1271 Avenue of the Americas

1271 Avenue of the Americas
1271 Avenue of the Americas
General information
Location	1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York City
Coordinates	40°45′37″N 73°58′51″W / 40.760372°N 73.980799°W / 40.760372; -73.980799Coordinates: 40°45′37″N 73°58′51″W / 40.760372°N 73.980799°W / 40.760372; -73.980799
Completed	1958
Owner	Rockefeller Group
Management	Rockefeller Group
Height
Top floor	587 ft (179 m)
Technical details
Floor count	48
Floor area	1,399,308 sq ft (130,000.0 m2)
Design and construction
Architect	Wallace Harrison of Harrison, Abramovitz, and Harris
Main contractor	George A. Fuller Co.

1271 Avenue of the Americas is a 48-story office building located in Rockefeller Center in New York City. It opened in 1959 as the Time & Life Building, designed by architect Wallace Harrison, of Harrison, Abramovitz, and Harris.

1271 Avenue of the Americas was the first of four in Rockefeller Center designed by Harrison, Abramovitz, & Harris on the west side of Sixth Avenue. Harris served as the building's project manager and was responsible for overall planning. The Time & Life Building was the first expansion of Rockefeller Center west of the Avenue of the Americas. Air rights were purchased from the Roxy Theatre to the west. The Roxy was torn down in 1960 to erect an office tower connected to the Time & Life Building.

The building is clad in green glass and features column-free floors of 28,000 square feet (2,600 m²). Large murals by Josef Albers and Fritz Glarner adorn its lobby, which integrates a serpentine patterned sidewalk design found on the sidewalks of Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach with the adjacent sidewalk, a salute to its location on The Avenue of the Americas.

Time Inc., the publisher of Time, Life, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, House & Home, and Architectural Forum magazines initially occupied 21 floors. CNN's American Morning was based there from 2002 to 2006. The ground floor studio is now occupied by the studio of SportsNet New York and CNBC Squawk Box.