1540 Broadway

1540 Broadway, formerly the Bertelsmann Building, is a 44-story office building on Times Square in the Theater District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the building was developed by Broadway State Partners, a joint venture between Bruce Eichner and VMS Development. 1540 Broadway occupies a site bounded by Broadway to the west, 45th Street to the south, and 46th Street to the north. It was originally named for its anchor tenant, German media company Bertelsmann. The building is divided into two ownership units: HSBC and Edge Funds Advisors own the office stories, while Vornado Realty Trust owns retail space at the base.

1540 Broadway consists of a low base, as well as a tower section measuring 733 ft (223 m) to its spire. An outwardly projecting "prow" extends from the western side of the building. The facade is designed with large signs at the base, with a main office entrance on 45th Street. The upper stories contain a facade of blue and green glass with vertical aluminum mullions. There is a public passageway and about 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m²) of retail space at the base; the retail space was originally supposed to be part of a five-story shopping mall that was never opened. The basement formerly contained a four-screen movie theater, while the upper stories contain 860,000 sq ft (80,000 m²) of offices.

Broadway State Partners had developed 1540 Broadway on the site of Loew's State Theatre and several other buildings. Helmut Jahn initially proposed a mixed-use office, hotel, and commercial building on the site, though Childs subsequently drew up plans for an office building with retail at its base. Work started in 1988 and the building was completed in 1990, but it was completely empty for the next three years. Bertelsmann bought the building out of bankruptcy in 1992 and moved its headquarters there, opening several retail stores in the late 1990s. The Paramount Group bought the building in 2004, reselling the offices two years later to Equity Office Properties and the stores to Vornado. The offices were subsequently resold to Harry B. Macklowe in 2007, Deutsche Bank in 2008, and CBRE Group in 2009; HSBC and Edge acquired the offices in a two-part sale in 2010 and 2011.

1540 Broadway is on the east side of Broadway, along Times Square between 45th Street (George Abbott Way) to the south and 46th Street to the north, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. The irregularly shaped land lot covers 38,700 sq ft (3,600 m²), with a frontage of 180 ft (55 m) on Broadway and a depth of 186.06 ft (57 m). The building wraps around another structure at the northwest corner, and the section of the building on 46th Street extends further east than the portion on 45th Street. The northern end of the building faces Duffy Square.

The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theaters. On the same block are the Lyceum Theatre, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School for International Careers, and Americas Tower to the east. Other nearby buildings include the Hotel Edison and Lunt-Fontanne Theatre to the northwest; TSX Broadway, the Palace and Embassy Theatres, and the I. Miller Building to the north; 1530 Broadway, the Hudson Theatre, and the Millennium Times Square New York hotel to the south; One Astor Plaza to the southwest; and the New York Marriott Marquis hotel to the west.

The site formerly contained Loew's State Theatre, built in 1921 at the address 1540 Broadway. Loew's State Theatre had been housed within a 17-story office building prior to its demolition in 1987. The old theater's design had complemented that of the Lyceum Theatre, a Broadway theater, immediately to the east. The site had also contained several smaller buildings, including a United Service Organizations (USO) recruitment center.

1540 Broadway was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), with David Childs of SOM as the project's partner-in-charge. It was developed by Bruce Eichner of Eichner Properties in collaboration with Chicago-based firm VMS Development. The building has 42 stories and four basements. It measures 733 ft (223 m) to its spire. The top floor is 564 ft (172 m) high, while the roof is 578 ft (176 m) high. German entertainment conglomerate Bertelsmann originally occupied most of the space.

1540 Broadway's base measures either 60 ft (18 m) or 62 ft (19 m) tall. above which are multiple setbacks. The building's massing contains a prow-shaped projection on its western end, facing Broadway. Though this prow was initially planned as a sign across a small section of the building, it ultimately was installed along the building's full height. The concept for a prow-shaped sign was then changed to a skeletal metal framework, then to usable office space. At the top of the prow is a metal spire with a frame, which extends 100 ft (30 m) or 157 feet (48 m) high. The spire was influenced by deconstructivist motifs, which led Childs to remark, "We've pinned the bow tie!", a reference to the building's location near the center of the bowtie-shaped Times Square. The skeletal frame's design also evoked the framework of the large billboards on Times Square.