Random House Tower

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Random House Tower and Park Imperial

The tower from the southwest

Information
Location 1745 Broadway/230 West 56th Street, New York City
Coordinates 40°45′55″N 73°58′57″W / 40.765341, -73.982502
Status Completed
Groundbreaking 2000
Constructed 2003
Use Apartments and headquarters of Random House
Roof 208 m / 684 ft
Top floor 52
Floor area 79,900 m²
Cost $300 Million
Companies
Architect Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and Ismael Leyva
Owner Stephen M. Ross

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.[1]

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").[2]

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 bridge across 45th Street connecting them.[3]

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