Midtown Manhattan Landmarks

Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan

Trump Tower is a mixed-use skyscraper at 721-725 Fifth Avenue, between East 56th and East 57th Streets in Midtown Manhattan. Designed by Der Scutt of Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, it opened in stages in 1983 and is known for its gold-tinted glass facade and its five-story atrium.

Trump Tower's dark glass tower on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan — Photo: Martin Dürrschnabel (edited by LSDSL) · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Source

Quick facts

Where: 721-725 Fifth Avenue, between East 56th and East 57th Streets
Architect: Der Scutt of Swanke Hayden Connell Architects
Developer: Donald Trump, with Equitable Life Assurance as a partner
Construction: began in 1979; the atrium's grand opening was February 14, 1983, and the ground-level stores opened November 30, 1983
Height: 664 feet (202 m) and 58 stories, with the top story numbered 68
Facade: a 28-sided massing with setbacks, clad in gold-tinted reflective glass
Atrium: about 15,000 square feet and five stories tall, designed with a 60-foot indoor waterfall and pink-and-white veined Breccia Pernice marble
Zoning: in the Fifth Avenue special zoning district, with bonus floor area granted in exchange for public space

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History

Trump Tower was developed by Donald Trump with Equitable Life Assurance as a partner and designed by Der Scutt of Swanke Hayden Connell Architects. Construction began in 1979, and the building had topped out by July 1982. The atrium, apartments, offices and stores opened in stages in 1983.

The site is in the Fifth Avenue special zoning district. The tower's mixed use earned it 105,436 square feet of bonus floor area, in exchange for public space. Under that arrangement the atrium is a privately owned public space that is to be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. The developer also bought the air rights over the neighboring Tiffany & Co. flagship store.

The structure has a reinforced-concrete shear-wall core, built with about 45,000 cubic yards of concrete and 3,800 tons of steel, and a concrete hat-truss at the top that ties the outer columns to the core. The building has 34 elevators. Its top floor is numbered 68, although it has 58 actual stories, a numbering that has been disputed.

What to look for

The stepped, 28-sided glass tower
The gold-tinted reflective glass
The Tiffany & Co. flagship store next door on Fifth Avenue

Visiting Trump Tower

Access and security around the tower have varied over the years, so check current conditions before you go. The tower stands on Fifth Avenue a few blocks south of The Plaza Hotel. To see Midtown by pedicab, see our tours.