New York Coliseum
The New York Coliseum was a convention center that stood on Columbus Circle in New York City from 1956 to 2000. It was designed by architects Leon and Lionel Levy in a modified international style, and included both a low building with exhibition space and a 26-story office block.
The Coliseum was built from 1954 to 1956 by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority under city planner Robert Moses, who, in rescuing a project that had long languished, condemned the area from West 58th to West 60th Streets on the west side of Columbus Circle. During construction in 1955, an accident occurred in which around 10,000 square feet (930 m2) of exhibition space collapsed, injuring 50 workers and killing one.
The Coliseum, which replaced the Circle Building and smaller tenement and retail buildings, opened on April 28, 1956, with three exhibitions: the New York International Auto Show, the National Photographic Show, and the Fifth International Philatelic Exhibition. A U.S. postage stamp commemorates the show and the building. Through 1986, the Coliseum hosted 1,246 events.
The 323,000-square-foot (30,000 m2) Coliseum contained four exhibition floors, including a 150-foot (46 m)-square, three-story well for exhibiting large items, such as sailboats and airplanes.
As the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which effectively supplanted the Coliseum as the major exhibit space in New York City, was under construction, it appeared that the days of the Coliseum were numbered, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), by now the parent of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, placed the property for sale. A deal was struck in 1987 to sell the Coliseum and its office building to Boston Properties for $477.5 million, which would have seen the complex demolished by 1988. A plunging real-estate market and opposition to Boston Properties' proposals ultimately led Boston Properties to walk away from the project in 1994. In the interim, the MTA, seeking to make some use of the site once the future of the Boston Properties site became unclear, reopened the Coliseum on an interim basis in 1992 for smaller events, primarily a thrice-a-year antiques show, until finally closing for good in January 1998.
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