One Penn Plaza launches $85M improvement program.

The owners of One Penn Plaza, Midtown Manhattan's fifth-largest building, have undertaken an $85 million program of improvements, calling for enhancements to all public spaces, including the 33rd and 34th street entry plazas, the main lobby, the west and east escalator lobbies, the Eighth Avenue plaza, the Seventh Avenue galleria, the Intermediate and Concourse-Levels, public corridors, rest rooms, all 44 elevators, the installation of four 24-foot high luminous logos atop the 57-story skyscraper, and improvements to the public sidewalks.

"We're doing our part to improve 34th Street and to enhance the public spaces in and around One Penn Plaza," said Daniel E. North, vice president of Helmsley Spear, Inc. and General Manager of the building, which is owned by Mid-City Associates, a partnership of Harry B. Helmsley, Peter L. Malkin, and MetLife.

Architects Richard Blinder and Ricardo Zurita of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners, along with construction manager F.J. Sciame & Co., are insuring that One Penn Plaza's improvement program increases the building's prominence in a neighborhood, which is already undergoing tremendous improvement through the programs of the 34th Street Partnership, which has its headquarters in One Penn Plaza, and the MTA.

33rd and 34th Street Entrances

To make the entrance plazas more accessible and easy to identify, the entrances' stairs will be reconfigured, the planters on both sides of the steps are to be extended, and two new handicap ramps leading to the 34th Street lobby entrance and the Eighth Avenue Plaza will be installed. The walls of the new planters, as well as the steps, will be constructed of granite.

Main Lobby

One Penn Plaza's main lobby will be enhanced to befit Midtown's fifth-largest building. Starting from the ground up, a new tri-colored granite floor with a rich, sophisticated pattern will be installed. Up top, the current luminous ceiling will be replaced by new lighting fixtures with textured lenses. Over the elevator waiting areas for the building's 44 elevators, the ceilings will be lowered and finished in silver leaf, contributing to an elegant progression from outside the building to the elevator areas. The existing granite and marble lobby walls will be cleaned, refinished, and polished from floor to ceiling.

West and East Escalator Lobbies

To allow for direct access to the Eighth Avenue Plaza from the main lobby, a new passage will be created in the west escalator lobby. This new corridor will be flanked by the existing window wall on the north and a new glass storefront, which will look into a restaurant planned for the adjacent space on the south, which will open upon the Eighth Avenue Plaza.

A dramatic scooped ceiling is to be installed in both the west and east escalator lobbies. The escalators will provide direct access to the new main concourse of the Long Island Rail Road, which has been enlarged and refurbished as part of a $300 million program of improvements to the Long Island and Pennsylvania Rail Road Stations.

Eighth Avenue Plaza

The new design for the Eighth Avenue plaza includes resurfacing and the addition of several new amenities: planters with seat walls, trees, movable chairs and cafe seating for the restaurants facing the plaza, and along the front of the cafes, metal trellises with canvas awnings to provide shade and ambiance.

Metal entrance portals will be installed over the 33rd and 34th street entrances, as will granite steps that will span the full width of the new entrances. The plaza will also have handicapped access from 34th Street.

The architectural focus of the plaza will be a pyramidal granite fountain, visible from the street, that will emit steam during the Winter months and a water spray during the warm weather months. Three restaurants and the alfresco cafe will surround the fountain.

Seventh Avenue Galleria

The Seventh Avenue galleria will retain the form of the original space while enhancing the area's amenities, including the installation of new planters with trees and seating, a lively paving pattern, end awnings above the fronts of the stores. The entrances to the galleria will be defined by metal entrance portals which span the new entrances.

Intermediate and Concourse Level Floors

The escalator corridor at the east end of the Intermediate Level has been reconfigured. New ceilings and lighting, and new walls finished with dramatic photo murals will be installed. New granite floors will be installed to tie the area in with the main lobby and the Long Island Rail Road Concourse. Above the escalators on the east end, the ceilings will be vaulted in a fashion similar to that on the ground floor.

The new public spaces will be finished in high quality materials, with granite floors and vaulted ceilings with cove lighting.

All 44 passenger elevators will be fully renovated and brought into compliance with ADA guidelines. New control panels, tranite walls and floor, and a mirrored metal ceiling will be installed in the cabs. On every elevator cab floor will be the new One Penn Plaza logo, which will also appear on the floor in the main lobby in red granite.

A Large Luminous Logo

A 24-foot-high logo was recently installed on each of the four sides of One Penn Plaza's 56th and 57th floors. The new logo immediately identifies the building from surrounding areas of New York, Long Island, Westchester, and New Jersey, beaming red and white light in a 100-mile radius. This identification of One Penn Plaza is similar to the illuminated logos atop the MetLife Building and the GE Building.

Public Sidewalks

Several improvements will be made to the public sidewalks on West 33rd and West 34th streets, and Seventh and Eighth avenues. Cast iron grates supporting large, new trees will be installed on existing sidewalks at 34th Street and along the avenues. There will he attractive planters along 33rd Street. New, distinctive paving is planned for the sidewalk area in front of the steps at both 33rd and 34th streets. This will be an extension of the entry plaza paving and will contribute to better defining the building at street level.

A Burgeoning District

The busiest shopping distinct in the country, 34th Street is undergoing a tremendous rebirth. The former B. Altman's Building. a landmark building, will be home by next Fall of The New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library and the Graduate Center of City University, the world-renowned Empire State Building is undergoing a $65 million restoration and modernization with the work on the Observation Deck and all new elevators and windows already completed; Herald and Greeley Squares have been floodlighted and are being re-designed by the 34th Street Partnership which has its headquarters in One Penn Plaza; the Long Island Rail Road has renovated its main concourse and built a new main entrance with major escalators on 34th Street, adjacent to One Penn Plaza; Amtrak is readying plans to create a great new Penn Station in the Main Post Office Building on 34th Street and 8th Avenue, off the southwest corner of One Penn Plaza; and Conway's is completing a new flagship store occupying three floors in 1333 Broadway at 35th Street, opposite Macy's flagship store, the largest in the world, which is enjoying the financial renaissance of its parent company.

The 34th Street Partnership, under the leadership of Peter L. Malkin, chairman, and Daniel A. Biederman, president, has embarked on a privately-financed, $25 million public space improvement plan for the area. Nearing the end of the approval process are plans that include new sidewalks, new granite curbs and corners, new lighting stanchions that will provide bright white lighting of the sidewalks and streets, new crosswalks, new trees and planters, and new traffic signs. Successes in the 28-square blocks of the district include lower crime rates (down 25 percent), thanks to the Partnership's 43-man private security force, and cleaner streets, due to the efforts of the Partnership's 62-man private sanitation team.