, natural light exposure, and pedestrian circulation. New York Central solicited bids for the project for one month. Architects such as Max O. Urbahn and Pan Am Building co-designer Richard Roth opposed the plans, as did modernist architect Philip Johnson, who said he was ethically disinclined to design the tower given his role in the Grand Central preservation movement. Several construction firms also reportedly refused to bid on the plans, citing the difficulty of constructing a skyscraper on that site in a cost-effective manner.
Breuer plans
Original plan
Morris Saady, head of development firm Union General Properties (UGP), acquired the terminal's air rights in January 1968, signing a 50-year lease at an annual rate of at least $3 million. Saady hired Marcel Breuer the next month to design a skyscraper there. Breuer said he waited a week before accepting the job, and he agreed to take the commission only if the building were "of superior materials and quality design", as architecture writer Ada Louise Huxtable described it. Progressive Architecture magazine speculated that Breuer had accepted the commission because Walter Gropius, his former Bauhaus colleague, had designed the adjacent Pan Am Building. The project was also to involve general contractor Diesel Construction Company, structural engineer James Ruderman, and mechanical engineering firm Jaros, Baum & Bolles. Marcel Breuer Associates' archives refer to this project as 175 Park Avenue.