Decisions to Make

In recent years, many people have played significant roles in the reimagining of 1271 Avenue of the Americas, the 48-story, 2.1-million-squarefoot tower that first unlocked its revolving doors in 1959 to a parade of the great, the good, and tens of thousands of others. Now, four years after the last tenants departed and the physical transformation commenced, the erstwhile Time & Life Building has reopened to new generations of tenants. This is the story of that modern miracle, told by the key people who made it possible.

THE BIGGEST ADDITION on the tower’s Sixth Avenue face is the stainless steel canopy that flares up from 1271’s wraparound extension back toward the tower, visually linking the two; at the rear of the breezeway is a notable subtraction: that part of the extension had been clad with limestone and is now curtain wall.

When Dan Rashin joined Rockefeller Group in early 2013, he knew that the largest tenant in his oldest midtown property, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, would almost surely leave in four years when its lease ran out. What worried him was not knowing if that exit would bring a financial windfall or a catastrophe.

At that point, Time Inc. still had its name bolted on the building where it occupied nearly every one of the tower’s 1.9 million square feet of office space. “We had to think,” says Rashin, “what the heck are we going to do with all that space?”

To help find answers, he queried leading real estate brokers. All but one advised a full rehab of the nearly 60-year-old property. But how much would it cost? How long would it take to do, and how could Rockefeller Group ever recoup that investment? Overhanging these calculations was the biggest unknown of all: how would the market react?

Before he could do anything, Rashin, a man who admits he loses sleep easily, had to sell his plan to Rockefeller’s corporate parent, Japan’s Mitsubishi Estate. He had to convince them that their best option would be, as he summarizes it, “to empty out the building, have no [rental] income for three or four years, and spend $600 million.” The gains from crafting a 21st-century office tower, he argued, would far outweigh the high costs.

Rashin concedes his proposal boiled down to a hefty multiyear wager on the real estate market, interest rates, the state of the economy, and tenants’ ever-changing tastes and budgets. But, he adds, “We did know where the building is.” That location—in the heart of midtown, awash in mass transit, a ten-minute-max walk from Central Park, Broadway theaters, MoMA, and scores of restaurants, and just across Sixth Avenue from the original Rockefeller Center complex—carried a lot of weight.

On the other hand, a vast office development, Hudson Yards, was rising on the far west side, as were new towers around the World Trade Center downtown, not to mention One Vanderbilt, just across the street from Grand Central Terminal. All would boast the latest bells and whistles.

To compete at such a level, Rockefeller Group had to start with 1271’s wrapper, its curtain wall with its 7,000 undersized, uninsulated windows. All of it had to go, as did much of the wiring,

THRUSTING FURTHER OUT toward the avenue than its neighbors, the bustle affords tenants unique views uptown and downtown that look downright amazing with the curtain wall stripped off (left). Taller vision glass allows natural light to filter deeper into interiors that are ventilated by new low-profile fan-driven units in each bay (above). Dan Rashin (right), CEO of Rockefeller Group, and successor Daniel Moore (far right) on 1271’s extension’s terrace in 2017.

plumbing, lighting, heating, and ventilation. “The only thing we could not change was the ceiling height,” said Rashin. Other than that, he aimed to deliver a brand-new building.

The renowned exception was the lobby, aesthetically untouchable as a designated New York City landmark since 2002. Happily, it was already eye-catching, with its garnet-colored glass ceiling, platoon of elevator banks clad floor to ceiling in stainless steel panels, and waves of gray and white terrazzo flooring lapping at the white marble walls.

By the time Rashin retired in early 2018, he had proof positive his plan had worked. Following on the cleated heels of Major League Baseball, which became the first major new tenant to sign on, Mizuho Americas, Latham & Watkins, and Blank Rome had committed to space. Together, they drove occupancy to 98 percent by 2019—at rents far better than Time Inc.’s.

In the late 1950s, news that the then Time & Life Building would become the first major office tower to go up west of Avenue of the Americas touched off a massive building boom along the avenue that brought us everything from the New York Hilton to the CBS Building. Today, 1271 has a fresh lesson to teach: how to reinvent an aging midtown office tower and lease nearly 2 million square feet of space in a little over two years.

Just ask Daniel Moore, the man who became Rockefeller Group’s CEO in April 2018, two years after joining the company. “We had two potential paths,” he recalls of the original decision. “We could invest enough to really begin to compete in the teeth of a market with a lot of brand-new buildings, or we could make a smaller bet and do a more traditional level of renovation.”

In hindsight, one of the tricks to 1271’s success is what its owner elected not to do with all that money. It did not start from scratch and erect a new glass box. It created something that has all the functionality and flexibility of a stateof-the-art building but doesn’t exactly look like one. From the outside it appears much as it always has, a stately mid-century modernist chip off the old Rockefeller Center block. Indoors, though, it’s a hybrid of classic and brand new, replete with a striking, unusual, landmarked lobby. What’s more, the tower soars from a reimagined plaza that packs a unique visual punch all its own. Not surprisingly, Moore talks about the reborn tower’s ability to command “mind share,” to make a lasting impression and stand out from the crowd.

Inside, where almost everything is new, there’s a lot more natural light on the scene. In the redesign, architects Pei Cobb Freed & Partners took the tower’s old window concept—4-foot, 10-inch panel of clear glass resting above a 7-foot expanse of opaque glass called a spandrel—and flipped the numbers, with the vision glass now the larger of the two. That opened new vistas. As a bonus, since 1271 is a slightly narrower tower than many modern rivals, more people inside end up sitting closer to one of those new windows.

Enhanced light and views helped drive one of the more surprising marketing successes, down on the lower seven floors of the building that wrap around the tower’s west and north flanks. With the aid of new 9-foot-wide windows and views north to Central Park, south to the Trade Center, and directly across the avenue to Radio City, those floors became the first to lease up, not the last, as typically happens.

WITH THE LAST piece of the curtain wall in place behind him, Daniel Moore addresses the team on the 48th floor in space that once housed the swank Tower Suite restaurant (below). Gawkers, readers, diners, subway riders, and more all find their place out on the new, more personable plaza (right).