Hearst Tower (Manhattan)

Hearst Tower
Seen from 56th Street in 2006
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Office
Architectural style	Structural expressionism
Address	300 West 57th Street; 959 Eighth Avenue
Town or city	New York City
Coordinates	40°46′00″N 73°59′01″W / 40.7666°N 73.9836°W / 40.7666; -73.9836
Construction started	1927 (original building) April 2003 (tower)
Completed	1928 (original building) 2006 (tower)
Cost	$500 million
Height
Roof	597 ft (182 m)
Technical details
Floor count	46
Floor area	856,000 square feet (79,525 m2)
Lifts/elevators	21
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Joseph Urban and George B. Post & Sons (original building) Norman Foster and Adamson Associates Architects (tower)
Developer	Tishman Speyer
Structural engineer	WSP Cantor Seinuk
Main contractor	Turner Construction
Awards and prizes	International Highrise Award 2008
New York City Landmark
Designated	February 16, 1988
Reference no.	1925
Designated entity	Hearst Magazine Building

The Hearst Tower is a building at the southwest corner of 57th Street and Eighth Avenue, near Columbus Circle, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States. It is the world headquarters of media conglomerate Hearst Communications, housing many of its publications and communications companies. The Hearst Tower consists of two sections, with a total height of 597 feet (182 m) and 46 stories. The six lowest stories form the Hearst Magazine Building (also known as the International Magazine Building), designed by Joseph Urban and George B. Post & Sons, which was completed in 1928. Above it is the Hearst Tower addition, which was completed in 2006 and designed by Norman Foster.

The building's main entrance is on Eighth Avenue. The original structure is clad with stone, and contains six pylons with sculptural groups. The tower proper has a glass-and-metal facade arranged as a diagrid, or diagonal grid, which doubles as its structural system. The original office space in the Hearst Magazine Building was replaced with an atrium during the Hearst Tower's construction. The tower is certified as a green building as part of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

Hearst Magazine Building developer William Randolph Hearst acquired the site for a theater in the mid-1920s, in the belief that the area would become the city's next large entertainment district, but changed his plans to construct a magazine headquarters there. The original building was developed as the base for a larger tower, which was postponed because of the Great Depression. A subsequent expansion proposal, during the 1940s, also failed. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the facade of the original building as a city landmark in 1988. Hearst Communications, after considering expanding the structure again during the 1980s, developed its tower in the first decade of the 21st century.