Ribbon Cut At Midtown's Newest Skyscraper: One Vanderbilt

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The newest addition to New York City's skyline officially opened to the public Monday: One Vanderbilt, which towers 1,401 feet above next-door Grand Central Terminal and marks the latest supertall structure to be built in Midtown.

Officials at Monday's ribbon-cutting ceremony framed the opening as the beginning of New York's rebound following the lowest points of the coronavirus crisis, and a signal of the eventual return of office work.

"This is one of the first and most tangible signs of the rebirth of New York City, right here today," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The ceremony came four years after construction began on the $3.3 billion skyscraper, and about 20 years after developer SL Green began to lay the groundwork by purchasing buildings on the block, which is bounded by Vanderbilt and Madison avenues, and 42nd and 43rd streets.

Before work began, the developers had to purchase air rights from the area above Grand Central, and pledged to preserve views of the historic train station. SL Green also spent $220 million making improvements to the Grand Central subway platforms underneath it, including building two new street-level subway entrances and reopening a passageway connecting Grand Central to a new entrance on the corner of 42nd and Lexington.

The improvements will reduce congestion on the subway platforms, allowing an additional train to pass through each hour, according to SL Green.

The skyscraper's construction was also made possible by the rezoning of Midtown East, which was approved by the City Council in 2017, allowing a 70-block stretch of the neighborhood to upgrade its aging office building stock.

Almost 70 percent of the space inside One Vanderbilt has already been leased, according to SL Green, with major tenants including TD Securities (the parent company of TD Bank), as well as several private equity and law firms. The building was designed by architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox.

Plans for One Vanderbilt received a positive writeup in 2016 by New York Magazine architecture critic Justin Davidson, who praised its original design, including its terra-cotta façade that imitates the ceiling tiles at Grand Central.

This article originally appeared on the Midtown-Hell's Kitchen Patch