Manhattan Center - Hammerstein Ballroom (New York City, New York)

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9-story studio building originally completed in 1906 as a 6-story theater. Designed by William E. Mowbray (of the firm of Mowbray & Uffinger) and Oscar Hammerstein, it was originally the Manhattan Opera House. Hammerstein boldly sought to compete with the established Metropolitan Opera by offering grand opera to the New York public at lower ticket prices and with a superior orchestra and stage productions. Rapidly, it received critical acclaim and became a popular alternative to the Met and many great operas and celebrated singers debuted at the new theater. In 1910, after the Metropolitan Opera felt it could no longer tolerate the competition, it offered Hammerstein $1.2 million to cease producing opera for a period of 10 years. He accepted the offer and experimented with various other types of entertainment before ultimately selling the building. In March 1911, it was opened as a "combination" house by the Shubert brothers featuring vaudeville shows during the week and concerts on Sunday nights at affordable prices. In 1922, the Manhattan Opera House was purchased by the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry, who built a new building façade and a new Grand Ballroom on the added 7th floor.

The front facade on 34th Street is clad in brown brick above a 2-story base of rusticated limestone. There is a service entrance with metal doors at each end, and in the center a wide span of five double-door entrances with poster windows between them, atop a wide, but short set of steps. A suspended black metal marquee covers the entrances. Partially hidden by the marquee are round-arched above each entrance, topped with scrolled keystones bearing sculpted heads of lions and female figures. Above and between these are carved heraldic shields. The base is topped by a band course with the inscription "ANCIENT ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE'".

The upper floors have windows in five central bays. Those on the 3rd floor are round-arched with stone surrounds and cornices. The next two floors have small square-headed windows with stone sills, and the floor 7th floor has double-round-arch windows above projecting stone balconettes, encompassed by larger round-arches. Four stone heraldic shield are affixed between and slightly above the arches. The next floor is set off at top and bottom by stone string courses, with a row of 11 small, square windows. The floor above has five larger square windows, with oval stone shields at the ends. The facade is capped by a dentiled stone cornice.

The rear facade on 35th Street is clad in dark-brown brick, divided into six windowless bays by thin, projecting brick piers. The end bays have metal louvers and vents, and tall loading docks with metal roll-down gates. There are also smaller service entrances with metal doors in the next bays toward the center. Below the top floor is a corbelled band course, and the middle bays at the top have paired round-arched filled in with red brick. The western elevation is also clad in the same brick, with no windows except for three bays of large windows in the center (and a few random small, square windows at the upper floors near the south end), and bricked-in arches at the top.

By 1939, the name of the building had been changed to the Manhattan Center, now a multi purpose venue featuring a variety of different types of events. In 1976, the building was purchased by its current owner, the Unification Church for $3,000,000. In 1986, Manhattan Center Studios was formed to develop the center into a venue with the capability of holding multimedia festivities. MCS expanded the audio recording facilities when Studio 4 was opened in 1993. Studio 7 was rebuilt in 1996 to become a state-of-the-art control room capable of servicing all types of recordings and live events in the Ballrooms.

Beginning in 1997, the Hammerstein Ballroom underwent a major renovation and reopened as a major concert hall for popular musical acts.The 12,000-square-foot ballroom is an elegant pre-war ballroom featuring a hand-painted ceiling mural, ornate woodwork and three balconies overlooking the main room and stage. The 75-foot-high ceiling holds many rigging points for production décor and lighting options. Ties to the in-house audio recording studios and video control rooms make the space an incredible venue for productions, special events and webcasts by merging its theatrical past with modern technology. The space accommodates up to 2,500 people for receptions and theatrical productions and 1,000 people for a seated dinner. The Manhattan Center is also home to Al Jazeera America's main studio and production facilities.

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