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United Engineering Center
The United Engineering Center was a building in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City that served as the headquarters of several national associations of professional engineers and included an auditorium, exhibition hall, and library. Located on the west side of United Nations Plaza between East 47th and 48th streets—across from the headquarters of the United Nations—the building opened in 1961 and superseded the Engineering Societies' Building, which had become too small for the engineering societies' needs. By the mid-1990s, the United Engineering Center had become inefficient at serving the needs of the organizations it housed; the building was sold and demolished in 1998 in order to make way for the Trump World Tower.
By the early 1950s, the professional engineering organizations that occupied the Engineering Societies' Building on West 39th Street in Midtown Manhattan had outgrown their space and were seeking larger accommodations. The building was owned and operated by the United Engineering Trustees (UET), which represented the four "founder societies" and the major tenants of the building: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE); and American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME). At that time, a fifth organization, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), wanted to join the group and move into the new building with the other engineering societies. The Engineering Societies' Building also served as the home of the Engineering Societies Library (ESL), which was one of the largest engineering libraries in the world.
There were initial considerations of a constructing a new engineering center in another part of New York City—including sites on the campus of Columbia University and adjacent to the New York Coliseum—but these locations were dismissed as being impracticable. A number of other cities in the United States—including Chicago, Hoboken, Kansas City, Miami, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Shreveport, St. Louis, and Washington—tried to entice the engineering societies to relocate their national headquarters outside of New York City. In 1955, a committee established by the five major engineering societies recommended moving to Pittsburgh, which had offered a $1.5 million cash incentive and an additional gift of $500,000 from the Mellon family. The recommendation to relocate was met with opposition from members of each of the societies, and the following year, another committee of the five major engineering societies recommended to retain the headquarters in New York City. UET then hired Shreve, Lamb & Harmon to prepare preliminary architectural plans and studies for a new engineering center in Manhattan, exploring options of utilizing the present site of the Engineering Societies' Building or a new location in the area between 34th and 57th streets.
On August 1, 1957, UET announced that it had acquired the majority of a new site for the proposed engineering center. The property was located on the west side of United Nations Plaza between East 47th and 48th streets, across from the headquarters of the United Nations, and consisted of a five-story tenement, parking facilities and vacant land. The owner of the smallest piece of land had held out and did not want to sell, but with the help of Robert Moses he finally changed his mind and decided to sell the property. The UET also signed a contract to purchase the remaining lot at the northeast corner of the site and take title to the land about a year later. Overall, the land lot for the proposed building had an area of 37,500 square feet (3,480 m2), with a depth of 150 feet (46 m) on East 47th Street and a depth of 225 feet (69 m) on East 48th Street.
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon were selected by UET as the architects of the new building on July 22, 1957. The following month, the firm of Seelye, Stevenson, Value and Knecht was approved as the building's structural engineer and Jaros, Baum & Bolles was approved as the building's mechanical engineer. A campaign to raise funds for the new engineering center—the United Engineering Center (UEC)—was launched on November 21, 1957, at a dinner held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The honorary chairman of the fundraising committee was former President of the United States (and an engineer) Herbert Hoover, who spoke at the dinner about the nation's recent decline in training scientists and engineers compared to the Soviet Union, which had recently launched Sputnik.
UET signed a contract with Turner Construction to construct the UEC on May 28, 1959. A groundbreaking ceremony for the new building was held on October 1, 1959, and attended by Herbert Hoover. Hoover, along with New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., were present for the cornerstone laying ceremony on June 16, 1960.
The UEC was opened on September 5, 1961, after the engineering organizations had moved into the new building over Labor Day weekend. The engineering societies that were originally housed in the building included the five founder societies (ASCE, ASME, AIEE, AIME, and AIChE) as well as fifteen other organizations:
Organizations were allowed to take as much space as they desired in the building, and the amount of space taken by each group ranged from as little as one room to as much as three entire floors. Two of the floors were initially left unfinished and vacant, providing space for additional organizations to move into the building at a later date.
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United Engineering Center
The United Engineering Center was a building in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City that served as the headquarters of several national associations of professional engineers and included an auditorium, exhibition hall, and library. Located on the west side of United Nations Plaza between East 47th and 48th streets—across from the headquarters of the United Nations—the building opened in 1961 and superseded the Engineering Societies' Building, which had become too small for the engineering societies' needs. By the mid-1990s, the United Engineering Center had become inefficient at serving the needs of the organizations it housed; the building was sold and demolished in 1998 in order to make way for the Trump World Tower.
By the early 1950s, the professional engineering organizations that occupied the Engineering Societies' Building on West 39th Street in Midtown Manhattan had outgrown their space and were seeking larger accommodations. The building was owned and operated by the United Engineering Trustees (UET), which represented the four "founder societies" and the major tenants of the building: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE); and American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME). At that time, a fifth organization, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), wanted to join the group and move into the new building with the other engineering societies. The Engineering Societies' Building also served as the home of the Engineering Societies Library (ESL), which was one of the largest engineering libraries in the world.
There were initial considerations of a constructing a new engineering center in another part of New York City—including sites on the campus of Columbia University and adjacent to the New York Coliseum—but these locations were dismissed as being impracticable. A number of other cities in the United States—including Chicago, Hoboken, Kansas City, Miami, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Shreveport, St. Louis, and Washington—tried to entice the engineering societies to relocate their national headquarters outside of New York City. In 1955, a committee established by the five major engineering societies recommended moving to Pittsburgh, which had offered a $1.5 million cash incentive and an additional gift of $500,000 from the Mellon family. The recommendation to relocate was met with opposition from members of each of the societies, and the following year, another committee of the five major engineering societies recommended to retain the headquarters in New York City. UET then hired Shreve, Lamb & Harmon to prepare preliminary architectural plans and studies for a new engineering center in Manhattan, exploring options of utilizing the present site of the Engineering Societies' Building or a new location in the area between 34th and 57th streets.
On August 1, 1957, UET announced that it had acquired the majority of a new site for the proposed engineering center. The property was located on the west side of United Nations Plaza between East 47th and 48th streets, across from the headquarters of the United Nations, and consisted of a five-story tenement, parking facilities and vacant land. The owner of the smallest piece of land had held out and did not want to sell, but with the help of Robert Moses he finally changed his mind and decided to sell the property. The UET also signed a contract to purchase the remaining lot at the northeast corner of the site and take title to the land about a year later. Overall, the land lot for the proposed building had an area of 37,500 square feet (3,480 m2), with a depth of 150 feet (46 m) on East 47th Street and a depth of 225 feet (69 m) on East 48th Street.
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon were selected by UET as the architects of the new building on July 22, 1957. The following month, the firm of Seelye, Stevenson, Value and Knecht was approved as the building's structural engineer and Jaros, Baum & Bolles was approved as the building's mechanical engineer. A campaign to raise funds for the new engineering center—the United Engineering Center (UEC)—was launched on November 21, 1957, at a dinner held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The honorary chairman of the fundraising committee was former President of the United States (and an engineer) Herbert Hoover, who spoke at the dinner about the nation's recent decline in training scientists and engineers compared to the Soviet Union, which had recently launched Sputnik.
UET signed a contract with Turner Construction to construct the UEC on May 28, 1959. A groundbreaking ceremony for the new building was held on October 1, 1959, and attended by Herbert Hoover. Hoover, along with New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., were present for the cornerstone laying ceremony on June 16, 1960.
The UEC was opened on September 5, 1961, after the engineering organizations had moved into the new building over Labor Day weekend. The engineering societies that were originally housed in the building included the five founder societies (ASCE, ASME, AIEE, AIME, and AIChE) as well as fifteen other organizations:
Organizations were allowed to take as much space as they desired in the building, and the amount of space taken by each group ranged from as little as one room to as much as three entire floors. Two of the floors were initially left unfinished and vacant, providing space for additional organizations to move into the building at a later date.