Transformation of Eighth Avenue in midtown almost complete

When William Zeckendorf started his redevelopment of the full-block Madison Square Garden site between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and 49th and 50th Streets in the mid-1980s, Eighth Avenue in Midtown was a dreary place full of tourist stores, pornography dens and bars despite its proximity to the theater district.

It has since been dramatically transformed with more than 15 new high-rise projects between 41st Street and Central Park South divided about equally between office buildings and residential towers.

It may not yet have a distinct personality, but it is no longer a place to be avoided, a cliff at the end of the civilized world. Indeed, it's almost ready for its close-up, as they say....

It actually has a decent collection of architectural oddities such as the canted-outwards 11 Times Square on the southeast corner at 42nd Street, the zoot-suit Westin Hotel on the northeast corner at 42nd Street, the "abs" tower known as the 247 West 46th Street that is known as the Platinum, the dizzying sliver with staggered balconies at 785 Eighth Avenue that is one of the most dramatic "sliver" buildings in the city, shown at the left, and the pale-green tower known as Central Park Place, a 55-story, light-green-metal clad, 274-unit residential condominium tower with very large bay windows at 301 West 57th Street designed by Davis Brody & Associates. 785 Eighth Avenue has diagonally staggered balconies and rakish roofline and the mid-block, 40-story tower was designed by Ismael Leyva for Esplanade Capital LLC. Central Park Place has very large bay windows and a very handsome octagonal rooftop watertank enclosure.

This 42-story, 220-unit residential condominium Platinum was developed by SJP Residential Properties of Parsippany, N.J., and Costas Kondylis was the architect.

SJP Properties also developed the 40-story office tower 11 Times Square on the southeast corner of Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street, a glass-clad tower that leans outward on the avenue and 42nd Street and is directly across from the shiny and colorful Westin Hotel on the northeast corner that was designed by Arquitectonica.

The avenue's transformation began in the late 1980s when William Zeckendorf Jr. developed to redevelop the former site of Madison Square Garden and commissioned David Smith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Frank Williams to come up with a plan that would extend the Midtown West business district to the west of Eighth Avenue and significantly give a boost to the residential Clinton District along Ninth Avenue.

The very handsome, 49-story office tower on Eighth Avenue recalled the great pyramidal cap of the New York Life Building on Madison Square Park and quickly attracted the prestigious law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore and the important advertising agency of Ogilvy & Mather and in the process laid the ground work for the renaissance of Times Square.

A mid-block plaza separated the office tower from a smaller residential tower with five theaters and a low-rise residential wing that fronted on Ninth Avenue.

Further north, the aesthetic turns more high-tech and gleaming with the Time Warner Center at Columbus Center designed by David Childs and the notched addition designed by Sir Norman Foster at the Hearst Building on the southwest corner at 57th Street. The reflective-glass-clad Time Warner Center is the avenue's star with its expensive condominium apartments, offices, curved retail atrium, Mandarin Oriental Hotel and its fabulous Whole Foods store.

A reflective-glass facade was recently applied to the full-block, dark-brown masonry office building diagonally across Eighth Avenue by the Moinian Group, which in 2005 developed The Marc at 890 Eighth Avenue between 53rd and 54th Streets. Designed by Frank Williams, the rental apartment tower, which has an illuminated top, has 393 units and 550-car garage. Moinian also developed with the Jack Parker Corporation the Biltmore Tower at 272 West 47th street, a 53-story, 464-unit rental apartment building designed by Schuman Lichtenstein Claman & Efron.

In 1987, two large residential projects opened on the avenue, the Ellington at 260 West 52nd Street, a 29-story rental apartment building with 216 units, and Symphony House at 235 West 56th Street, a handsome, 44-story building with 480 rental apartments designed by Emery Roth & Sons and erected by Jack Resnick & Sons, which also built the 41-story, 440 rental apartment tower at 250 West 50th Street in 1998 that is known now as Archstone Midtown West and was originally known as the Gershwin and had been designed by Schuman Lichtenstein Claman & Efron.

The same architects also designed the 26-story, 293-unit rental apartment tower at 305 West 50th Street known as Longacre House, a rose and beige building topped by lanterns that was developed in 1998 by Harry Macklowe.

Tishman Asset Corporation, meanwhile recently erected a 22-story hotel over the Playpen Theater at 693 Eighth Avenue and Boston Properties is now proceeding with the development of a large commercial site at 250 West 54th Street.

There are still some building opportunities as last month Vornado Realty Trust told the Port Authority it had lost its Chinese Partner, SOHO China, and therefore could not proceed with a 40-story tower over the authority's bus terminal at 42nd Street.