The CBS Building in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, also known as Black Rock, is the headquarters of CBS Corporation

CBS Corporation

CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...

. The building, opened in 1965, was designed by Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...

. It is located at 51 West 52nd Street

52nd Street (Manhattan)

52nd Street is a long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.-Jazz center:The blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue were renowned in the mid-20th century for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life...

, at the corner of Sixth Avenue

Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)

Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...

 (Avenue of the Americas). The 38 story building is 490 feet (149.4 m) tall and measures approximately 872,000 rentable square feet. The interior spaces, as well as the furnishings were designed by Saarinen and Florence Knoll

Florence Knoll

Florence Knoll Bassett is an American architect and furniture designer who studied under Mies van der Rohe and Eliel Saarinen. She was born in Saginaw, Michigan as Florence Schust and is known in familiar circles simply as "Shu"...

.

Background

The building is known as Black Rock for the dark granite cladding.
Unlike some major skyscrapers built in that section of midtown Manhattan during the 1950s and 60s, the pillars are more dominant than the glass windows between them. The building was the result of intricate planning between Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...

 and CBS's then-president, Frank Stanton

Frank Stanton

Frank Nicholas Stanton was an American broadcasting executive who served as the president of CBS between 1946 and 1971 and then vice chairman until 1973. He also served as the chairman of the Rand Corporation from 1961 until 1967.Along with William S. Paley, Stanton is credited with the...

.

CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 moved to Black Rock from its longtime corporate headquarters, 485 Madison Avenue at 52nd Street. Prior to Black Rock’s completion, CBS moved its radio network

CBS Radio Network

The CBS Radio Network provides news, sports and other programming to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by CBS Corporation, and operated by CBS Radio ....

 studios - the CBS News

CBS News

CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...

 network radio studios on the 17th floor of 485 Madison and other studios across the street in the CBS Studio Building

CBS Studio Building

The CBS Studio Building is a seven-story office building at 49 East 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan that has at various times served as a Vanderbilt family home, the first graduate school of the Juilliard School, CBS Radio studios and Columbia Records studio....

 - to the CBS Broadcast Center

CBS Broadcast Center

The CBS Broadcast Center is a television and radio production facility located in New York City, New York. It is CBS's main East Coast production center, much as Television City in Los Angeles is the West Coast hub.-Overview:...

 on 57th Street starting in 1964. The TV news studios, based mostly at the Graybar Building at Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...

, also moved to the Broadcast Center around that period of time, starting with the CBS Evening News

CBS Evening News

CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....

studio-newsroom in 1963.

Black Rock also houses the offices of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is a prominent law firm located in New York City. Herbert Wachtell, Martin Lipton, Leonard Rosen, and George Katz founded the firm in 1965. All four were graduates of New York University School of Law...

.http://www.wlrk.com/Page.cfm/Thread/The%20Firm/SubThread/Contact%20Us and the New York offices of Dorsey & Whitney LLP and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP is an international law firm founded in San Francisco. Orrick traces its roots back to 1863, making it the oldest continuously-operating law firm in San Francisco, and the second-oldest privately-held company in San Francisco after Levi Strauss & Co....

.

Black Rock was the longtime home of CBS's New York City flagship radio stations, WCBS (AM)

WCBS (AM)

WCBS , often referred to as "WCBS Newsradio 880" , is a radio station in New York City. Owned by CBS Radio, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of the CBS Radio Network...

 and WCBS-FM

WCBS-FM

WCBS-FM is a CBS-owned radio station in New York City. The station's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in Manhattan, and its transmitter is located on the Empire State Building....

, until 2000, following the merger with Viacom. At that time WCBS (AM) joined the network at the Broadcast Center, and WCBS-FM moved to One Astor Plaza.

Gastrotypographicalassemblage

Gastrotypographicalassemblage

Gastrotypographicalassemblage is a wide by tall work of art designed by Lou Dorfsman to decorate the cafeteria in Eero Saarinen's CBS Building on 52nd Street and Sixth Avenue, New York City, New York, USA....

, a 35 feet (10.7 m) wide by 8½ foot tall design was designed by Lou Dorfsman

Lou Dorfsman

Louis "Lou" Dorfsman was a graphic designer who oversaw almost every aspect of the advertising and corporate identity for the Columbia Broadcasting System in his 40 years with the network.-Early life and education:...

 to decorate the cafeteria. The work used varied typefaces to list all of the foods offered to patrons in hand-milled wood type.

Broadcast Row

Black Rock is part of a virtual Broadcast Row on Sixth Avenue. The NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 headquarters - the GE Building

GE Building

The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the midtown Manhattan section of New York City. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is most famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC...

 in Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...

, home of NBC News

NBC News

NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...

 and MSNBC

MSNBC

MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

 (since moved from Secaucus, New Jersey

Secaucus, New Jersey

Secaucus is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 16,264. Located within the New Jersey Meadowlands, it is the most suburban of the county's municipalities, though large parts of the town are dedicated to light manufacturing, retail, and...

 in 2007) - is located south of Black Rock, on Sixth Avenue at 50th Street. South of CBS and NBC, Fox News Channel

Fox News Channel

Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...

 and Business unit

Fox Business Network

Fox Business Network is an American cable news and satellite news television channel that began broadcasting on October 15, 2007. It is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...

  has its headquarters and streetside studios in the former Celanese building at 1211 Sixth Avenue

Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)

Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...

 at News Corporation

News Corporation

News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

 lot, in the west extension of Rockefeller Center.

Prior to its acquisition by Capital Cities Communications

Capital Cities Communications

Capital Cities redirects here. For the article about the seat of a government, see Capital .Capital Cities Communications was an American media company best known for its surprise purchase of the much larger American Broadcasting Company in 1985...

, the American Broadcasting Company

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's headquarters were at 1330 Sixth Avenue (corner of 54th Street), two blocks north of CBS. In the mid-1980s, ABC moved to West 66th Street and Columbus Avenue

Ninth Avenue (Manhattan)

Ninth Avenue / Columbus Avenue is a southbound thoroughfare on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Traffic runs downtown along its full length...

, just west of Central Park

Central Park

Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...

, in the neighborhood where the network already has many TV and radio studios.

The local cable channel SportsNet New York

SportsNet New York

SportsNet New York is a New York City-based regional sports cable network which airs in the New York metro area and all of New York state, and nationwide via satellite. It is owned jointly by the New York Mets, Time Warner Cable, and NBCUniversal...

 has its own streetside studios on the first floor of the Time & Life Building

Time-Life Building

The Time-Life Building, located at 1271 Avenue of the Americas in Rockefeller Center in New York opened in 1959 and was designed by the Rockefeller family's architect Wallace Harrison, of Harrison, Abramovitz, and Harris.The Time & Life Building was the first of four buildings in Rockefeller...

 in Rockefeller Center west, on Sixth Avenue at 51st Street

51st Street (Manhattan)

51st Street is a long one-way street traveling east to west across Midtown Manhattan.-East 51st Street:*The route officially begins at Beekman Place which is on a hill overlooking FDR Drive...

, just across from CBS. The studio was previously occupied by Time and Life magazines' sister Time Warner

Time Warner

Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...

 division CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, and CNN's breakfast show American Morning

American Morning

American Morning is the morning television show on CNN. It premiered in 2001.-About the show:American Morning is hosted by Ashleigh Banfield, Zoraida Sambolin & Soledad O'Brien. Others who appear regularly are Rob Marciano with the weather, Sunny Hostin on legal news, and CNN senior medical...

. The program has since moved north to CNN's New York bureau

Time Warner Center

The Time Warner Center is a mixed-use skyscraper developed by AREA Property Partners and The Related Companies in New York City. Its design, by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, consists of two 750 ft towers bridged by a multi-story atrium containing upscale retail shops...

 at Columbus Circle

Columbus Circle

Columbus Circle, named for Christopher Columbus, is a major landmark and point of attraction in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South , and Central Park West, at the southwest corner of Central Park. It is the point from...

.