One Astor Plaza (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, 1972_construction, television studio, International style architecture, Modern (architecture)

745-foot, 54-story Brutalist/International Style office building completed in 1972. Designed by Der Scutt of Kahn & Jacobs, it was originally known as the W. T. Grant Building, and later became and remains the headquarters for Viacom. Located at 1515 Broadway (also at 1 Astor Plaza), it used to be the site of the Astor Hotel, one of Times Square's most famous hotels. The current building was opened in 1972 and houses the New Viacom, which consists of MTV Networks (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon among others).

Set on a base housing the theater and retail spaces, the tower of the Viacom building is positioned to the back of the plot and has a facade of black glass. There is a north-south through-building arcade, which also acts as the entrance to the building's theaters (The Minskoff Theatre and the PlayStation Theater - see separate entries).

The ground floor includes an Oakley, Billabong, Element Skateboards, Aéropostale store, and a Junior's restaurant, noted for its cheesecake. To the west of the base, on 44th Street, there are three large bays with loading docks, and the westernmost bay has an entrance/exit for the underground parking garage. The north facade also has a garage entrance, just to the east of the tower's center. The Minskoff Theatre occupies the upper portion of the 5-story glass walled space facing Broadway, along with two cantilevered balconies. The lower floors have retail spaces, and a video band at the north half. Entrances to the office tower are located at the north and south corners, above which are angled video boards. Behind the glass facade, the rest of the stone-clad base extends another couple floors, with the main tower rising behind it, to the west.

The tower is clad in black-tinted glass. Near the left end of each of the four facades is a light-colored, vertical stone fin with an angle that intersects the glass curtain walls. On each facade, the narrow area to the left of the fin projects out further than the rest of the curtain wall, with another projection (about half as wide) at the right end of each facade. The 16th floor has a double-height recessed space on each facade, to the right of the vertical fin, with four squared, concrete columns extending through and carrying the upper floors. The fins extend above the main roof line at the top of the building, creating eccentric crown-like spikes at the roof corners, and shielding the rooftop mechanical equipment. The corner pylons also double as mechanical equipment shafts.