A New Look and Higher Expectations for a 70’s-Style Building in Midtown
For more than three decades, a 41-story telephone company building adorned with vertical white marble stripes has stood opposite the western edge of Bryant Park. If all goes well next year, that structure, most recently known as the Verizon Building, will more or less disappear.
The building, which sold last year for $505 million, is not being torn down, however. Rather it is to morph into a more contemporary blue-green glass tower that will bear little resemblance to the original.
The recladding is part of a $260 million upgrade of the Verizon Building, at 1095 Avenue of the Americas, between 41st and 42nd Streets, that is intended to capitalize on the growing desirability of the neighborhood surrounding Bryant Park. The new owner, Equity Office Properties Trust, initially intended to spend $188 million on the renovation but ultimately decided that investing even more would enable the building to command top-dollar rents.