Random House Tower

Infobox Skyscraper
building_name = Random House Tower and Park Imperial


caption = The tower from the southwest
year_highest =
year_end =
plural =
location = 1745 Broadway/230 West 56th Street, New York City
coordinates = coord|40.765341|-73.982502|format=dms
status = Completed
groundbreaking = 2000
constructed = 2003
est_completion =
opening =
demolished =
destroyed =
use = Apartments and headquarters of Random House
antenna_spire =
roof = 208 m / 684 ft
top_floor = 52
floor_count =
elevator_count =
cost = $300 Million
floor_area =79,900 m²
architect = Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and Ismael Leyva
engineer =
contractor =
developer =
owner = Stephen M. Ross
management =
references = The Random House Tower and Park Imperial is a 52-story mixed use tower in New York City that is used as the headquarter of Random House and a luxury apartment complex called Park Imperial.

The book publisher entrance is on Broadway and goes up to 27 floors, while the apartment complex entrance is on 56th Street.

Separate architects designed each of the sections. Skidmore Owings & Merrill designed the office portion, which has a steel frame. Ismael Leyva Architects and Adam D. Tihany designed the residential portion, which has a concrete frame. The two sections do not entirely line up, and trusses were built on the 26th and 27th floor to transfer the load.

The apartments have three-meter ceilings, and there are five penthouses of up to 276 m² in size. Even though the apartments start on Floor 28, the residential floors indicate they go from 48 to the 70th floor. Among the first tenants were P. Diddy and New York Yankees pitcher Randy Johnson. [ [http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=randomhousetower-newyorkcity-ny-usa Emporis] ]

At the top of the building are two fluid tuned mass dampers -- the first of their kind in the city--which are designed to damp building sway. Similar dampers are on the Citigroup Center building, although Citigroup's dampers are made of concrete. Random House's dampers have capacities of 265,000 and 379,000 liters of water.

The complex is on a trapezoidal block between 55th Street and 56th Street and follows the angle of Broadway. It has jagged setbacks to improve the views of Central Park.

Critics have noted that its three main towers give it the impression of being three books (although the architects referred to them as "three sliding crystals"). [ [http://www.greatgridlock.net/NYC/nyc4a.html#153 Great Gridlock] ]

Random House occupies 59,900 m², with the rest housing 130 apartments, as well as 3,000 m² of retail space.

In looking to expand its headquarters, Random House had originally planned to build a tower at 45th and Broadway across from its mother-company Bertelsmann's headquarters at 1540 Broadway with a neon-lighted Skyway across 45th Street connecting them. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E6D71138F937A35751C0A96F958260 55th Street Is Said to Be Site for a Random House Tower"] , "New York Times", February 4, 1999] ]

ee also

*List of tallest buildings in New York City

References

External links

* [http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=randomhousetower-newyorkcity-ny-usa Emporis profile]
* [http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=1646 Skyscaperpage.com profile]
* [http://wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/random_house/ Wirednewyork profile]
* [http://www.greatgridlock.net/NYC/nyc4a.html#153 Greatgridlock profile]