1221 Avenue of the Americas
| McGraw-Hill Building | |
|---|---|
Rockefeller Center 'XYZ' Buildings on Sixth Avenue. The middle one is McGraw-Hill.
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| General information | |
| Type | Office |
| Location | 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, USA |
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Construction started | 1966 |
| Owner | Rockefeller Group (Mitsubishi Estate) |
| Height | |
| Roof | 674 feet (205 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 51 |
| Lifts/elevators | 32 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Wallace Harrison |
1221 Avenue of the Americas, also known as the McGraw-Hill Building, is a skyscraper built in 1969, located at 1221 Sixth Avenue, in Manhattan, New York City. It is the third building in Manhattan to have the McGraw-Hill name, and is one of several buildings that were part of the Rockefeller Center complex expansion in the 1960s. It is 674 feet (205 m) high and 51 stories. The building is the former headquarters of McGraw-Hill Financial, from which it derived its name.[1] Other tenants include Sirius XM Radio, whose headquarters and broadcast facility are in the building.
The expansion consisted of the three buildings collectively known as the "XYZ Buildings," each with similar slab-like massing, of different heights and designed by Wallace Harrison's firm.
The sunken courtyard of this building contains a large metal triangle designed by Athelstan Spilhaus and fabricated by Tyler Elevator Products, arranged so the Sun aligns with its sides at solstices and equinoxes.[2] When built, the southwestern corner held a display of scale models of planets in the Solar System. A mosaic map of the Earth survives in the northwestern corner.
Contents
1999 elevator incident
Before the incident
Nicholas White, the employee who got trapped in an express elevator, used to have a very good life with all the others. He had a very beautiful girlfriend, a nice social life and a good job[3] for 15 years. He had enough money to retire for over two years. He saw the guy who polished the granite ground that much years.
During the incident
After entering an express elevator at approximately 11:00 p.m. (EDT) on October 15, 1999, Nicholas White, an employee of the building, became trapped after a brief power dip caused the elevator to stop between the 13th and 14th floors. Despite signaling an alarm and surveillance video being inside the elevator cab, White was not rescued until approximately 4:00 p.m. on October 17, nearly 41 hours later, after security guards spotted him in the surveillance cameras [4][5]
Aftermath with the media
On April 14, 2008, The New Yorker uploaded a 3-minute, 11 second-long video to YouTube, accompanied by Jennifer Haines's The Storm Begins, originally titled Trapped in an Elevator for 41 Hours. The video is a time-lapse of White's time in the elevator and also shows the surveillance footage from the other three elevators. On April 21, 2008, the magazine wrote a full detailed story on White's experience in the elevator, by Nick Paumgarten, who titled it Up and Then Down. As of April 2015, the video currently has more than 8.5 million views.[6] After the video went viral, Nicholas White was interviewed on Good Morning America and also spoke to the Associated Press. In his interviews. he talked about the horrific ordeal that he went through[7] and revealed that he still takes elevators, jokingly saying that because he still lives in Manhattan it would be impossible for him to not use them.[8]
White talks about his experience
He told the reporters he started by stepping into one at 10 p.m EDT. The lights started to dim after a few seconds, and it went on immediately.[9]The floor shown on the panel was also not L, but two huge dots.[10]He also felt a jolt as the car stopped. The first thing he told them is that he rang the emergency bell. He thought it was inconvenient. Second, he pushed the intercom and no response. The third thing he did was trying to sleep as it was later than 10 p.m. EDT already. As he lay down on the floor, he noticed several bits of fingernail, hair and even skin on the floor. He asked himself how they were able to shed during a short lift ride, as the elevator is faster than normal ones. Several hours later he tried to pry the doors open and saw a big concrete wall instead of light. He felt more enclosed than ever. At about 4 p.m. he heard a noise from the intercom, "Is there someone in there?". For the next few minutes he had an identity test. At the end of the test he shouted into the intercom, "Just get me the hell out of here!". He waited for another 40 minutes for the rescue to come, but he felt like hours. The door opened and he popped out. He asked the staff what time it was. "On Sunday," the staff answered, "at 4 p.m" He realized he had been in there for 41 hours!
After the incident-his life
White seemed to throw himself into a fantasy life as he retired. He started looking for flats cost millions (of dollars!) and he also went traveling. He had a trip to the Caribbean. He enjoyed this kind of life for five years until 2004. There was a lot of stake: he had no more money, no job and no future. That day his mother and his girlfriend were there too but both were in tears. They finally settled in a settlement, small and cheap.
In popular culture
The buildings are featured in the opening credits of Saturday Night Live, seen from below looking up in the street from a car. It was used for the exteriors and lobby of Elias-Clarke's headquarters in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada and the interior shots for Suits. It is also the headquarters of Sirius XM Radio, and many radio shows broadcast from the building including The Howard Stern Show and Opie with Jim Norton.
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Natural History Magazine Sun triangle
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Tierney, John. "The Big City; Aftermath Of 40 Hours In an Elevator", The New York Times, October 28, 1999. Accessed October 4, 2008.
- ↑ Ups and downs of elevators The New Yorker
- ↑ Trapped in an Elevator - Notes from All Over - The New Yorker on YouTube
- ↑ Elevator Hell: Nicolas White trapped for 41 Hours
- ↑ Nicholas White Talks About His Experience'
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
