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Loew's Astor Plaza Theatre

One Astor Plaza
One Astor Plaza May 2010.JPG
One Astor Plaza
General information
Type Office
Location 1515 Broadway
New York City, U.S.
Coordinates 40°45′28″N 73°59′11″W / 40.75778°N 73.98639°W / 40.75778; -73.98639Coordinates: 40°45′28″N 73°59′11″W / 40.75778°N 73.98639°W / 40.75778; -73.98639
Construction started 1968
Completed 1972
Opening circa 1972
Owner SL Green Realty
Height
Roof 227 m (745 ft)
Technical details
Floor count 54
Floor area 179,487 m2 (1,931,980 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect Der Scutt of Ely J. Kahn & Jacobs

One Astor Plaza is a 745 ft (227 m) high skyscraper in Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Completed in 1972, the building is 54 stories tall and was designed by Der Scutt of Ely J. Kahn & Jacobs. It is located at 1515 Broadway between West 44th and 45th Streets and is currently the headquarters for Viacom and houses the MTV Studios, Minskoff Theatre, PlayStation Theater, and some retail outlets. The Hotel Astor had occupied the site from 1904 to 1967. Construction of the building began in 1968 and was completed in 1972. The building was the headquarters of the now-defunct W. T. Grant retail chain, which leased almost 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) of space on the building's top 14 floors.

It is owned and managed by SL Green Realty Corporation. The building engineers are Shmerykowsky Consulting Engineers.

The Minskoff is a Broadway theatre named after its developers, a prominent local real estate family. Accessible from the middle arcade in the center of the building, it opened in 1973 with 1,621 seats.

Astor Plaza houses the MTV Studios, owned by Viacom, the building's primary tenant. The studios are located on the mezzanine second story of the building. MTV acquired it in 1997. It was initially split into three major studios all located by the floor-to-ceiling windows and iconic window shades. The three studios were named after the three sections of Manhattan: the Uptown Studio, the Midtown Studio, and the Downtown Studio. They are named so because they are proportional to the real sections of Manhattan. The Uptown Studio was home to MTV's former flagship program, Total Request Live, during the show's run from 1998 to 2008 along with MTV & VH1 and is now an Aéropostale store. The Midtown Studio is used by various MTV programming, MTV News, VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live and on occasion Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. The smallest studio, the Downtown Studio, is occasionally used for other countdown shows, and productions from some of the smaller Viacom networks. It is occasionally used as a temporary green room if the actual green room is occupied. The MTV Studios also include dressing rooms, control rooms, a cafeteria, and some offices.


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