10 Facts about the Hearst Headquarters

Completed in 2006, the Hearst Headquarters in New York revives a dream from the 1920s, when publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst envisaged Columbus Circle as a new media quarter in Manhattan. Echoing a retrofit approach developed in the Reichstag and the Great Court at the British Museum, the challenge in designing such a tower at seventy years remove was to establish a creative dialogue between old and new.

Learn more about the project, from the total floor area of the building being the equivalent to 15 American football pitches, to its triangulated ‘diagrid’ form.

1. Located at the southwest corner of 57th Street and Eighth Avenue, more than 250,000 people pass by Hearst Tower each week.

2. The total floor area of the building (856,000 square feet) is the equivalent to 15 American football pitches. 

3. The building was constructed using 85 per cent recycled steel.

4. Structurally, the tower has a triangulated ‘diagrid’ form – a highly efficient solution that uses 20 per cent less steel than a conventionally framed structure. 

5. It was the first office building in Manhattan to receive the LEED Gold rating in 2006. It later achieved LEED Platinum in 2012, making it the first commercial office building to hold both distinctions.

6. The six-storey lobby spans the original building’s footprint, connecting elevators, dining, events, and meeting spaces in one central hub.

7. The grand atrium’s two-storey water feature, ‘Ice Falls’, designed by James Carpenter, uses harvested water to naturally humidify and chill the atrium lobby while acting as a periscope by casting glass prism reflections onto the street. 

8. To improve circulation and accessibility, Columbus Circle subway station at the building’s base was upgraded to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the addition of three entrances, new elevators and relocated stairwells.  

9. The tower has been designed to use 26 per cent less energy than a building that complies with the minimum requirements of New York City’s energy codes.

10. It was the first building in the United States to receive the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s 10 Year Award.