The Story Behind the Hearst Building

Jesse Serwer , RENY associate editor, co-wrote this article.

Then . . .

The International Magazine Building, as it was first called, began as an idea of William Randolph Hearst to capitalize on what was expected to be a burgeoning extension of the city’s theater district along Eighth Avenue. As early as 1906, William Randolph Hearst “was convinced that Columbus Circle would become a focus of commercial and theatrical activity, a successor to Union, Madison, Herald and Times squares in the theaters district’s march up Broadway,” according to Architecture and Urbanism Between World Wars by Robert A.M. Stern.