Google

[wanswheel]

Thanks North West.

Excerpt from Wired, Dec. 22, 2010

http://www.wired.com/2010/12/google-nyc/

Google is down with New York City.

So down, in fact, that the web search titan just dropped $1.9 billion to acquire one of the largest and most historic buildings in all of the Big Apple. At nearly 3 million square feet, 111 Eighth Avenue, the former Port Authority building, sits like a beached, red-brick cruise ship overlooking New York’s Chelsea neighborhood. The building is so big, in fact, that it has elevators large enough to accommodate 18-wheel semi-trucks.

And yes, that’s a helicopter landing pad on the roof.

It’s tough to describe how massive 111 Eighth Avenue is — you really have to stand in front of it. But suffice it to say that it takes about 20 minutes to walk once around the building, which encompasses one of those very long city blocks found on the West Side. The size is all the more striking because in a densely-packed city like New York, which is full of very tall buildings, it’s rare to find one that is so horizontally gigantic.

Then again, if you think about the commerce and trade that built New York into the most important city in the world, you can understand why the Port Authority needed such a massive structure.

111 Eighth Avenue was designed by Lusby Simpson and completed in 1932, just one year after the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. In fact, one way to think about 111 Eighth Avenue is like the Empire State Building on its side. It’s worth noting that the Empire State Building has just over 2 million square feet of office space — about 1 million less than 111 Eighth Avenue.

 

[NorthWest]

Thanks, wanswheel. I've enjoyed your building threads about cool NYC buildings, and am looking forward to the development of this one.

Of note, it was the largest building in NYC by floor area until 1963.  It is interesting that it was so close to the High Line but wasn't served directly.

[wanswheel]

Excerpt from Port of New York Authority 1933 annual report

http://corpinfo.panynj.gov/files/uploads/documents/financial-information/annual-reports/annual-report-1933.pdf

 

The year 1933 marked the first complete year of operation of Union Inland Station No. 1, located in the Port Authority Commerce Building, the initial step in carrying out that portion of the statutory plan designed to afford relief to Manhattan Island. Previous reports outlined the negotiations with the eight New York railroads which resulted in the agreement under which the Port Authority constructed Union Terminal No.1 and leased the ground floor and basement to the carriers for operation under joint management of a union less-carload freight terminal.

 

The station opened on October 3, 1932 and in the first twelve months handled over 40,000 tons of freight. While the station is by no means as yet used to capacity, the growth in tonnage handled during the first year has demonstrated its popularity with shippers. The October 1933 volume amounted to 5,008 tons, 310 per cent of the 1,567 tons handled in the corresponding month of 1932. Reports received from important shippers and receivers of less-carload freight fulfill expectations with regard to the usefulness of the station in reducing street traffic and cartage costs and expediting the handling of freight to and from merchants' stores and warehouses.

 

Approximately 2,000 shippers and receivers made repeated use of the Union Inland Freight Station in 1933.

 

Steps have been taken to encourage the carriers to promote the use of the station more actively.

 

The small percentage of inbound freight passing through the station appears to be attributable largely to the failure on the part of the carriers to issue instructions that inbound freight consigned to street addresses in the vicinity of the Union Inland Station shall be automatically routed to and offered for delivery at that station. As yet no delivery territory has been assigned to the railroad tariffs and billing books to the new station and so far as the tariffs are concerned the station is not yet on a parity with the carriers' other Manhattan station.

 

Late in 1933 the trunk line carriers filed tariff supplements with the Interstate Commerce Commission restricting the use of Union Inland Freight Station No. 1 on deliveries of eastbound freight consigned to water carriers for forwarding beyond the Port of New York. Since the routing of railroad consignments to Union Inland Freight Station No. 1 for concentrated trans-shipment by truck to intercoastal and overseas ships had resulted in reduction of transfer charges at the port from an average of approximately 15 cents per hundred pounds to 5 cents per hundred pounds, the Port Authority joined, with interested shippers and steamship companies in a protest to the carriers and to the Interstate Commerce Commission. The restrictive tariff went into effect on December 1st, despite the protests. The matter is being taken up with individual carriers for review.

 

In August, the carriers, with the approval of the Port Authority, subleased 5,000 square feet of space in the Union Inland Freight Station to the Railway Express Agency. This space is being used by the Express Agency to assemble shipments for dispatch to rail-head loading terminals in much the same way as the carriers assemble less-carload freight on the same platform.