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Why is Times Square so bright? Architect Michael Wyetzner takes you on a walking tour through the heart of New York City to uncover the surprising zoning rules, laws, history, and urban design decisions that transformed Times Square from a gritty red-light district into one of the most iconic public spaces in the world.
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00:00Time Square, a symphony of screens.
00:03Over 300,000 square feet of LEDs,
00:06with lights so bright you can see them from outer space.
00:10Over a billion people see these screens on TV
00:13when the ball drops on New Year's Eve.
00:15But how many know that those screens
00:16aren't just for advertising?
00:18In fact, they're required by law.
00:21I'm Michael Weitzner.
00:22I've been an architect in New York City for over 35 years.
00:25And today, we're taking a walking tour of Time Square
00:27and shining a light on how it became known as
00:30the crossroads of the world.
00:42The bright lights and flashing billboards in Times Square
00:46aren't just about maximizing advertising dollars.
00:49They are actually required by law.
00:52Every renovation or new construction project in Times Square
00:55is subject to a New York City zoning resolution from 2011.
01:00This resolution not only mandates that every construction project
01:04in the Times Square area include at least one illuminated sign,
01:07but it also lays out exactly how large they are required to be.
01:11Buildings on Broadway or 7th Avenue now legally must create
01:1450 square feet of illuminated signs for every one linear foot
01:19of building facade facing the street.
01:21For example, 3 Times Square has 200 linear feet of street frontage
01:26along 7th Avenue.
01:28So it was required to include at least 10,000 square feet
01:32of illuminated signs.
01:33And I should know because our firm designed the first 11 floors
01:36of this building in 2022.
01:38But why does New York City want so many billboards?
01:41After all, other U.S. cities like Houston and Denver
01:44have passed laws against building new billboards.
01:47So whose bright idea was this resolution requiring these massive electric signs?
01:53It might seem obvious that advertisers would want a piece of the most famous
01:56public plaza in the world.
01:58But the real reason for the billboard mandate is less about revenue
02:01and more about historic preservation.
02:04And we're not talking about preserving the architecture.
02:07We're talking about preserving the character of Times Square.
02:11Times Square has been known for lighted signs since 1904,
02:14when O.J. Goode designed the Trimble Whiskey sign for the Studebaker building
02:19at the north end of Times Square.
02:21He had been making lighted signs up and down Broadway
02:24and realized that the unique bowtie shape of Times Square created a perfect view corridor
02:29to the building, making it an ideal spot for high visibility advertising.
02:34O.J. Goode created many of the iconic early signs in Times Square,
02:38which he called Spectaculars.
02:40Over the years, Times Square has been known for its elaborate and bright advertisements
02:44that built on his designs, including the Camel's cigarette sign,
02:49Cup of Noodles, Coca-Cola, and many more.
02:51So the 2011 resolution wasn't about introducing bright lights,
02:56but it was about preserving and expanding them.
02:59And in fact, it's actually just the most recent update to a resolution first proposed in 1986
03:04by then-mayor Ed Koch.
03:07As recently as the 1980s, Times Square was not a family-friendly,
03:10brand-safe, advertiser's paradise.
03:12It was considered the seedy underbelly of New York City,
03:15a red-light district filled with drugs and theaters showing adult films.
03:19But the 1986 resolution rezoned the area, which forced out the adult establishments.
03:25It also called for even more electric signs.
03:27The idea was to maintain the character of Times Square
03:30as a literal bright spot in the heart of Manhattan.
03:34And to increase public safety by creating well-lit streets to deter crime.
03:38This zoning resolution started a domino effect,
03:41ultimately resurrecting Times Square from a sketchy part of town
03:45to a family-friendly global attraction.
03:48And one of the most visited public spaces in the world,
03:50with around 50 million visitors every year.
03:53It is also the site of one of New York's most famous traditions,
03:56the ball drop on New Year's Eve.
03:58And in fact, that celebration is directly connected to how Times Square got its name, literally.
04:12This building behind me is one Times Square, where the ball drops on New Year's Eve.
04:18It's potentially the most valuable piece of real estate in New York City,
04:21and definitely the most expensive advertising space in Times Square.
04:25One estimate put the revenue that it earns from advertising on its billboards at over $23 million a year.
04:30This building is really the spark that lit up Times Square as we know it today.
04:34Even though when it was first built, it did not have any illuminated signs at all.
04:39It was designed by Cyrus L.W. Eadlitz and Andrew C. McKenzie.
04:43And it was built in 1904 to be the headquarters of the New York Times.
04:47The owner of the New York Times, Adolph Oaks, also pushed to have a subway stop right here on 42nd
04:53Street
04:53that was connected directly to the building.
04:56This is because the Times was printing their newspaper on site,
04:59and this connection to the subway system made it faster to distribute the paper throughout the city.
05:03To find out more about this, we caught up with Michael Phillips of Jamestown,
05:08which owns and operates one Times Square.
05:11This was the first headquarters of New York Times.
05:14They printed the newspapers in the building and then took them down into the three subsellers
05:18and onto the distribution lines of the subway.
05:21So all of this sort of evolved together as an early dissemination and communication of the news throughout the city.
05:27But the side effect of building this station was that it brought more foot traffic to the area,
05:31which helped to shift the cultural center of New York further uptown.
05:34Because the New York Times was here, people began gathering here to get their news.
05:39And the building became a part of many iconic moments in history,
05:43leading to the status of Times Square as the crossroads of the world.
05:48In 1919, World Series updates were given to massive crowds watching a mechanical scoreboard on the Times Tower.
05:55And in 1928, the Times building would get its first electric sign.
05:59The iconic news zipper, or ticker, which broadcast headlines to people on the street.
06:04It wrapped 380 feet around the Times Tower and was 5 feet tall, making headlines visible for blocks.
06:10At the end of World War II, crowds filled Times Square to celebrate VGA Day.
06:14But maybe the most enduring contribution of one Times Square to the world happens every year at midnight on December
06:1931st.
06:20As we understand it, on December 31st, 1903, there were fireworks on top of this building.
06:26But then you said something really interesting that they had to change to a ball drop because...
06:32At the end of 1906, they outlawed fireworks in the city of New York for fear of fire.
06:37And that gave way to designing the first New Year's Eve ball, which we have a replica of in the
06:42history experience.
06:43Which was quite a small but mighty ball at the time.
06:47And now we are into the evolution of the New Year's Eve ball, which you'll see the most recent one
06:52that went up for New Year's 25, 26.
07:00So the ball has over 5,000 crystals, which was possible through removing an air conditioning system that ran 24
07:08hours a day in the old ball to keep it cool because of incandescent light technology.
07:13Right.
07:13So now with LED technology, we have over twice the crystals and far more programmability to send messages out.
07:20How many people globally watch the ball drop?
07:22So we have over a billion people watching New Year's Eve.
07:26And in the square, we usually have over a million.
07:29And so in terms of impressions both on streaming and broadcast, gamification with partners like Fortnite,
07:35with our streaming and those channels, it's quite an extraordinary eye count.
07:39That's incredible. So that's like one eighth of the world's population is watching this event every year.
07:46And it's even more amplified throughout the year because of social media and repost of photos.
07:51And it's why Times Square is such a productive brand and advertising commitment for people.
07:57So tell us about the history of the electronic billboards and all the billboards that Times Square has become famous
08:06for.
08:06Well, so originally they were weak paced on board and then they became mechanical things like the cup of soup
08:13or mechanical arms moving.
08:15And really in the early 2000s, the signs started to be replaced with digital technology and the pixels became tighter
08:22and you could get a better resolution.
08:24We went to an all digitized format in the mid teens.
08:28And at the same time, Times Square had an initiative to sync all the buildings in the square.
08:33So now there's something called Midnight Moment for art takeovers or nonprofit events.
08:38You can take over all the signs in the square at once.
08:41And that's really a great innovation that's come through digitization.
08:45In 1913, the newspaper outgrew the building and moved its headquarters to West 43rd Street.
08:50But the Times still owned the building until 1961 when it was sold to a company called Allied Chemical.
08:55Allied Chemical tore off the original facade. Such a shame.
08:58Taking everything down to the studs or in this case down to the steel girders.
09:03But that wouldn't be the last major renovation.
09:05In 1996, the famous electronic billboards were installed on the north facade.
09:09And in 2025, a $550 million renovation created a 360 degree viewing platform as well as a museum dedicated to
09:18the history of Times Square.
09:19The building really kind of never found itself as a space to occupy for people again.
09:25It became more of a signpost over the years.
09:28And really for the last sort of 75 years has been fully vacant.
09:33So we've been calling this a 21st century visitor center for New York City.
09:37The building will be 22 floors of experiences that start with a VIP history and experience of the New Year's
09:44Eve ball.
09:45But despite the extensive transformation of the building, the original structural skeleton of one Times Square is still there.
09:52Buried in a cocoon of progress.
09:55And in fact, if it weren't for this building, Times Square wouldn't even exist.
09:58It was only after the Times moved in, in 1904, that the area became known as Times Square.
10:04And if that never happened, this intersection would still be known by its original name, Longacre Square.
10:15This is the Winter Garden Theater, one of the most iconic theaters of New York's Broadway district.
10:20It has been the home of iconic Broadway staples like Mamma Mia, Cats, and the first musical adaptation of Peter
10:26Pan.
10:27But before this area became the heart of the theater district in New York City, this building hosted another iconic
10:32New York event, Horse Auctions.
10:34In the late 1800s, cars were not yet common and the city was highly dependent on horses and horse-drawn
10:40carriages.
10:40And so the horse and carriage industry was vital to the city. And it was housed here in what was
10:46then called Longacre Square.
10:47It was actually named after a square in London, also called Longacre, because that was the center of the horse
10:53and carriage trade across the pond as well.
10:55One of the richest families in New York at the time, the Vanderbilts, commissioned the American Horse Exchange,
11:00which was the original name for the building that now houses the Winter Garden Theater.
11:04This building was converted to a theater in 1911 and a giant billboard-style marquee was added to advertise the
11:10shows that were being played inside.
11:13The sign today occupies the same space as the Winter Garden Theater continues to host Broadway shows over a hundred
11:19years later.
11:20It is one of the few theaters from the early 1900s that still survives.
11:24After many others were destroyed in the name of progress, as Times Square continued its evolution from the mud and
11:30muck of the horse market to the glitz and glamour of today.
11:41Behind this massive electronic billboard that stretches an entire city block is the New York Marriott Marquee Hotel.
11:49To make space for this building, five original Broadway theaters were demolished, an event that has been called the Great
11:55Theater Massacre of 1982.
11:57It's a bit ironic that the hotel is named the Marquee, since it actually destroyed the lighted marquees of some
12:03of Broadway's oldest theaters.
12:05The Astor, Bijou, Gayety, Helen Hayes, and Morosco theaters were all razed to make way for the largest hotel in
12:12Times Square today.
12:13This building embodies an entire city block, and with a street frontage of 207 linear feet on Broadway, it is
12:21required to have more than 10,000 square feet of illuminated signs.
12:24A goal which it not only meets, but exceeds with a 25,000 square foot electric billboard.
12:31And while this building may be blamed for destroying some of Broadway's oldest theaters, it actually follows a tradition of
12:36hotels in Times Square that gave birth to the idea of the theater district in the first place.
12:50Over my shoulder is the Knickerbocker Hotel.
12:54It was designed by a firm called Marron and Davis, with Bruce Price, a prolific New York architect who was
12:59also an early influence of Frank Lloyd Wright.
13:01You may notice the lack of electric signs.
13:04That's because it was built in 1906, long before any zoning resolution required them.
13:10And this building really is a testament to the family of New York royalty who foresaw the potential of Times
13:15Square back when it was still farmland.
13:18The Astor family bought a large tract of land in the early 1800s on Manhattan's Upper West Side that included
13:24this area along Broadway.
13:25At that time, Upper Manhattan was undeveloped, and this area was known as Great Kill.
13:30Kill being the Dutch word for stream or river or creek.
13:34It was largely pastoral and disconnected from what was then the heart of the city near modern-day Wall Street.
13:40In fact, the theater district in those days was clustered around Union Square, almost 30 blocks south of here.
13:46But in the 1870s, construction began on the first Grand Central Depot, the predecessor of the modern Grand Central Terminal.
13:54And as chance would have it, was due east of here.
13:56And when Adolph Oaks convinced the city to include a subway stop here in Times Square, the Astors saw the
14:01potential to make good on their early investment.
14:04By this time, the Astor family had broken that land up into smaller plots and distributed them among various heirs
14:10to the family fortune.
14:12John Jacob Astor IV built the Knickerbocker Hotel, while William Waldorf Astor built the Astor Hotel just across the way.
14:20With two beautiful new hotels, cheap undeveloped land, and a brand new subway stop connecting Times Square to the heart
14:26of the city, theaters saw the opportunity to move in and build palaces to the dramatic arts.
14:31By 1928, Times Square had nearly 70 theaters and was unquestionably the theater capital of the United States.
14:38But the stock market crash of 1929 took a great toll on this area.
14:43During the Great Depression, fewer people were able to afford the theater or stay at these grand hotels.
14:48Hotel Astor was demolished, but the Knickerbocker survives as an example of the first era of Times Square's iconic status
14:55in the popular conscience.
14:57And also, its enduring legacy that still draws people from around the world to bask in the bright lights of
15:04Broadway.
15:08adore the state and it has obviously the American in theanooga look.
15:09But for some cities to come after the traveling station and more,
15:09They arrive at the past sessions at 8 to 1 on The 레�-1st
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