1501 Broadway, also known as the Paramount Building, is a 33-story office building on Times Square between West 43rd and 44th Streets in the Theater District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Rapp and Rapp, it was erected from 1925 to 1927 as the headquarters of Paramount Pictures. The building is designed in the Art Deco and Beaux-Arts styles. The office wing on Times Square contains numerous setbacks as mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution, while the rear wing housed the Paramount Theatre from 1926 to 1967.
The facade is mostly designed with brick walls, though the first five stories are ornamented with limestone piers. The main entrance is on 43rd Street. There is also a five-story arch on Broadway, facing Times Square, which leads to a Hard Rock Cafe; it is an imitation of the former Paramount Theatre entrance. Atop the building is a four-faced clock, with two large faces and two small faces, as well as an illuminated globe that could display the time. The ground floor historically had an ornate lobby leading to the theater, which had 3,664 seats over four levels. The modern building contains office space in both the original office wing and the theater wing.
Paramount predecessor Famous Players–Lasky proposed the theater in 1922, but Rapp and Rapp had revised the plans to include an office tower by 1924. The theater opened on November 19, 1926, though the offices did not open until the following year. The clock and globe on the roof were blacked out during World War II. A group led by David Rosenthal converted the theater to offices in 1967 and removed the grand arch on the facade, which was part of the theater's original entrance. The Paramount Building's facade became a New York City designated landmark in 1988. The arch, clock, and globe were restored starting in the late 1990s, and the main entrance was relocated in another renovation in the 2010s.
Site The Paramount Building is on 1501 Broadway, between 43rd and 44th Streets, at Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. While the building carries a Broadway address, it is actually on the west side of Seventh Avenue. The section of Broadway and Seventh Avenue between 43rd and 45th Streets is officially listed on city maps as "Times Square", but the adjoining section of Broadway was converted into a permanent pedestrian plaza in the 2010s. The Paramount Building's rectangular land lot covers , with a frontage of on Broadway and on 43rd and 44th Streets.
The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theatres. 1501 Broadway shares the block with 229 West 43rd Street, the Hayes Theater, and the St. James Theatre to the west. Other nearby buildings include the Majestic Theatre, the Broadhurst Theatre, and the Shubert Theatre to the northwest; One Astor Plaza to the north; 1530 Broadway to the northeast; 1500 Broadway to the east; 4 Times Square and One Times Square to the southeast; 3 Times Square to the south; the American Airlines Theatre, Lyric Theatre, and New Victory Theater to the southwest.
Prior to the development of the Paramount Building, the eastern portion of the site had been occupied by the Putnam Building, a six-story commercial structure. It was named after American Revolutionary War general Israel Putnam, who had passed through the site in 1776 during the war. The Putnam Building had long been occupied by theatrical agencies and, before its demolition in 1925, had a large electric sign measuring on its facade. The western part of the site was occupied by a group of brownstones, operated by the Astor family as a set of apartments called Westover Court. The Astor family had owned the land since 1803. Until about 1850, the vicinity had also been known as the "Eden Farm" a title that came from a previous landowner.
Architecture 1501 Broadway was designed by brothers Cornelius Ward Rapp and George Leslie Rapp, of the firm Rapp and Rapp, in the Beaux-Arts and Art Deco styles. It was constructed from 1925 to 1927 as the headquarters of Paramount Pictures, one of the major American motion picture companies in the 1920s. R. E. Hall & Co. were the construction engineers, and Thompson–Starrett Co. was the general contractor; numerous other engineers, contractors, and suppliers were involved in the building's construction. 1501 Broadway contains 33 stories, although early reports cite the structure as containing 35 stories. It measures tall to its roof and to its pinnacle. At the time of its completion, the Paramount Building was the tallest building in Times Square, as well as Broadway's tallest building north of the Woolworth Building.
Form
1501 Broadway was designed in two parts: the 33-story office section in the front, along Broadway, and a shorter wing in the rear, which formerly housed the Paramount Theatre. This was typical of New York City theater buildings, where the theater was relegated to cheaper lots on side streets, while the office space took up the more valuable frontage on the main avenues. While the building had initially been planned with a 29-story office section, this was changed in the middle of construction. The office tower's decorative details was influenced by the Beaux-Arts style, while the theater was designed in a Neo-Renaissance style. The Art Deco decoration was limited largely to the massing.
1501 Broadway contains eight setbacks, seven of which are above the theater wing. The setbacks are placed on all sides as mandated under the 1916 Zoning Resolution. On 43rd Street, the theater wing is twelve stories tall. On 44th Street, the theater wing is nine stories tall, except for the westernmost bay, which is fourteen stories tall with a setback on the 12th story. Along the office wing, the setbacks on the north, east, and south elevations start above the 18th story; there are six setbacks on these elevations, placed at regular intervals. Each setback is separated by two or three stories. The office wing's west elevation rises above the roof of the theater wing, with a small setback on the 26th story and a deeper setback on the 28th story. The top section of 1501 Broadway rises above the 28th story and is two bays deep. The massing was intended to resemble that of a pyramid or a mountain as depicted in the Paramount Pictures logo.
Facade
Base The first five stories of both wings are clad in limestone and constitute the building's base. The ground story contains storefronts. The main entrance since 2018 is on 43rd Street, with bronze doors and a bronze marquee sign. The 2nd through 4th stories are divided into bays, containing three-story window openings flanked by rusticated piers. The windows on each story are separated by iron spandrels and are divided by vertical iron mullions. The spandrels are ornamented with classical motifs, as well as theatrical icons such as masks, scrolls, and festoons. The 5th story contains one-over-one sash windows with metal frames. Between the 5th-story windows are oval cartouches.
The theater entrance was near the south end of the eastern elevation, facing Broadway. Originally, it had a five-story archway and an elaborate curved marquee. The original archway was removed in the late 1960s and replaced with windows and rusticated piers, which were taken from the 43rd Street elevation. The only indication of the former archway was the presence of blank limestone panels instead of windows on the 5th story. The arch was restored in 2001 and is constructed of concrete reinforced with glass fibers. The archway is surrounded by a frame with scrolls, rosettes, and lyre players, attached to a steel frame. The replica marquee, measuring wide, is made of three glass panels, reinforced with plastic and finished in bronze. The marquee includes a curved LED display but was otherwise designed to match historical specifications. A sign with the name "Paramount" is mounted over the archway and contains 400 lights.
Prior to 2018, the main office entrance was just north of the center bay along Broadway; the opening still exists but leads to a retail space. It contains a double-height limestone frame with a lintel above the second floor. The doorway is divided vertically into a large center section flanked by two narrower sections. At ground level, the entrance includes a set of double doors, flanked by a single door, all made of brass and glass. Above the center doors is a clock flanked by brackets. There are windows above the remainder of the ground floor, as well as another set of windows on the 2nd story. The ground and 2nd stories of the doorway are separated by decorative iron spandrels; the center panel has an oval motif. The spandrels contain other motifs including theater masks, instruments, and branches. The building's cornerstone is placed in a niche within the former main entrance. The cornerstone includes copper boxes with several newspapers' front pages, gold coins, film reels, and a news reel showing Richard E. Byrd's 1926 North Pole flight.
Office stories Starting on the 6th story of the office tower, the window openings generally contain one-over-one windows, which are grouped into bays. The bays are divided by alternating narrow and wide piers. The narrow piers are plain, while the wide piers are either rusticated or plain. The rusticated piers project slightly from the facade. The rear wing on 43rd and 44th Streets has double-hung windows separated by plain piers. On 44th Street, there are oval openings at the ninth story, which are surrounded by festoons. The top of the rear wing on 44th Street is decorated with acroteria.
The setbacks of the office tower contain parapets. Below the parapets were floodlights that originally illuminated the setbacks at night to emphasize the jagged massing. Over one thousand lights were used in the setbacks' lighting system. Trapezoidal finials, designed to resemble obelisks, are placed at the setback level atop many of the rusticated piers. On the 28th through 30th stories, there are oversized consoles on the north and south elevations.
Clock and globe
The Paramount Building has a large four-faced clock above its 30th story. The clock faces on the west and east are made of limestone, with metal minute and hour hands. The west and east clock faces measure about wide. Inset within the stone are twelve circular glass panels, which measure high and denote the hours. These panels contain five-pointed stars, forming a circle of stars as used in the Paramount Pictures logo. The hour and minute hands were originally illuminated. Flanking these faces is a pair of setback pavilions with oval cartouches and rusticated piers. The north and south clock faces are placed on these setback pavilions. They are made with metal frames and are smaller than those on the west and east. The clock faces were mechanically operated from the building's completion.
Above the clock faces is a stone frieze and trapezoidal corner obelisks. The top of the building contains a copper pedestal with an ornamental glass and copper sphere measuring across. The sphere is made of 90 square panels, originally decorated with a map of the world. A smokestack is placed within the globe, measuring wide, with a maintenance ladder and catwalks inside. The globe was intended to signify Paramount predecessor Famous Players–Lasky, and it originally illuminated once every 15 minutes. In its early years, the globe could be seen from several miles away at night. During World War II, the globe and clock were painted black to maintain blackout conditions for fear of an enemy invasion. They were restored in 1996. After its restoration, the globe was lit a constant white after dusk, with red pulses every 15 minutes to signify the time, as well as bell chimes.