1 Times Square
1 Times Square
Paper Model
One Times 1:1500
Scale
Square.
NEW TOWER SCRAPES NEW YORK SKY
In 1904 the New York Times newspaper built this tower as
its modern new headquarters. Architects C.L.K Eidlitz
and Andrew McKenzie designed one of the first gothic-
styled skyscrapers. At 375 feet tall, it was the second-
highest building in the world at the time.
In honor of its new home, the paper persuaded the city to
rename the triangular intersection of Broadway, 7th Ave.
and 42nd Street formerly known as Longacre Square.
Publisher Adolph Ochs took a chance moving the paper
uptown and away from the other newspapers near City
Hall. At the time 42nd Street was considered a far edge
of the city, too far from news sources to be relevant.
But new subway lines were being built right under the
building. The Times Square station would become the
city's busiest. At the same time the subway tunnels
were dug, the heavy printing presses were installed in
deep basements 55 feet below street level.
The newspaper soon outgrew the tower and most of
its operations moved to the larger Annex building
across the street in 1914.
The famous “zipper” news sign running around the
tower was added in 1926 in time for updates on New
Yorker Al Smith’s run for president, but the clutter of
enormous billboards above only came later.
The newspaper sold the tower to developer Douglas
Leigh in 1961, who had the facade stripped and reclad
in modernist marble several years later.
For a time there was a restaurant with a grand view on
the 16th floor, but by the 1990s the building was
largely empty of office tenants aside from street-level
retailers. Nowadays the owners can
make far more money by renting the exterior walls for
advertising than by renting the empty floors.
The famous tradition of lowering a lighted ball from the
building’s flagpole began on New Year’s Eve 1907,
inspired by a naval noontime signal. For 2009's Take the money and run. A hop, skip and
Build Your Own celebration, the ball was enlarged and redesigned as a 12-
Or, take the train. The jackpot next door. jump for joy away.
New York
foot diameter sphere covered in Waterford crystal prisms • • • GAMING • • •
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COMPLETE
SCALE MODELS
1904, and many taller towers have risen around it, the
ON A POSTCARD