Columbus Circle was originally known generically as "The Circle".[4][3] An 1871 account of the park referred to the roundabout as a "grand circle".[9] After the 1892 installation of the Columbus Column in the circle's center, it became known as "Columbus Circle",[8][10] although its other names were also used through the 1900s.[11]
Columbus Circle during construction of theoriginal subway in 1900
Subway construction under the Columbus monument in 1901
By 1901, construction on thefirst subway line of theInterborough Rapid Transit Company (now theIRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, used by the1, 2, and 3 trains) required the excavation of the circle, and the column and streetcar tracks through the area were put on temporary wooden stilts. As part of the subway line's construction, the59th Street–Columbus Circle station was built underneath the circle.[12][13] During construction, traffic in the circle was so dangerous that theMunicipal Art Society proposed redesigning the roundabout.[11][14] By February 1904, the station underneath was largely complete,[15] and service on the subway line began on October 27, 1904. The station only served local trains; express trains bypassed the station.[16][17] The platforms of the IRT subway station were lengthened in 1957–1959, requiring further excavations around Columbus Circle.[18] An additional subway line—theIndependent Subway System (IND)'sEighth Avenue Line, serving the present-dayA, B, C, and D trains—was built starting in 1925. At Columbus Circle, workers had to be careful to not disrupt the existing IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line or Columbus Circle overhead.[19] The Columbus monument was shored up during construction, and obstructions to traffic were minimized.[20] The line, which opened in 1932, contains a 4-track, 3-platform express station at59th Street–Columbus Circle, underneath the original IRT station.[21] The IND station were designed as a single transit hub under Columbus Circle.[22]
In November 1904, due to the high speeds of cars passing through the circle, theNew York City Police Department added tightly spaced electric lights on the inner side of the circle, surrounding the column.[23] The circle was altered in 1905 byWilliam Phelps Eno, a businessman who pioneered many early innovations inroad safety and traffic control.[24][25] In a 1920 book, Eno writes that prior to the implementation of his plan, traffic went around the circle in both directions, causing accidents almost daily. The 1905 plan, which he regarded as temporary, created a counterclockwise traffic pattern with a "safety zone" in the center of the circle for cars stopping; however, the circle was too narrow for the normal flow of traffic. Eno also wrote of a permanent plan, with the safety zones on the outside as well as clearly delineatedpedestrian crossings.[26] The redesign marked the first trueone-waytraffic circle to be constructed anywhere, implementing theideas of Eugène Hénard.[25][27] In this second scheme, the public space within the circle, around the monument, was almost as small as the monument's base.[28]
The rotary traffic plan was not successful. ANew York Times article in June 1929 stated that the "Christopher Columbus [monument] is safe and serene, but he's the only thing in the Circle that is."[29] At the time, there were eight entrance and exit points to Columbus Circle: two each from 59th Street/Central Park South, to the west and east; Broadway, to the northwest and southeast; Eighth Avenue/Central Park West, to the south and north; and within Central Park to the northeast.[a] Moreover, streetcars on the former three streets did not go counterclockwise around the rotary, but rather, both tracks of all three streetcar routes went around one side of the monument, creating frequent conflicts between streetcars and automobiles using the rotary in opposite directions. The police officers patrolling the circle had to manage the 58,000 cars that entered Columbus Circle every 12 hours.[29]
As part of a plan to reorganize traffic in the "Columbus-Central Park Zone", Eno's circular-traffic plan was abolished in November 1929, and traffic was allowed to go around the circle in both directions.[28][30] Central Park West, a one-way street that formerly carried southbound traffic into the circle, was now one-way northbound.[30] The bidirectional entrance roads into Central Park, which fed into northbound and eastboundWest Drive, were both changed to one-way streets because West Drive had been changed from bidirectional to one-way southbound and eastbound.[30][31] Traffic going straight through Columbus Circle was forced to go around the left side of the monument, while any traffic making turns from the circle had to go counterclockwise around the rotary using the right side.[30]
The bidirectional traffic pattern through Columbus Circle failed to eliminate congestion. In 1941, engineers with theNew York City Parks Department and theManhattan Borough President's office formed a tentative agreement to redesign Columbus Circle yet again. "Local" and "express" lanes would segregate north–south traffic passing within the circle. Local north–south traffic and all east–west traffic would go around the circle's perimeter in a counterclockwise direction, along a 45-foot-long (14 m) roadway.[32][33] Through north–south traffic on Broadway, Eighth Avenue, and Central Park West would use two 71-foot-wide (22 m) divided roadways with 5-foot-wide (1.5 m) landscaped medians, running inchords on either side of the Columbus monument. Traffic from southbound Broadway and northbound Eighth Avenue would use the western chord, and northbound Broadway and southbound Central Park West would use the eastern chord.[33] The center of the circle would be refurbished with a tree-lined plaza, and pedestrian traffic from the north and south would be able to pass through the center of the circle. The exit into Columbus Circle from West Drive would be eliminated, and the entrance to West Drive would be relocated.[32][34] In a related development, the 59th Street trolley route's tracks would be removed. This was crucial to the reorganization of the circle, as the trolley had already been discontinued.[32]
The proposed reorganization of Columbus Circle was widely praised by civic groups and city officials.[35] On the other hand, William Phelps Eno advocated for a return to his original 1905 proposal.[36] However, the plan still had some issues, the largest of which was that traffic traveling on Broadway in either direction would be routed onto Eighth Avenue or Central Park West, and vice versa.[32][33] The reconfiguration of the circle was deferred due toWorld War II.[37] The trolley routes that ran through Columbus Circle were discontinued in 1946, but the bus routes that replaced the trolley lines took the same convoluted paths through the circle.[37] In June 1949, it was announced that the reconstruction of Columbus Circle would finally begin.[33] Work on removing the abandoned trolley tracks commenced in August.[38] In conjunction with Columbus Circle's rehabilitation, theNew York City Department of Transportation designed a variable traffic light system for the circle. The project was originally set to be complete by November 1949 at a cost of $100,000.[38] However, delays arose due to the need to maintain traffic flows through the circle during construction.[37] The project was ultimately completed that December.[39]
The entirety of Eighth Avenue south of Columbus Circle was converted to northbound-only traffic in 1950.[40] In 1956, in preparation for the opening of theNew York Coliseum on Columbus Circle's west side, traffic on Central Park West and Broadway was rearranged. Central Park West was made northbound-only for a short segment north of the circle, and two blocks of Broadway south of the circle were converted to southbound-only. A new northbound roadway was cut through the southern tip of the center traffic island that contained the statue, from Eighth Avenue to the eastern chord. At the same time, the eastern chord was converted to northbound-only.[41]
By the late 20th century, it was regarded as one of the most inhospitable of the city's major intersections, as the interior circle was being used for motorcycle parking, and the circle as a whole was hard for pedestrians to cross. In 1979, noted architecture criticPaul Goldberger said that the intersection was "a chaotic jumble of streets that can be crossed in about 50 different ways—all of them wrong."[28] In 1987, the city awarded a $20 million contract toOlin Partnership andVollmer Associates to create a new design for the circle.[28]
The circle was refurbished in 1991–1992 as part of the 500th-anniversary celebration of Columbus's arrival in the Americas.[42][13] In 1998, as a result of the study, the circular-traffic plan was reinstated, with all traffic going around the circle in a counterclockwise direction. The center of the circle was planned for further renovations, with a proposed park 200 feet (61 m) across.[43] The design for a full renovation of the circle was finalized in 2001.[44] The project started in 2003, and was completed in 2005. It included a new water fountain byWater Entertainment Technologies, who also designed theFountains of Bellagio; benches made ofipe wood; and plantings encircling the monument.[28][42] The fountain, the main part of the reconstructed circle, contains 99 jets that periodically change in force and speed, with effects ranging between "swollen river, a rushing brook, a driving rain or a gentle shower".[28] The inner circle is about 36,000 square feet (3,300 m2), while the outer circle is around 148,000 square feet (13,700 m2). The redesign was the recipient of the 2006American Society of Landscape Architects' General Design Award Of Honor.[44] In 2007 Columbus Circle was awarded theRudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence silver medal.[5]
The Columbus Monument, a 76-foot (23 m) column installed at the center of Columbus Circle, consists of a 14-foot (4.3 m)marble statue of Columbus atop a 27.5-foot (8.4 m)graniterostral column[45] on a four-stepped granitepedestal.[46] Created by Italian sculptor Gaetano Russo,[47] the monument was installed at the center of the circle in 1892.[6][7][8] It is listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.[48]
The five streets radiating from the circle separate the immediate surrounding area into five distinct portions.[49][50]
In the early 20th century, much of the development around Columbus Circle was spurred by magazine publisherWilliam Randolph Hearst, who acquired several plots before he ultimately erected theHearst Magazine Building at Eighth Avenue and 57th Street in 1928.[51]: 3 [52][b] Hearst had envisioned the creation of a large Midtown headquarters for his company near Columbus Circle, in the belief that the area would become the city's next large entertainment district.[52] By the late 1920s, Hearst was acquiring large amounts of land in the area in an effort to create a "Hearst Plaza" near Columbus Circle.[51]: 4 [56] The Hearst Magazine Building, later expanded into theHearst Tower, is the only remnant of this scheme, the other parts of the proposal having collapsed in theGreat Depression.[51]: 5 [56]: 484–485
To the west of the circle is a superblock spanning two streets, bounded by Broadway, 60th Street, Ninth Avenue, 58th Street, and Eighth Avenue.[49] The superblock was formerly two separate blocks.[57] In 1901 the first theatre built in the Columbus Circle area, theCircle Theatre, was built.[58] From 1902 to 1954, theMajestic Theatre occupied the more southerly of the two blocks.[59]
Robert Moses closed and eliminated that block of 59th Street during theNew York Coliseum's construction from 1954 to 1956.[57][60] The construction project, in turn, was the culmination of an effort to removeSan Juan Hill, theslum that had been located at the site.[61] Until theJacob K. Javits Convention Center was built inHell's Kitchen in the 1980s, the Coliseum was the primary event venue for New York City.[57] By 1985, there were plans to replace the Coliseum,[62] and after a series of delays, the Coliseum was demolished in 2000.[63]
The north side of Columbus Circle is bounded by Broadway, Central Park West, and 61st Street.[49] In 1911, Hearst bought this city block.[54] The plot was developed with a three-story building by 1914, designed byCharles E. Birge.[73][74] Its superstructure was designed to support the weight of a 30-story tower that was never built.[51]: 3
The 44-story Gulf and Western Building (later theTrump International Hotel and Tower) was completed on the site in 1969[75] or 1970.[76] It served in this capacity until the conglomerate filed for bankruptcy in 1991.[76] In 1994,Donald Trump announced his plans to convert the building into a mixed-purpose hotel and condominium tower.[77] Renovations started in 1995,[78] and were completed by 1997.[13][79] The building was stripped to its steel skeleton and reclad in a new facade, becoming the Trump International Hotel and Tower.[67][80] The steelglobe outside the building was installed in this renovation.[81]
Several buildings are on the block bordering the circle's southeast section.[92]240 Central Park South, a balconiedmoderne apartment building across Broadway from the museum, is directly on the southeast corner of the circle.[93] Built between 1939 and 1940 to designs byAlbert Mayer andJulian Whittlesey,[93][92] it is a city-designated landmark and aNational Registered Historic Place.[94] 240 Central Park South has 28 stories across two apartment blocks, and is variously quoted as having either 325,[95] 326,[96][93] or 327 apartments.[97] The building contains severalroof gardens, and from the outset, was marketed toward people who wanted suburban lifestyles.[95][98]
On Central Park South, just east of 240 Central Park South, is theGainsborough Studios.[92] Designed by Charles W. Buckham, it was built between 1907 and 1908 as artists' cooperative housing,[99] and rises 16 stories with 34 studio units, some of them double-story units.[100] The facade has a bust of the English painterThomas Gainsborough, abas-relief byIsidore Konti, and tile murals byHenry Chapman Mercer. It is a New York City designated landmark.[99][101]
On 58th Street, east of 220 Central Park South, are two New York City designated landmarks: the Helen Miller Gould Stable and the firehouse of Engine Company 23.[92] The four-story horse stable, at 213 West 58th Street, was designed byYork and Sawyer in the French Renaissance style for wealthy philanthropistHelen Miller Gould.[92][106]: 1–2 [107] Completed in 1902–1903 on the site of an existing stable,[106]: 2 the stable becameAllan Murray's shoe shop in the 1950s, and has served as the Unity Center of Practical Christianity since 1982.[106]: 4 [107] It has a limestone base with a large entrance arch; a limestone-and-brick facade on the second and third stories; a bracketedcornice over the third story; and ahip roof on the fourth story, with adormer window.[106]: 3–4 The stable was one of several on that block of West 58th Street in the early 20th century, and is the only remaining former stable on the block.[108]: 1
The adjoining firehouse of Engine Company 23, at 215 West 58th Street, was designed by Alexander H. Stevens (theNew York City Fire Department's superintendent of buildings[108]: 3 ) in theBeaux-Arts style.[92][108]: 1 It was constructed between 1905 and 1906 to replace a former firehouse at 233 West 58th Street, now taken up by the 240 Central Park South apartment building.[108]: 2 The design contains an arched fire truck entrance at ground level; a limestone-and-brick facade on the second and third stories, with two small windows flanking a large window on each story; a bracket above the second story; and aparapet atop the third story.[108]: 4–5 The building remains an active firehouse of the FDNY.[109][110]
3, 4, 5, and 6 Columbus Circle are the numbers given to four buildings on the south side of 58th Street. From east to west, the buildings are numbered 5, 3, 4, and 6 Columbus Circle.[50]
Between Eighth Avenue and Broadway on the south side of 58th Street is 3 Columbus Circle (also 1775 Broadway), a 310-foot (94 m), 26-story tower.[117] It is occupied byYoung & Rubicam,Bank of America,Chase Bank, andGilder Gagnon Howe & Co.[118] The tower sits atop a 3-story structure called the Colonnade Building.[119][120] The first three stories were built in 1923 and the top 23 stories were added in 1927–1928.[121] During the expansion, the original building's three-storyIonic supports were kept.[122][119] The new expansion, designed byShreve & Lamb,[121] hostedGeneral Motors' headquarters from 1927[114][123] to 1968.[123][124] In 1969,Midtown Realty purchased the building's lease, and in 1980, acquired the land. Half of the building was leased byBankers Trust until the late 1980s,[123] andNewsweek leased a third of the building from 1994[125] until 2006.[126] When theMoinian Group purchased the building in 2000,[119][127] the building assumed its current name;[119][126] a subsequent renovation refurbished the exterior and removed all remnants of the Colonnade Building.[119] Aneon sign for CNN was located on the roof of the building from the mid-2000s to 2015.[124] A Nordstrom annex is at the base of 3 Columbus Circle.[111]
4 Columbus Circle, an eight-story low-rise located at 989 Eighth Avenue at the southwest corner of the intersection with 58th Street, was built in the late 1980s.Swanke Hayden Connell Architects designed the building, which houses the furniture companySteelcase on the upper floors and aDuane Reade and aStarbucks on the ground floor.[128]Cerberus Capital Management bought the building in 2006 for $82.9 million. In 2011, it was sold to German real estate firmGLL Real Estate Partners for $96.5 million.[129]
Directly to the west is 6 Columbus Circle, an 88-room, 12-floorboutique hotel called 6 Columbus.[130] Acquired by thePomeranc Group in 2007,[131] the hotel was put on sale in December 2015.[132] A 700-foot-tall (210 m) tower is planned for the site.[133]
Columbus Circle is the traditional municipalzero-mile point from which all official city distances are measured,[67] althoughGoogle Maps usesNew York City Hall for this purpose.[136] For decades,Hagstrom sold maps that showed the areas within 25 miles (40 km)[137] or 75 miles (121 km) from Columbus Circle.[138]
The travel area for recipients of aC-2 visa, which is issued for the purpose of immediate and continuous transit to or from theheadquarters of the United Nations, is limited to a 25-mile radius of Columbus Circle.[139] The same circle coincidentally defines the city's "film zone" that local unions operate in, a counterpart to Los Angeles'studio zone.[140][141][142][143] The New York City governmentemployee handbook considers a trip beyond a 75-mile radius from Columbus Circle as long-distance travel.[144][145]
The circle became known as a center forsoapbox orators in the early-mid 20th century,[146] comparable toSpeakers Corner in London.[147] It became a home particularly for non-leftists in contrast toUnion Square, and for a time in the late 1930s it became a home to a number of far right speakers.[148] The area sometimes had a poor reputation forcranks andstreet preachers, the "lunatic fringe whose tub-thumping make a nightmare of Columbus Circle" condemned by a New York Court of Appeals ruling in a case related to elsewhere in the city,[149] that promptedmid-20th century configurations,[35] but was also sometimes showcased by the national government as a rambunctious symbol of American freedom of speech.[150][151]
Columbus Circle was featured in the 1954 romantic comedy filmIt Should Happen to You, in whichJudy Holliday's character, Gladys Glover, began her quest for fame by renting a large billboard overlooking Columbus Circle.[152] TheUSS Maine Memorial, was featured in the 1976 movieTaxi Driver, whereRobert De Niro's character was thwarted in an attempt to assassinate a presidential nominee.[153] Columbus Circle was featured in the 1984 movieGhostbusters as the place where the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man manifests and then walks up Central Park West.[154] The shooting ofJoseph Colombo in Columbus Circle by Jerome A. Johnson in 1971 was featured in the 2019 filmThe Irishman.[155][156] Starting in seasons 6 of the TV showThe Venture Bros., the Venture family relocates to a skyscraper located on Columbus Circle.[157]
^These directions are relative toManhattan's street grid, which is rotated 29 degrees clockwise from geographic north. So for instance, Broadway really points north and south, while Eighth Avenue/Central Park West points south-southwest and north-northeast respectively.
^Hearst's first purchase was the southern side of the circle, now 2 Columbus Circle, in 1895.[51] He bought the block to the south, now 3 Columbus Circle, in 1903.[53] Eight years after that, Hearst bought a plot on the northern side of Columbus Circle.[54] In 1921, Hearst completed his acquisition of lots on the northern side of 58th Street west of Eighth Avenue.[55] None of these structures were ultimately built, except for that on the northern plot.[51]: 3
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^"NYC Planning | Community Profiles".communityprofiles.planning.nyc.gov. New York City Department of City Planning.Archived from the original on March 24, 2019. RetrievedMarch 18, 2019.
^abHeckscher, M.H. (2008).Creating Central Park. DE-601)129532134: Metropolitan Museum of Art bulletin. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 50–55.ISBN978-0-300-13669-2. RetrievedOctober 13, 2017.
^Henebery, Ann."The Rules of the Road: Then Versus Now"Archived October 10, 2017, at theWayback Machine,Eno Center for Transportation, October 6, 2015. Accessed October 9, 2017. "William P. Eno is internationally recognized as an original pioneer of traffic regulation and safety.... He was dubbed the 'Father of Traffic Safety' and many of the traffic-flow innovations that we now take for granted were a result of Eno's hard work. He is credited with designing Columbus Circle in New York City and the traffic circle surrounding the Arc de Triomphe in Paris."
^"Renewed Activity at Columbus Circle".The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide. Vol. 94, no. 2423. August 22, 1914. pp. 202–204.Archived from the original on August 31, 2021. RetrievedDecember 13, 2020 – viacolumbia.edu.
^United States. War Department; United States. Department of the Army (1952).Armed Forces Talk. War Department. p. 12.Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. RetrievedJune 13, 2020.
^Carr, Nick (December 6, 2017)."New York, You've Changed: Taxi Driver, Part III".Huffington Post.Archived from the original on July 17, 2017. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2018.Charlie goes to the Palantine rally at Columbus Circle in what proves to be a failed attempt to assassinate the candidate:
^"otsony".otsony.com. Archived fromthe original on December 28, 2022. RetrievedJanuary 9, 2023.
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