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Time Warner Center

This mixed-use skyscraper consists of two 229 m (750 ft) towers bridged by a multi-story atrium, and initially contained upscale retail shops, studios for CNN and a theatre for Jazz at Lincoln Center. The total floor area of 2.8 million square feet included offices, residential concominiums and the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

The superblock site was created for and previously occupied by The New York Coliseum, a convention center that was part of Robert Moses' urban renewal project for Lincoln Square. The design by Leon and Lionel Levy in a modified international style included both the exhibition building and a twenty-six-story office tower. It was a notoriously bland structure, although, as was discovered during demolition, very sturdy. It opened on April 28, 1956 but was outmoded just thirty years later with the opening of the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Legal restrictions prevented it from competing with the Javits Center and the exhibition space remained largely unused until demolition in 2000.

Although I walked past the old building numerous times during my time living on the Upper West Side, I never saw fit to take a photo of it, perhaps indicating how banal it's appearance actually was.

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