45788 SOM018

Columbus Center

Design/Completion 1987/ New York, New York, USA Boston Properties 2,000,000 square feet Steel and concrete Brick and granite veneer

Columbus Center, a multi-use complex containing offices, retail, residences, and parking, is to be built at 59th Street and Columbus Circle at the south-west corner of Central Park. This is one of the few remaining sites with an axial relationship to the Manhattan grid. A great sweeping base of retail and offices curves along Columbus Circle supporting three towers designed in the architectural vocabulary of the nearby twin-tower apartment buildings along Central Park West.

The granite base houses a four-story retail element that continues the pedestrian scalę of Broadway, graduating to a 21-story office component. Three paired residential towers set back from the office and retail base rise to varying heights, culminating 62 floors above the Circle.

A “window” between the towers extends the view corridor west from 59th Street.

A grand rotunda is the major public entrance and organizing element for the complex.

1    Computer rendering of central towers

2    Perspective view of Columbus Circle

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