The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, commonly known as the Javits Center, is a large convention center on Eleventh Avenue between 34th Street and 38th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by architect James Ingo Freed of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. The space frame structure was constructed from 1979 to 1986 and was named to honor Jacob Javits, the United States Senator for New York. When the Javits Center opened, it replaced the New York Coliseum at Columbus Circle as the city's major convention facility; the Coliseum was subsequently demolished and replaced by Time Warner Center.

The Javits Center is operated and maintained by the New York Convention Center Operating Corporation, a New York State public-benefit corporation. As of 2021^[update], the Javits Center has a total interior area of 3.3 million square feet (310,000 m²). It is billed as one of the busiest convention centers in the United States. It has undergone expansions throughout its history, with the most recent expansion being completed in 2021 and adding 1.2 million square feet to the building. Plans have also been made for the Javits Center to have panels providing solar power.

The New York Convention Center Operating Corporation (NYCCOC) – not to be confused with the New York Convention Center Development Corporation ("CCDC"), which is a subsidiary of Empire State Development – operates the Javits Center. NYCCOC's management team is headed by President and CEO Alan Steel. There is a 16-member board that provides guidance. In 2017, NYCCOC had operating expenses of $194 million and employed 3,786 people.

Javits Center has hosted annual events such as the New York International Auto Show the New York Comic Con, and Anime NYC. In November 2016, it was the location of Hillary Clinton's 2016 United States presidential election watching venue.

The complex includes a:

The Javits Center added 1.2 million square feet (110,000 m²) following a major expansion project which was completed in May 2021. This included 500,000 square feet (46,000 m²) of contiguous event space, which will help the facility attract international business conferences. As of this expansion, the Javits Center has a total interior area of 3.3 million square feet (310,000 m²).

Planning and constructing a convention center on Manhattan's west side has had a long and controversial history. Proposals for a convention center to replace the New York Coliseum on Columbus Circle date to 1962, only six years after the Coliseum was completed. A new convention center over the river between 38th and 42nd Streets was included in the city's 1962 plan for the West Side waterfront. Several other sites were subsequently studied, including the New York Central rail yard between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues (now known as the Eastern Rail Yard site at Hudson Yards) and the west 50s between Eighth and Ninth avenues.

Eventually the Lindsay administration included a new convention center between 10th and 11th avenues in the west 40s along with an extensive redevelopment of the West Side in their 1969–70 Plan for New York City. Opposition to the massive residential displacement that this development project would have caused, and the failure of the city to complete any replacement housing, led the State Legislature to kill the convention center proposal in 1970. The City then moved the convention center site to the Hudson River, in place of Piers 84 and 86, despite the high cost of foundations and the lack of space for future expansion. That 44th Street convention center, designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, was approved by the Board of Estimate in 1973 despite renewed opposition from the local community. In exchange, the community received a special zoning district that offered some protection from development. The 44th Street convention center was never built because of the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, which led instead to a search by the city and state governments for a less expensive site with some opportunity for expansion.