1585 Broadway

1585 Broadway, also called the Morgan Stanley Building, is a 42-story office building on Times Square in the Theater District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The building was designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects and Emery Roth & Sons and was developed by David and Jean Solomon. 1585 Broadway occupies a site on the west side of Broadway between 47th and 48th Streets. The building has served as the headquarters of financial-services company Morgan Stanley since 1995.

1585 Broadway consists of a low base, with setbacks that recede into a tower section measuring 685 ft (209 m) tall. The facade is designed with large signs at the base. The upper stories contain a facade of glass with aluminum spandrels, as well as a glass gable roof. At the ground level, the entire Broadway side contains stores, and the main entrances are placed on 47th and 48th Streets. The office entrances are connected by a wide lobby, which also connects to a basement cafeteria. Morgan Stanley's offices occupy the upper floors, with an executive suite at the 40th and 41st stories. The interior was designed by Gwathmey Siegel and Gensler.

Solomon Equities had developed 1585 Broadway as a speculative development in 1989, on the site of the Strand Theatre and another building. Morgan Stanley had expressed interest in the space during construction but ultimately decided against it. When 1585 Broadway was completed in 1990, law firm Proskauer Rose was the only tenant, occupying eleven floors. The Solomons unsuccessfully attempted to attract more tenants and fell into debt, forcing the building into foreclosure in December 1991. The building was taken over by a consortium of banks who sold it to Morgan Stanley in 1993. Morgan Stanley moved into the building after several renovations. Proskauer Rose renovated its own space in 2000 and continued to occupy part of the building until 2010. Afterward, Morgan Stanley expanded into the former Proskauer Rose space and renovated each floor in the mid-2010s.

1585 Broadway is on the western side of Broadway, between 47th Street to the south and 48th Street to the north. It is at the northwest corner of Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The trapezoidal land lot covers 50,657 sq ft (4,706.2 m²), with a frontage of 206 ft (63 m) on 47th Street and a depth of 277.87 ft (84.69 m). The southeastern end of the building faces Duffy Square.

The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theatres. The Morgan Stanley Building shares the block with the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on 47th Street and the Longacre Theatre on 48th Street. Across 48th Street are the Eugene O'Neill Theatre and Walter Kerr Theatre to the northwest and the Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan to the north. To the east across Times Square are 20 Times Square, TSX Broadway, the Palace and Embassy Theatres, and the I. Miller Building. In addition, the Hotel Edison and Lunt-Fontanne Theatre are to the south, and the Brooks Atkinson Theatre and Paramount Hotel are to the southwest. The site had contained two six-story buildings before 1986: the Strand Theatre, a movie house, as well as Leighton's Haberdashers and Clothiers, which had operated on Broadway for 67 years.

1585 Broadway was designed by Emery Roth & Sons and Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects and was Gwathmey Siegel's first high-rise design. It is 42 stories tall and measures 685 ft (209 m) to its roof. Irwin G. Cantor of WSP Cantor Seinuk was the structural engineer, while the Tishman Construction Company was the general contractor. 1585 Broadway has a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold green building certification. The building is also known as the Morgan Stanley Building for its anchor tenant, financial services company Morgan Stanley, which uses 1585 Broadway as a headquarters.

The building was proposed with a facade and a gable roof made of glass, as well as a square tower set back from the base. As built, the base occupies the entire site; it is aligned with Broadway, which runs diagonally to the Manhattan street grid. The base is designed with several setbacks that, according to Gwathmey Siegel, "responds to the pedestrian scale of the street in the theater district". Above ground level, there are two rectangular setbacks. There is a double-height mechanical space on the fourth and fifth floors, with an outward curve toward Broadway; this delineates the transition between the base and tower. The mechanical space's facade contains ventilation and heating grilles rather than windows. The tower section is aligned with 47th and 48th Streets, which run parallel to the street grid.

The base is covered in glass and metal, with dark-glass panels hiding the signage behind them. Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation manufactured the signs on the base, which were included to comply with city regulations. Ten dark-glass "fins" protrude over the sidewalk on Broadway, each containing one of the characters "1585 B'way". Each storefront has signs identifying the retailer there. Three horizontal boards are placed above the fourth-story setback, displaying financial quotations and news. Each board is 140 ft (43 m) wide and 10 to 12 ft (3.0 to 3.7 m) high; the boards constitute a large ticker tape. Two additional signs at the corners, measuring 30 by 60 ft (9.1 by 18.3 m), display market information. At Broadway's corners with 47th and 48th Streets, there are curved signs measuring 44 ft (13 m) tall, which display the current time in cities around the world. Morgan Stanley's name is only displayed at the corners, with 7 in-high (18 cm) letters.