One Penn Plaza
Encyclopedia
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
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...
, located between 33rd and 34th Streets
34th Street (Manhattan)
34th Street is a major cross-town street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, connecting the Lincoln Tunnel and Queens-Midtown Tunnel. Like many of New York City's major crosstown streets, it has its own bus routes and four subway stops serving the trains at Eighth Avenue, the trains at...
, west of Seventh Avenue
Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)
Seventh Avenue, known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard north of Central Park, is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park....
, and adjacent to Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
. It is the tallest building in the Pennsylvania Plaza
Pennsylvania Plaza
Pennsylvania Plaza is the office, entertainment and hotel complex occupying and near the site of Pennsylvania Station, between 31st and 34th Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues in New York....
complex of office buildings, hotels, and entertainment facilities. Official address: 250 W 34th Street, New York, NY 10001
History
The skyscraper was designed by Kahn & Jacobs and completed in 1972. It reaches 750 feet (229 m) with 57 floors. The tower has three setbacks at 7th, 14th, and 55th floors. From its location on the west side of ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, most south, west and north-facing tenants have unobstructed views of the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
.
One Penn Plaza is currently owned by Vornado Realty Trust
Vornado Realty Trust
Vornado Realty Trust is a New York based real estate investment trust. It is the inheritor of real estate formerly controlled by companies including Two Guys and Alexander's.- History :...
. It was previously owned by Helmsley-Spear Inc., and the building was sold by Leona Helmsley
Leona Helmsley
Leona Mindy Roberts Helmsley was an American businesswoman and real estate entrepreneur. She was a flamboyant personality and had a reputation for tyrannical behavior that earned her the nickname Queen of Mean...
and her partners for $420 million in the late 1990s.
Architecture
The building has 14 entrances and 44 elevators in seven banks. An underground parking garageMulti-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
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
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...
concourse of Pennsylvania Station, which is located one block to the south. The ground floor is leased to several commercial tenants, including the top floor of a 142000 square feet (13,192.2 m²), four-story K-Mart store (formerly occupied by Woolworth
F. W. Woolworth Company
The F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store"...
), and a restaurant.
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.
One Penn Plaza is built with structural steel
Structural steel
Structural steel is steel construction material, a profile, formed with a specific shape or cross section and certain standards of chemical composition and mechanical properties...
and concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
, with grey solar glass and anodized aluminum on the outside walls. There are plans to install a cogeneration
Cogeneration
Cogeneration is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat....
plant in 2009.
Tenants
- Parsons BrinckerhoffParsons BrinckerhoffParsons Brinckerhoff is a professional services firm with 14,000 employees in 150 offices providing construction and operation management, planning, design, engineering, program management, strategic consulting, environmental and sustainability services for clients and communities in the Americas,...
is headquartered in One Penn Plaza. - Riverbed TechnologyRiverbed TechnologyRiverbed Technology is a technology company that specializes in improving the performance of networks and networked applications. It was founded May 23, 2002 by Jerry Kennelly and Steve McCanne in San Francisco, California where its world headquarters remains...
, the global IT performance leader, occupies a suite of offices on the 17th floor. - Cookie Jar EntertainmentCookie Jar EntertainmentThe Cookie Jar Group is an American and Canadian producer of children’s entertainment, consumer products and educational materials...
has an office in Suite 3324. - Milliman, Inc., a worldwide actuarial consulting firm, occupies the 38th floor.
- Rockwell Securities, an investment firm, occupies the 16th floor.
- Cisco Systems, Inc., a fortune 500 IT networking and Telephony company, occupies the 9th floor.