Thompson Reuters Building (New York City, New York)

555-foot, 32-story postmodern office building completed in 2001. Designed by Fox & Fowle as the headquarters of the Thompson Reuters international news service, it is also known as 3 Times Square. It is clad in a curtain wall of grey stone, blue glass, and grey metal, with a large curving wall facing the southeast corner, where the base features a projecting, 7-story cylinder. It has wide grey granite piers at the ground floor, separating bays of metal-and-glass storefronts topped by an array of video boards. The 2nd-3rd floors of the cylinder have terra-cotta columns, and each bay is filled by a 5-over-2 window with each half angling out to a vertical point at the center. Terra-cotta soffits line the overhanging ceiling of the top floors of the cylinder, which is covered by a rounded video board at the lower section and static displays at the top, with an array of small metal canopies across the top edge. It was the former site of the Rialto Theatre which once filmed the Howdy Doody Show during the 1950s.

At the middle of the east facade on the avenue, the glass wall extends down to the street, but with more transparent panes enclosing the double-height lobby. Three revolving doors and two traditional glass doors interrupt the glass wall at the base. Above the lobby, the 3rd floor (framed by grey stone panels) has structural bracing expressed behind clear glass, with the tinted curtain wall beginning at the 4th floor. The north end of the east facade projects slightly, with a grid of windows (five bays wide) above the base, set in grey granite cladding. The base consists of a storefront at the ground floor, with a chamfered northeast corner. Video boards are mounted on the 2nd floor, including an angled one at the corner. There is a thinner video board at the corner on the 4th-7th floor, and a thinner video board in the form of a vertical band running from the 9th-20th floors.

On the north facade, the base has tall 1st & 2nd floors, clad in granite. To the west of the storefront, there are service entrances and loading docks topped by metal louvers. To the right of the 2nd-floor video boards there are two large openings (one three bays wide, and one four bays wide) with columns of 6-over-1 angled windows recessing into the facade is a serrated fashion. At the 3rd floor, the window grid extends across the whole facade, spanning 13 total bays. Like on the east facade, the stone grid cladding ends above the 20th floor, except at the western four bays, where it ends above the 3rd floor. Set back behind it, and extending one wider, recessed bay to the west is a curtain wall of blue glass and grey metal panels. Each of the four bays is wider than on the stone grid cladding, with three window panes per bay.

The west two bays end at the 19th floor; the setback upper tower floors are clad in a curtain wall with horizontal grey metal spandrels. The northeast corner is notched, transitioning to the main, curving glass wall on the east facade. At the south end of this facade, where the curve becomes more pronounced, there are horizontal metal lines spaced every two floors, from the 14th to the 28th, and wrapping around to the short, angled east end of the south facade. Beginning above the north edge of the uppermost horizontal line, a projecting, vertical metal fin cuts through the facade and extends above the roof line, angling out toward the top.

The middle section of the ground floor on the south facade has a recessed subway entrance beneath a curving grey metal canopy that angles up. At the west end is a 2-story retail section framed by rusticated grey granite piers. Its ground floor has plate-glass show-windows, while the 2nd floor has a double-window in the center, flanked by a pair of round windows. Both levels are topped by video boards, the lower one set at an angle. A large, angled digital clock tops the 2-story retail section. Slightly recessed behind the retail section and the corner cylinder, the main facade has a curtain in a grid of blue glass and grey metal. It is five bays wide, with the easternmost bay beginning above the edge of the corner cylinder, and the full west bay beginning at the 10th floor, where it cantilevers out to the west; the half-bays below are filled by grey metal panels. This bay sets back above the 27th floor.

On the west facade, the lower floors are faced in plain metal panels. The aforementioned cantilever at the 10th floor begins a similar curtain wall of blue glass and grey metal, and the south half of the facade has two large recessed areas of plain metal panels, each spanning two bays; the southern one runs from the 11th-16th floors, and the northern one from the 18th-24th floors. The lower floors on the north half of this facade project out up to the 18th floor, and the entire north half has a similar curtain wall. At the south half of the facade there is a setback above the 24th floor, with the next three floors curving in toward the south. The lower, western roof line is at the 27th floor. A 3-sides framework spire extends from the top of the west side of the fin at the east side of the tower.

The ground floor is occupied by a Steve Madden shoe store on 42nd Street, a Chase Bank branch in the cylinder, and an AT&T Store, and Europa Cafe to the north of the lobby.
 office buildingskyscraperpress / news agency
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Coordinates:  40°45'23"N 73°59'13"W
This article was last modified 3 years ago