Perkins Eastman, PBDW Architects, and Mancini Duffy complete TSX Broadway, a tower wrapped by colorful LED screens

In his 1978 opus Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan Rem Koolhaas wrote New York City’s architecture emerges from a “Culture of Congestion.” Density, and the paradoxical effort to control it with greater density, leads to the city’s dominant and, by far, most iconic built form: the skyscraper.

Describing the floors of a skyscraper, Koolhaas wrote, “Each of these levels is treated as a virgin site, as if the others did not exist…In terms of urbanism, this indeterminacy means that a particular site can no longer be matched with any single predetermined purpose. From now on each metropolitan lot accommodates—in theory at least—an unforeseeable and unstable combination of simultaneous activities.”

This ethos of extreme congestion—and unusual programmatic combinations—is clearly still at work in Times Square, exemplified by TSX Broadway, a recently completed mixed-use tower. The development, set at the intersection of 7th Avenue and 47th Street, consists of a 47-story hotel constructed above the Palace Theatre, a historic Broadway venue. To create space for new street-level retail, the over-100-year-old theater was lifted 30 feet using hydraulic jacks. Above the theater, the new hotel tower is wrapped in bands of LED lighting, and features four massive advertising screens. The largest of these screens, positioned just a few stories above Times Square, contains operable doors and a cantilevered stage, allowing it to double as a performance venue.

To complete the massive redevelopment, L&L Holding Company, the building owner, retained the services of three architecture firms, each with a different scope. PBDW Architects performed the interior renovation of the Palace Theatre, Perkins Eastman designed TSX Broadway’s LED-wrapped building envelope, and Mancini Duffy served as architect of record, coordinating the entire project.

History of the Palace Theater

Originally opened in 1913, Palace Theatre was designed by Milwaukee practice Kitchhoff & Rose. It was located beneath a slender office building. During its first few decades of operation, the theater was a premier vaudeville venue, operated by show business entrepreneurs Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Franklin Albee.

In 1965, the theater was acquired by The Nederlander Organization, who renovated the space to stage Broadway productions. The company continues to operate Palace Theater to this day, as well as eight other Broadway venues.

Notable for its ornate Beaux Arts plasterwork, the Palace Theatre was designated an interior landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in 1987. This designation was part of wider efforts to preserve Broadway theaters during the late 1980s.

Shortly after the designation, developer Larry Silverstein demolished the original office building, constructing a 43-story hotel in its place. The Palace Theatre was preserved at the base of the new hotel.

The building’s owner, L&L Holding Company, sought to replace the existing hotel tower with a taller, 47 story building.

However zoning rules concerning the allowable height for new construction stymied this plan. To avoid sacrificing verticality, 25 percent of the existing hotel structure would need to be maintained—the minimum amount for the project to be classified as a renovation instead of new construction. As a result, plans were drawn to lift the landmarked Palace Theatre 30 feet above street level, leaving space for ground-floor retail.

Lifting the Palace Theatre

Construction began with the demolition of the existing hotel tower above the 16th floor. Four super columns were extended to support the remaining structure. Next, a large truss was constructed between floors 12 and 16 to support the construction of the new tower.

John McCampbell, senior associate at Mancini Duffy, told AN, “The four original super columns go up to what’s essentially like a catenary curved bridge, except its encased in five feet of concrete,” he said. “It makes this huge structural table top, spanning from the 16th floor to the 12th floor that supports the entire hotel above, it also supports by hanging three floors below it. And that allowed us to excavate out everything that needed to be demoed for the theater to come up into [the building].”

To lift the 14-million-pound theater, a large concrete ring beam, supported by supplemental transverse beams, was installed underneath the structure. Computer-operated hydraulic jacks were placed beneath the beams and the theater was slowly lifted, rising one inch per hour.

“Piles were dug underneath the ring beam and a double-sleeve system was used so that the jacks had a pile going in to the ground, and then another sleeve that could raise up to the 30 foot height,” added McCampbell. “Once it got to that height, the structure was completely locked into place,” he said.

Theater-goers now enter the Palace on 47th Street instead of 7th Avenue, taking an escalator to a newly-appointed concessions lobby on the third floor.

Restoring a Historic Landmark

PBDW Architects were responsible for the restoration of Palace Theatre. Prior to the renovation, the theater’s interior had been covered in ahistorical swaths of red, magenta, and gold paint. These layers were removed, allowing the architects to create a new interior that would better approximate the original.

Relying on archival materials, such as photography and text descriptions of the original 1913 interior, PBDW Architects meticulously re-detailed the theater.

PDBW Architects also restored a plaster frieze along the theater’s mezzanine level, which had been removed during a previous renovation. Originally decorated with bas-relief faces, these details were recast from preserved balcony fascia elsewhere in the theater.

TSX’s Outdoor Performance Venue

The third floor of the development also contains the TSX Stage. This state-of-the-art outdoor performance venue is conspicuously concealed within an 18,000-square-foot LED screen above Times Square. Performers emerge onto a cantilevered balcony from two large doors that have been integrated into the LED display. Footage of the performance is displayed simultaneously on the screen behind the stage, using advanced technology that eliminates lag.

So far, Shakira and Post Malone have performed on the stage.

To soundproof the Palace Theatre and the TSX Stage, acoustic panels were used across the floors and walls of the theater lobby, the volume separating the two venues. Sound dampening is also achieved because the theater is structurally independent from the rest of the building.

“You can’t just stuff a bunch of insulation in [the lobby] and hope you’re not going to hear… Because of vibration, the two structures had to be separate from one another,” added William Mandara, CEO of Mancini Duffy.

Larger Than Life LED

Floors 11 through 47—the tower component of TSX Broadway—are occupied by a Hilton Hotel. Rooms at the tower’s corner are oriented to face One Times Square, the site of New York City’s annual New Year’s Eve ball drop.

To maximize overhead views of Times Square and the ball drop, a glass curtain wall was used as the primary building envelope. At the top of the tower, green-tinted glazing was specified, distinguishing the corner surrounding the highest LED sign, while the rest of the hotel is faced with blue-colored glass. The opaque portions of the tower are clad with metal panels, concealing the building’s elevator shafts and egress stairwells.

TSX Broadway also took advantage of New York City’s Zone Green program, which provides zoning incentives to projects with high thermal performance. Perkins Eastman, the firm responsible for the tower’s exterior envelope, worked closely with the curtain wall manufacturer to minimize thermal transfer.

Strips of LED Lighting were placed along the spandrel between floors.

“[LED Lighting] can do the full color range,” said Roberto Garcia, associate principal at Perkins Eastman. Garcia added that to test the LED panels for air tightness the designers ran two tests, one in Buffalo and another in West Palm Beach.

“In West Palm Beach, we did a test where a jet engine blows air through [the mockup] to make sure water doesn’t come though,” he explained. “In Buffalo, we mocked-up the LED and the client wanted to see how to fix the panels from the exterior of the building. They literally jacked it up and we timed it, how fast they could rip off the cover, pull out the LED, change it, put back the cover, seal it, caulk it, and then test it for water.”

Anywhere else in the country, a development like TSX Broadway would be considered irrational. Only in Manhattan, where space comes at such sharp premium, is it financially feasible to lift a landmarked building to create retail space, or wrap a building in glowing LED screens.

Ultimately, TSX Broadway demonstrates the endurance of Manhattan’s urbanism and “Culture of Congestion.” Despite existing in a world that increasing values decentralized and digitally mediated entertainment, the TSX Stage and Palace Theatre, though separated by more than 100 years, exhibit a commitment to place—staking their prestige on their location: at the center of Times Square.

Project Specifications

• • Architect of Record: Mancini Duffy
  • Historic Preservation & Theatre Preservation Architect: PBDW Architects
  • Building Envelope Architect: Perkins Eastman
  • Facade Consultant: Heitman & Associates, Socotec
  • Interior Design (Hotel): Marie Aiello Design Studio, Wimberly Interiors
  • Historic Preservation Consultant: Jablonski Building Conservation
  • Historic Preservation Engineer: Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates
  • Structural Engineer of Record: Severud Associates
  • SOE/Foundation Engineering Consultant: Langan
  • Means & Methods Engineer: Howard I Shapiro Associates
  • MEP Engineer: Cosentini Associates
  • Theater Lift Engineer: Urban Foundation Engineering
  • Sign Structural Engineer: Ryan Biggs Clark Davis
  • Lighting Design: zeroLUX Lighting Design, Reveal Design Group
  • Lighting Design Consultant (Theater): Fisher Marantz Stone
  • Acoustical Consultant (Theater): Jaffe Holden
  • Acoustical Consultant (Tower & Theater FOH/BOH): Longman Lindsey
  • Signage/Wayfinding/LED Screen: Sensory Interactive
  • Theater Consultant: Theatre Projects
  • Construction Manager (Entertainment, Hospitality, Retail): Pavarini McGovern
  • Construction Manager (Theater & Hotel): Structure Tone Building Group
  • Client Representative: PRA Consulting
  • Glazing Contractor: Gamma
  • Elevator Consultant: Socotec, IROS Elevator Design Services
  • Code Consultant: Design 2147, Rizzo Group
  • Metal Panels: Gamma
  • Window Glazing: OldCastle Building Envelope
  • Storefront Glazing: Vitro Architectural Glass
  • LED Lighting: ColorKinetics
  • LED Display Technology: SNA Displays