A building in Times Square aspires to be a marketing and arts tool

TSX Broadway is a 550,000-sf 46-story mixed-use tower that’s been under construction in New York City’s Times Square since 2019. This $2.5 billion project—whose development partners include L&L Holding, Maefield Development, Fortress Investment, and The Nederlander Organization—has retained 25 percent of site’s existing structure that included 16 stories of what had been a DoubleTree hotel, and the iconic Palace Theater, which on January 7 began its journey from the ground floor of this site to being lifted and repositioned 30 ft above grade to make way for 75,000 sf of street-level retail.

The lift of the 7,000-plus-ton, 27,000-sf theater with landmark status was expected to take six to eight weeks, at which point the Palace Theater will undergo a $50 million renovation that includes a new entrance on 47th Street with an 80-ft marquee, the addition of 10,000 sf of front-of-house space with a new lobby, a new orchestra pit for the 1,700-seat theater, and more back-of-house space.

Last week, the project’s Building Team poured the 43rd floor of TSX Broadway, which along with the theater is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to Robert Israel, Executive Vice President of L&L Holding and the firm’s project manager, with whom BD+C spoke earlier this week.

Also see: An animation of the demolition, excavation, and theater lift

HEAVY LIFTING

Hydraulic jacks used to raise the theater — A lifting system that combines structural steel shoring posts and hydraulic jacks is being used to raise the Palace Theater. Image: Courtesy of L&L Holding

Hydraulic jack system used to raise the theater. This project, he said, required a new permanent foundation, a new subcellar level, and a lifting foundation. The lift itself is utilizing a mechanism, devised by Urban Foundation Engineering, that combines 34 structural lifting posts and 136 hydraulic jacks. Israel said that the developers hired the structural engineering consultant Howard Shapiro & Associates to ensure the security and stability of the structure and theater, which was originally built in 1913 and remodeled in 1988.

The 580-ft-tall tower, when completed, will also feature a 669-key hotel (Israel said the developers were close to signing a branding and property management deal, but could not disclose the hotelier).

RISING ABOVE THE NOISE

Exterior lighting systems for TSX Broadway — TSX Broadway will feature several different lighting systems on its exterior. Images: Mancini Duffy

The building will also have several signage and lighting systems, all designed for marketing purposes: the exterior of floors three through nine will be distinguished by an 18,000-sf LED podium sign into which is integrated an indoor-outdoor stage with a 30x30-ft opening and a 35-ft depth that extends 10 ft outside beyond the LED lights. Israel suggested that this space could be used for New Year’s Eve events, and all manner of performances and broadcasts.

There will also be crown signage at the top of the building, and a full-tower lighting system, dubbed The Beacon, that will be able to project programmed messages and images.

Also see: How TSX Broadway will become the world’s largest billboard

TSX Broadway’s Building Team includes Mancini Duffy (AOR core and shell and hotel), PBDW Architects (AOR theater design and historic preservation), Jablonski Building Conservation (historic preservation consultant), Wise Janney Elsner Engineers & Architects (plaster structural support consultant), Cosentini (MEP), Langan (SOE/foundation engineering consultant), Severud (SE), and Perkins Eastman (lead design of building envelope).