The CBS Building in New York City, also known as Black Rock, is the headquarters of the namesake television network CBS. Located at 51 West 52nd Street at the corner of Sixth Avenue, the Eero Saarinen designed building opened in 1965. It is 38 stories and tall with approximately rentable of space. The interior and furnishings were designed by Saarinen and Florence Knoll.
Background
The building was the result of intricate planning between Eero Saarinen and CBS's then-president, Frank Stanton. Its concrete structural system was developed by Mario Salvadori. Unlike some major skyscrapers built in that section of midtown Manhattan during the 1950s and '60s, its pillars are more dominant than its windows. It received its nickname "Black Rock" for its dark granite cladding. The company moved to its new headquarters from longterm lease space at 485 Madison Avenue at 52nd Street. Prior to the building's completion, CBS moved its radio network studios—the CBS News network radio studios on the 17th floor of 485 Madison and other studios across the street in the CBS Studio Building—to the CBS Broadcast Center on 57th Street starting in 1964. The TV news studios, based mostly at the Graybar Building at Grand Central Terminal, also moved to the Broadcast Center around that period of time, starting with the CBS Evening News studio-newsroom in 1963. The CBS Building was the longtime home of CBS's New York City flagship radio stations, WCBS and WCBS-FM, until 2000, following the merger with Viacom. At that time WCBS joined the network at the Broadcast Center, and WCBS-FM moved to One Astor Plaza. As of December 2011, WCBS AM&FM relocated to studios at 345 Hudson Street in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan. Gastrotypographicalassemblage, a wide by 8½ foot tall mural designed by Lou Dorfsman decorated the cafeteria. The work used varied typefaces of hand-milled wood type to list all of the foods offered to patrons. The ground floor also features a restaurant, originally called "The Ground Floor", now an upscale Chinese, that is open to the public. In December 2019, ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish said the newly combined Viacom and CBS company is looking to sell the building. "Black Rock is not an asset we need to own and we believe that money would be put to better use elsewhere."
