1540 Broadway Building

The 1540 Broadway Building is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with David Childs as lead architect, and built between 1988 and 1990 in New York, NY.

1540 Broadway Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The 1540 Broadway Building is also known, or has been known as, Bertelsmann Building, or One Broadway Place.

Its precise street address is 1540 Broadway, New York, NY. You can also find it on the map here.

The retail space located at the base of the building is one of the most iconic and photographed storefronts in the world, with colorful signage, lighting and streaming media messages.

The building underwent a major restoration between 2018 and 2019. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Gensler.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with David Childs as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the 1540 Broadway Building a reality:

• Gilsanz Murray Steficek in charge of Structural Engineering
• Tishman Construction as the Main Contractor
• Otis Elevator Company as the company in charge of the elevators system
• Ian Bruce Eichner as the Main Developer
• Jaros Baum & Bolles in charge of MEP Engineering
• Karen Lemmert, Moffat Takadiwa as the collaborating Artist

The 1540 Broadway Building can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.

The 1540 Broadway Building was completed in 1990. By 1990 the Postmodernism movement was experiencing a transition. Critics argued that Postmodernism, initially a rebellious and innovative style, had become formulaic and commercialized, and so the trend started moving away from blending historical styles, irony, and playful ornamentation, and begun to give way to emerging architectural trends concerned with more present matters such as technology, ecology or sustainability.

The 1540 Broadway Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and poured concrete over metal decking slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features blue glass with vertical aluminum mullions.

The building volume features a bow-shaped projection at its western end with a metal spire.