Verizon Building Recladding

[londonlawyer]

An article in the 2-2-05 edition of the NY Post quotes one of the bidders for the Verizon building on 42nd and 6th stating that the new owner is likely to strip the hideous exterior and replace it with a glass curtain wall. That would be nice!

[krulltime]

Alright! Well I will be happy with that.

[NewYorkYankee]

Agreed. That will look better. Perhaps a lighter color glass.

[TLOZ Link5]

Wonderful. Now maybe they can do the same with the fugly switching towers downtown, and possibly the Javits Courthouse Building.

A lot of hideous buildings are getting facelifts these days. It's a good thing.

[DougGold]

Wow. Another building in NYC with a big glass facade. Thats...yawn...that's great...zzzzzzzzzzzz.

[TLOZ Link5]

Considering what it replaces, this isn't a bad thing.

[DougGold]

zzzzzzzzzzz. Can't hear you. zzzzzzzzzzzz. I'm sleeping. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Why don't you wake up and tell us what you would do with the building.

[DougGold]

zzzzzz *snort* eh? wha...? What would I do? I'd instruct my architect to create a distinctive look for the building that has actual DETAILS to it instead of just giant sheets of glass. I'm excited for projects like the BOA tower, but it's just shaped sheets of glass. Now the Jets stadium proposal is a big block of glass, as is going to be the new look of Lincoln Center. Bloomberg? 7 WTC? Big glass boxes. These buildings should be embarrased to be in the same city as the Chrysler Building and ESB. I love NYC to death but I think someone noticed that glass boxes are the cheapest (I assume) and everyone else followed suit. I wish we were more like Shanghai. Anyone see the last episode of 'Amazing Race' in Shanghai, where each building was distinctly different from all the others? Not a glass box in sight. So again, what I would do is get an architect that's got some vision and give me something that won't look like it was built in the middle of NYC's 1990s-2000s glass box fad.

[ZippyTheChimp]

The building is being reclad, not rebuilt. There are limitations on how much it can be altered. Are you opposed to the use of glass, since we have no idea of the final appearance?

Would you rather it were clad in stone, brick, metal - what?

[NYguy]

An article in the 2-2-05 edition of the NY Post quotes one of the bidders for the Verizon building on 42nd and 6th stating that the new owner is likely to strip the hideous exterior and replace it with a glass curtain wall. That would be nice!

When I first heard the building was up for sale, this is what I hoped for. My thought was, "please let Donald Trump get this building". He did a great job of that with a couple of buildings. But whoever gets it, lets hope for a recladding. I would hate for the BOA tower to sit next to that eyesore.

[hella good]

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I love the veizon building! i cant be hearing this......

granted, its not the most exciting building, but i like the variations of the stripes on it. it always stood out to me. :(

if it has to be reclad, it better be good, something really interesting. not a flat glass sheet like DougGold said. its in a prime location to be noticed so it must be good right?

[thomasjfletcher]

From today.....

[Gulcrapek]

I don't think it's a very ugly building; the only thing I really don't like about it is the stained and dirty facade units. Replacing them with marble or something could give the building a more dignified presence.

[thomasjfletcher]

It's of that breed of 60s-70s skyscrapers that almost killed Modernism. I think that there are enough of these left to let one go. Bryant Park may suffer a bit though from all the glitz.....

[londonlawyer]

...Bryant Park may suffer a bit though from all the glitz.....

I think that the re-clad Trump Int'l Hotel doesn't detract from the sw entrance to Central Park. What do you think?

[thomasjfletcher]

Yes, this is a very good point. I was just thinking of it standing next to the new 1 Bryant Park. That's a lot of glass! (but it could be great....)
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/157-25prop.green.jpg
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/157-3.jpg

[londonlawyer]

Good point, senor. Hopefully, they'll do something though bec. the current facade is lame.

[billyblancoNYC]

I'm not sure two beautiful glass facades are bad. It would look great, actually, with one complementing the other. I hope it's done, and in a quality, not schlocky way.

[NYguy]

DAILY NEWS

Verizon HQ sold
Top bid over $500 million

BY LORE CROGHAN

http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/579-biz0317.JPG


Flamboyant real estate mogul Sam Zell won the bidding for Verizon's headquarters on Sixth Avenue and 42nd St. - the city's most sought-after office building now on the market.

Zell's Chicago-based Equity Office Properties Trust - America's largest office landlord - offered more than a half-billion dollars for 1095 Sixth Ave., sources told the Daily News. That handsome sum will buy a million square feet of space Verizon staffers will soon vacate.

The skyscraper is one of several New York properties the phone company's selling.

"This is simply about rationalizing our real estate around the city," said Verizon official Peter Thonis. "We have 70 buildings in the five boroughs, but fewer people than five years ago."


He wouldn't talk about the bidding, except to say no sale agreement's been signed. The law firm representing Verizon, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, and real estate broker CB Richard Ellis declined to comment. So did a spokeswoman for Equity Office Properties.

Once the building's sold, Verizon plans to move its headquarters to 140 West St. in lower Manhattan, fulfilling a pledge to Mayor Bloomberg. The phone company will start sending staffers there from Sixth Avenue in the next several months. About 1,500 will move there or to other downtown Verizon facilities in the next few years, Thonis said.

Additional personnel will go to an operations center outside the city. The company hasn't decided where it will be located - but New Jersey and Virginia are possibilities.

Zell's firm bested other powerful publicly traded companies for 1095 Sixth Ave. Brookfield Properties, downtown's largest office landlord, was a finalist. Reckson Associates Realty - a Melville, Long Island-based firm with holdings in Manhattan - was another. So was Chicago-based Trizec Properties, which owns three towers near the Verizon Building.

They lost out to Zell, a motorcycle-riding billionaire with a stellar track record in real estate investment. Zell was nicknamed "the Grave Dancer" as he bought property from financially strapped investors in the recession that started in the late 1980s.

Today, his firm owns 685 office buildings - but only seven of them are in Manhattan. He's often an also-ran in races for the city's hot properties. He unsuccessfully tried to win Rockefeller Center - twice - and made a losing bid for the General Motors Building.

The purchase of the Verizon Building will boost Zell's standing in the city. It's a great win because of its superb address, real estate execs said - and because it will have huge vacancies to rent to corporate behemoths for big bucks.

Midtown's office market is surging, and big blocks of rentable space there are getting scarce. The Sixth Avenue skyscraper will have two large vacancies - on floors 2 through 5, and 13 through 41. Verizon's keeping floors 6 through 12, which it will continue to own and occupy.

"The building has good upside potential for redevelopment and re-leasing," said Rick Matthews, a spokesman for Trizec, one of the disappointed bidders.

[sirhcman]

How many ugly buildings does Verizon reside in, in Manhattan?

[NoyokA]

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http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4949&goto=lastpost