Terminal City, also known as the Grand Central Zone, is an early 20th century commercial and office development in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The space was developed atop the former Grand Central Station railyard, after the New York Central Railroad decided to rebuild the station into Grand Central Terminal, and reshape the railyard into a below-ground train shed, allowing roads and skyscrapers to be built atop it.
Constituent structures
Note: some links may direct to the current building at the same address
Rail terminal and supporting structures
Grand Central Terminal (completed 1913) Grand Central Terminal Baggage Building (completed c. 1913, demolished) 50th Street Substation (completed 1906, demolished) Park Avenue Viaduct (completed 1928)
Surrounding buildings
Grand Central Post Office / 450 Lexington Avenue (completed 1909) Grand Central Palace (completed 1911, demolished) New York Biltmore Hotel (completed 1913, gutted) Yale Club of New York City (completed 1915) Vanderbilt Concourse Building / 52 Vanderbilt Avenue (completed 1916) Hotel Marguery (completed 1917, demolished) Commodore Hotel (completed 1919, gutted) Liggett Building (completed 1922, demolished) Bowery Savings Bank Building (completed 1923) Knapp Building (completed 1923, demolished) Pershing Square Building (completed 1923) Prudence Bond & Mortgage Building (completed 1923, demolished) The Roosevelt Hotel (completed 1924) Postum Building (completed 1924) 277 Park Avenue (completed 1925, demolished) InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel (completed 1926) Graybar Building (completed 1927) Park Lane Hotel (completed 1927, demolished) 400 Madison Avenue (completed 1929) Helmsley Building (completed 1929) Chanin Building (completed 1929) Lexington Hotel (completed 1929) Chrysler Building (completed 1930) One Grand Central Place (completed 1930) Waldorf Astoria New York (completed 1931)
Notable earlier and later developments
237 Park Avenue, or 466 Lexington Avenue, within the Grand Central Zone, was built in an earlier period of development, completed in 1905 though gutted in 1981.
These buildings within the Grand Central Zone were built in a later period of development: MetLife Building – Baggage Building successor Socony–Mobil Building One Vanderbilt 245 Park Avenue – Grand Central Palace successor 383 Madison Avenue – Knapp Building successor Grand Central Market building Union Carbide Building – Hotel Marguery successor 270 Park Avenue (2021–present) – Hotel Marguery and Union Carbide Building successor 277 Park Avenue – 277 Park Avenue successor 299 Park Avenue – Park Lane Hotel successor
History
Terminal City originated as an idea during the reconstruction of Grand Central Terminal from the old Grand Central Station from 1903 to 1913. The railroad owner, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, wished to increase capacity of the station's train shed and rail yards, and so it devised a plan to bury the tracks and platforms and create two levels to its new train shed, more than doubling the station's capacity. At the same time, chief engineer William J. Wilgus was the first to realize the potential of selling air rights, the right to build atop the now-underground train shed, for real-estate development. Grand Central's construction thus produced several blocks of prime real estate in Manhattan, stretching from 42nd to 51st Streets between Madison and Lexington Avenues. The Realty and Terminal Company typically profited from the air rights in one of two ways: constructing the structures and renting them out, or selling the air rights to private developers who would construct their own buildings.
William Wilgus saw these air rights as merely a means to fund the terminal's construction. Reed & Stem originally proposed a "Court of Honor" for this space, while other proposals included a new Metropolitan Opera House, a Madison Square Garden, or a National Academy of Design building. Ultimately, the railroads decided to develop the area into a commercial office district.
Planning for the development began long before the terminal was completed. In 1903, the New York Central Railroad created a derivative, the New York State Realty and Terminal Company, to oversee construction above Grand Central's rail yards. The New Haven Railroad joined the venture later on. One early proposed name for this area was "Pershing Square", a name that was ultimately applied to the southern side of Grand Central Terminal. The blocks on the north side of the terminal were later dubbed "Terminal City" or the "Grand Central Zone".