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Exxon Building (New York)
Encyclopedia
Exxon
Exxon is a chain of gas stations as well as a brand of motor fuel and related products by ExxonMobil. From 1972 to 1999, Exxon was the corporate name of the company previously known as Standard Oil Company of New Jersey or Jersey Standard....
Building, more widely known by its address, 1251 Avenue of the Americas, was part of the later Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
expansion (1960s-1970s) dubbed the "XYZ Buildings" on Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)
Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...
(also known as Avenue of the Americas). Their plans were first drawn in 1963 by The Rockefeller family
Rockefeller family
The Rockefeller family , the Cleveland family of John D. Rockefeller and his brother William Rockefeller , is an American industrial, banking, and political family of German origin that made one of the world's largest private fortunes in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th...
's architect, Wallace Harrison
Wallace Harrison
Wallace Kirkman Harrison , was an American architect.-Career:Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center...
of the architectural firm, Harrison and Abramovitz.
Their letters correspond to their height. 1251 is the "X" Building as it is the tallest at 750 ft (229 m) and 54 stories, but was the second one completed (1971). The "Y" is the McGraw-Hill Building
1221 Avenue of the Americas
1221 Avenue of the Americas, also known as the McGraw-Hill Building is a skyscraper built in 1969, located at 1221 Sixth Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States, between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue...
, at 1221 Avenue of the Americas, which was the first completed (1969) and is the second in height (674 ft - 51 stories). The "Z" Building, the shortest and the youngest, is the Celanese
Celanese
Celanese Corporation is a Fortune 500 global technology and specialty materials company with its headquarters in Dallas, Texas. The company is a leading producer of acetyl products, which are intermediate chemicals for nearly all major industries, and is the world's largest producer of vinyl...
Building at 1211 Avenue of the Americas with 45 stories (592 ft).
1251 is the second-tallest building in the whole of Rockefeller Center, after the GE Building
GE Building
The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the midtown Manhattan section of New York City. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is most famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC...
.
Despite being one of the 100 tallest buildings in the United States, 1251 Avenue of the Americas is all but impossible to see from more than just a few blocks away as it is flanked on all sides by buildings over 500 feet tall. The result is that even though 1251 Avenue of the Americas is approximately as tall as the tallest buildings in cities like Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
or Minneapolis, it has almost no presence on the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
skyline.
ExxonMobil Corporation subsequently moved its headquarters to Irving
Irving, Texas
Irving is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within Dallas County. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city population was 216,290. Irving is within the Dallas–Plano–Irving metropolitan division of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, designated...
in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and its New York offices to Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
; it no longer retains a presence in Rockefeller Center.
Inside, on the western end of 1251's atrium hangs an artist-authorized replica of a tapestry Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
created for the ballet Mercure, the original of which hangs in the Musée National d'Art Moderne
Musée National d'Art Moderne
The Musée National d'Art Moderne is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement of the city. Created in 1947, it was then housed in the Palais de Tokyo and moved to its current location in 1977...
in Paris, France. It was created specifically for 1251, as per the plaque beneath it.
History
In 1989 Exxon announced that it was moving its headquarters and around 300 employees from New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to the Las Colinas
Las Colinas
Las Colinas is an upscale, developed area in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.Due to its central location between Dallas and Fort Worth and its proximity to DFW Airport, Las Colinas has been a viable place in the Metroplex for corporate and business relocation.As a planned community, it has many...
area of Irving, Texas
Irving, Texas
Irving is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within Dallas County. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city population was 216,290. Irving is within the Dallas–Plano–Irving metropolitan division of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, designated...
. Exxon sold the Exxon Building, its former headquarters, to a unit of Mitsui Real Estate
Mitsui Fudosan
, is Japan's largest real estate developer. Mitsui Fudosan is one of the core companies of Mitsui Group.-Corporate Structure:The company is organized into four divisions.*Office Building Division*Real Estate Solution Services Division...
Development Co. Ltd. in 1986 for $610 million. John Walsh, president of Exxon subsidiary Friendswood Development Company, stated that Exxon left New York because the costs were too high.
Tenants
- DLA PiperDLA PiperDLA Piper is a global law firm with 76 offices across 30 countries and more than 4,200 lawyers. As of May 2011, it was the largest law firm in the world by number of attorneys. The firm's global revenues were $1.92 billion in 2009-2010. The firm is composed of two partnerships, DLA Piper...
(US) - All Nippon AirwaysAll Nippon Airways, also known as or ANA, is one of the largest airlines in Japan. It is headquartered at the Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It operates services to 49 destinations in Japan and 35 international routes and employed over 14,000 employees as of May 2009...
maintains a sales office and a ticketing office at Suite 820 on the 8th Floor. - Probitas PartnersProbitas PartnersProbitas Partners is a global investment bank focused on raising capital as a placement agent for private equity fund sponsors as well as providing portfolio management and liquidity solutions, through the private equity secondary market, for investors in private equity. The firm operates through...
investment bank, Suite 2390 on the 23rd Floor. - ToshibaToshibais a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
America, Inc, headquartered in Suite 4110 - Canadian Consulate General in New York
- NatixisNatixisNatixis is a French corporate and investment bank created in November 2006 from the merger of the asset management and investment banking operations of Natexis Banque Populaire and IXIS ....
US CIB - Bank of Tokyo
- Mizuho
- Avon ProductsAvon ProductsAvon Products, Inc. is a US cosmetics, perfume and toy seller with markets in over 140 countries across the world and sales of $9.9 billion worldwide as of 2007.-Business Model:...