It has been labeled one of the city’s weirdest and most iconic skyscrapers, but little information has ever been published about its purpose. At night it becomes a giant shadow, blending into the darkness, its large square vents emitting a distinct, dull hum that is frequently drowned out by the sound of passing traffic and wailing sirens.įor many New Yorkers, 33 Thomas Street - known as the “Long Lines Building” - has been a source of mystery for years.
#New york skyscraper windows#
True to the designers’ original plans, there are no windows and the building is not illuminated. Unlike the many neighboring residential and office buildings, it is impossible to get a glimpse inside 33 Thomas Street. The brutalist structure, still used by AT&T and, according to the New York Department of Finance, owned by the company, is like no other in the vicinity. Today, it can be found in the heart of lower Manhattan at 33 Thomas Street, a vast gray tower of concrete and granite that soars 550 feet into the New York skyline. This article is the product of a joint reporting project between The Intercept and Field of Vision.Ĭonstruction began in 1969, and by 1974, the skyscraper was completed. “ Project X,” a short film by Henrik Moltke and Laura Poitras. The building was designed by the architectural firm John Carl Warnecke & Associates, whose grand vision was to create a communication nerve center like a “20th century fortress, with spears and arrows replaced by protons and neutrons laying quiet siege to an army of machines within.” It would house one of the most important telecommunications hubs in the United States - the world’s largest center for processing long-distance phone calls, operated by the New York Telephone Company, a subsidiary of AT&T. Rather, the fortified skyscraper would safeguard powerful computers, cables, and switchboards. It would have no windows, 29 floors with three basement levels, and enough food to last 1,500 people two weeks in the event of a catastrophe.īut the building’s primary purpose would not be to protect humans from toxic radiation amid nuclear war. It was an unusually audacious, highly sensitive assignment: to build a massive skyscraper, capable of withstanding an atomic blast, in the middle of New York City.
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