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Office skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

One Worldwide Plaza is the largest tower of Worldwide Plaza, a three building commercial and residential complex in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), One Worldwide Plaza is an office building measuring 778 feet (237 m) tall, with an alternative address of 825 Eighth Avenue. It is the easternmost building in the Worldwide Plaza complex, which occupies the entire city block bounded by Eighth Avenue, Ninth Avenue, 49th Street, and 50th Street and is built on the site of New York City's third Madison Square Garden. Adjacent to One Worldwide Plaza to the west are a public plaza and two residential buildings. The classically inspired building contains a three story granite base, a brick midsection with setbacks, and a pyramidal copper roof with a glass lantern. Inside, there are storefronts and entrances to the New York City Subway's 50th Street station, while three double height lobbies lead to different sets of office floors. Worldwide Plaza was developed in the late 1980s by a syndicate led by William Zeckendorf Jr. Upon opening, One Worldwide Plaza was nearly fully occupied, with two anchor tenants: advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather and law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. During the mid 1990s, the office space was leased at a very low price. The Blackstone Group acquired the complex in 1996 and sold it to Equity Office Properties in 1998. When Blackstone took over Equity Office in 2007, it sold the office building to Harry Macklowe, who lost the building to foreclosure. George Comfort and Sons took over One Worldwide Plaza in 2009. American Realty Capital New York bought a controlling ownership stake in 2017, selling off a non controlling stake to RXR Realty and SL Green Realty.

One Worldwide Plaza is part of Worldwide Plaza, which occupies the entire city block bounded by Eighth Avenue, Ninth Avenue, 49th Street, and 50th Street in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. One Worldwide Plaza, the easternmost structure in the complex, was designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). To the west are two residential buildings, Two and Three Worldwide Plaza, designed by Frank Williams; they are respectively composed of a 39 story tower and a series of five and six story tall townhouses. According to Zeckendorf, Worldwide Plaza was intended to be "a self contained community and also a destination point for other people in the city". The Worldwide Plaza complex is built on the site of New York City's third Madison Square Garden (MSG). By the 1980s, the surrounding area consisted mostly of lower income tenements and small retail buildings, and The New York Times described the area as "a neighborhood best known for pornography and cheap bars".

One Worldwide Plaza is a 50 story office skyscraper measuring 778 feet (237 m) high, with a pyramidal roof at its top. Several architectural details of One Worldwide Plaza were inspired by early 1930s classical designs, The building is divided horizontally into three sections: a base, shaft, and capital. The materials used in its construction were sourced from a variety of locations. The brick was manufactured by Glen Gery at a factory in Pennsylvania, while the windows were made in Wisconsin. By contrast, the roofing and precast concrete were made in Canada, the structural steel was bought in Luxembourg, and the project used Brazilian granite and Italian marble. Including the residential buildings, the complex was to cover , more than the maximum size allowed without zoning bonuses. The developers added a midblock plaza for the first bonus and renovated the adjacent 50th Street station for the second bonus. It is clad with gray purple granite and contains outwardly curved entrances on all four sides. These curved sections contain Renaissance inspired colonnades with granite pilasters, behind which is an oval passageway with a vaulted ceiling. The building's two original anchor tenants, advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather and law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, had their own entrances. The entrance on the northern elevation, facing 50th Street, is used for retail rather than as an office lobby.

Childs constructed three lobbies at One Worldwide Plaza, each with a separate entrance. There are storefronts along the ground level colonnade adjacent to the three lobbies, Each lobby had access to a bank of elevators. The building's base also contained a day care center sponsored by Cravath, Swaine & Moore for its employees' children. Northwest of the lobbies is a truck elevator on 50th Street. The floor slabs measure The maximum structural load on each column was on average. The superstructure was stiffened by moment frames at the building's perimeter, which were braced to the elevator core. Concrete masonry units were then installed around the outermost beams of the superstructure, providing waterproofing. Cravath, Swaine & Moore originally occupied the 38th to 49th stories. The New York Times described the offices as using of marble and of mahogany. The plaza originally covered , but its owner reduced the plaza's size by 10 percent in 2002 as part of a lawsuit settlement. Jerold S. Kayden wrote of the buildings' plaza: "Its half acre size, numerous movable chairs, comfortable ledge seating, food service at north and south ends, decorative water fountain, and landscaping of trees and shrubs render it highly functional for the diverse audience." which was designed by sculptor Sidney Simon. Four bronze statues of standing nude women, each representing a season, hold up a globe. Below the globe are four fountains, each carved in the shape of a man's head.

The complex also has a health club measuring The health club was originally operated by Bally Health and Tennis. Beneath the plaza is a 450 spot parking garage with 450 operated by the Cineplex Odeon Corporation. The multiplex's lobby was just below ground level, while the auditoriums themselves were in the second basement level. The multiplex was completely reconstructed as part of that project. The modern theatrical complex contains a double level lobby, accessed by escalators from 50th Street. There is an elevator entrance on 49th Street and an escalator entrance on 50th Street. The mural, measuring 70 feet (21 m) tall, contains black relief panels depicting the site's history. A closed stairway on 49th Street was also refurbished as part of the project. Several proposals for redeveloping the site had all failed due to a lack of funding. In 1966, a "Cinema City" with two office towers, two Broadway theaters, four movie theaters, and several film and recording studios was proposed for the site. Three years later, New York City Center proposed developing a four theater complex, a film production center, and a new home for the American Film Institute on the site. In 1973, Cushman & Wakefield and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill were hired to study the feasibility of constructing a large commercial showroom complex on the site similar to the Merchandise Mart in Chicago or AmericasMart in Atlanta. The complex would be topped by a tower. In December 1976, developers Frank Stanton and Victor Elmaleh of the World‐Wide Group proposed Hippodrome Park, an indoor amusement park that would cost $30 million. The name was a homage to the former New York Hippodrome. The amusement park would have been designed by Randall Duell and would have included a variety of rides, restaurants, and films. The City of New York was supportive of the project as part of its initiative to clean up nearby Times Square. Ultimately, the developers chose not to spend $12 million on an option for the site. Conglomerate Gulf and Western Industries acquired control of the site in 1977 as part of its acquisition of the Madison Square Garden Corporation. The company devised plans in 1980 for a mixed use project on the site, including an office building on Eighth Avenue and apartments on Ninth Avenue, both designed by SOM. Gulf and Western operated the site as a parking lot in the meantime.

Gulf and Western sold the site to a group led by William Zeckendorf Jr. in December 1984 for $100 million. His partners in the project included Arthur G. Cohen, an independent real estate investor; Victor Elmaleh and Frank Stanton, the principals of the World Wide Realty Corporation; and KG Land New York Corporation, a subsidiary of Japanese company Kumagai Gumi. The group had to raise a $12.5 million letter of credit and finalize their sale within 18 months. It was one of several development projects planned within Hell's Kitchen, which at the time was characterized by physical decay and high crime. Zeckendorf said of Hell's Kitchen: "Ten years from now people will look back and marvel at how bad this neighborhood was."

SOM began designing the project in early 1985. The advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, which was negotiating to lease a large amount of space in the building, was involved in the design. Zeckendorf's syndicate announced in November 1985 that it would erect a mixed use complex on the MSG site, costing $500 million. The complex would include a 45 story office building on Eighth Avenue, as well as a 38 story condominium tower and several 6 and 7 story residential buildings to the west. Ogilvy provided additional funds for the complex's construction in exchange for a 17 percent equity stake and some of One Worldwide Plaza's income. In addition, the complex would receive an eight year, $60 million tax abatement. and Zeckendorf announced in early 1986 that he would add affordable housing to the neighborhood. He proposed renovating 132 apartments in other parts of the neighborhood, rather than adding these apartments to his new development. Zeckendorf made six other modifications to the project to improve neighborhood residents' quality of life, including storefronts for local merchants, a day care center, and job training. said the developers could not sell 60 of the complex's luxury units until all of the affordable units had been sold. They ultimately fulfilled this requirement by acquiring six buildings on the block to the south. That October, Gulf and Western finalized its sale of the site to the joint venture of Zeckendorf, Cohen, KG Land, and Worldwide Holdings Corp. Zeckendorf also leased the theatrical complex to the Cineplex Odeon Corporation. That month, workers began excavating the site to 17 feet below grade; the excavation was completed by February 1987. Newsday reported that the development of Worldwide Plaza would relocate the western boundary of Midtown Manhattan westward to Eighth Avenue. from a syndicate of 15 banksEfn|The bank group included Mitsubishi Bank, Hokkaido Takushoku Bank, the Long Term Credit Bank of Japan, The Bank of Tokyo, Tokai Bank, Sanwa Bank, Taiyo Kobe Bank, Deutsche Bank, Swiss Bank Corporation, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of Montreal, Manufacturers Hanover Corporation, Irving Trust, Chemical Bank, and Lincoln Savings Bank. The financing was one of the largest real estate loans in New York City history. In exchange for receiving the loan, the development group provided a letter of credit and personal guarantees worth $100 million. The Wall Street Journal described the loan as part of a trend wherein "the mere mention of a Zeckendorf project had bankers falling over each other to offer financing". At the time of Worldwide Plaza's development, demand for office space in New York City had declined following Black Monday in 1987. The design of One Worldwide Plaza's basement and ground level was impacted by the location of the new subway entrances at the base. The concrete for the foundation was poured by April 1987, and work on the steel superstructure began the following month. By the end of 1987, it was taking longer than expected to install the stonework inside the lobby. Installation of the exterior masonry had fallen three months behind schedule and did not commence until February 1988.

One Worldwide Plaza was topped out with a ceremony on May 20, 1988, in which ironworkers inscribed their names on a beam that was then lifted to the roof. Work on the interior finishes began that month. The interior fit out of Ogilvy's offices, originally slated to begin in April 1988, did not begin until that November. Most of the space at One Worldwide Plaza was leased even before the building was completed. in exchange for a 7 percent equity stake in Worldwide Plaza. The law firm's lease also stipulated that Zeckendorf buy and demolish an adult movie theater just north of One Worldwide Plaza. Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Ogilvy & Mather each had their own entrances and elevators, and the developers gave large "work letters" to both firms, compensating for the cost of interior furnishings. and it also took an equity stake in the complex. Record label PolyGram had leased .

Worldwide Plaza was completed in 1989, and Cravath, Swaine & Moore moved into One Worldwide Plaza that September. Ogilvy's offices were completed behind schedule, costing the developers several million dollars. Soon after the complex opened, Lifetime Cable Network also leased space at One Worldwide Plaza, as did electronics company Philips. The residences within the complex were not fully sold until 1993, and a quarter of the retail space was still empty in 1996. the office space was not as profitable as Zeckendorf had originally projected. Three of One Worldwide Plaza's largest tenants had only agreed to rent space in exchange for equity, while other tenants such as PolyGram, Microsoft, and Roberts & Holland paid less rent per square foot compared to other Midtown buildings. In addition, Deutsche Bank held a $600 million mortgage loan on Worldwide Plaza. By 1996, Deutsche Bank was looking to sell its mortgage. Zeckendorf's syndicate wished to find a partner to help buy the mortgage from Deutsche Bank, with little success. At the time, One Worldwide Plaza was fully occupied by several large tenants with long leases, but the average rent for office space had decreased about one third since 1990. That October, the Blackstone Group bought the mortgage from Deutsche Bank for $300 million. Blackstone extended PolyGram's and Ayer's leases. Ogilvy had decided to relocate, though other companies quickly expressed interest in Ogilvy's vacant space. As part of a pilot program, Captivate Network installed electronic screens in One Worldwide Plaza's elevators, and the majority of the building's elevators had these screens by late 1999.

The administration of mayor Rudy Giuliani sued the owners of Worldwide Plaza and two other buildings in 2000, alleging that these buildings' privately owned public spaces violated city laws. At Worldwide Plaza, two restaurants had illegally taken over many movable chairs and tables, which had been installed there as "public amenities". The suit was settled in mid 2002 after Equity Office applied to convert ten percent of the plaza's space into a private dining area for the complex's restaurants. The former multiplex temporarily served as office space for accounting firm Deloitte later that year after that firm's offices were destroyed in the September 11 attacks. The multiplex then became an Off Broadway venue, Dodger Stages (now New World Stages), in 2004. The firm immediately resold the structures to Harry B. Macklowe as part of a $7 billion transaction; One Worldwide Plaza alone was worth $1.7 billion. Macklowe personally pledged $1 billion, as well as interests in twelve other properties, as a guarantee. As such, Macklowe surrendered One Worldwide Plaza to his lender, Deutsche Bank. After selling Macklowe's other buildings, Deutsche Bank announced in June 2009 that it would sell One Worldwide Plaza. The next month, Deutsche Bank agreed to sell the building for $600 million to George Comfort and Sons. One Worldwide Plaza was only 46 percent occupied at the time, and the building still had a 40 percent vacancy rate at the end of the year. Television station WNET leased space at One Worldwide Plaza in 2010. Japanese investment bank Nomura agreed to lease around in 2011, bringing the building to 95 percent occupancy. The bank beat out law firm Wilmer Hale, which had also been interested in the space. George Comfort & Sons put the building up for sale in August 2012, reportedly hoping for a $1.7 billion valuation, almost triple what the company had paid just three years prior. By October 2012, bids for the building only reached around $1.5 billion. Potential buyers were reportedly worried about the building's tenants including Nomura, which had recently had its credit rating downgraded by Moody's Investors Service, and Cravath, after the law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf had declared bankruptcy earlier that year. Deutsche Bank provided a $710 million mortgage on the property in February 2013.

American Realty Capital New York Recovery REIT, one of several companies owned by New York real estate mogul Nicholas Schorsch, acquired a 48.9 percent interest in the property for $220 million in November 2013, as well as the rights to buy the remaining 51.1%. RXR continued its lawsuit even after American Realty Capital had bought the building. During the 2010s, Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Nomura Securities each continued to occupy roughly M. Shanken Communications (owner of Wine Spectator) and CBS TV both leased space in 2014, followed the next year by Howard J. Rubenstein's Rubenstein Associates and Prometheus Global Media. The firm exercised its option to purchase an additional 49.9 percent stake in June 2017 for $277 million, bringing the company's ownership to 98.8%. While the company had initially hoped to sell its entire stake in the building, bidders were discouraged by the property's existing $870 million mortgage, and foreign entities had decreased their investment in New York real estate. American Realty Capital opted to sell only a non controlling stake in the building and pursue a refinancing. Following the acquisition, American Realty Capital owned 50.1 percent of the building's equity and George Comfort & Sons maintained a 1.2 percent stake. Goldman Sachs agreed to provide a $1.2 billion loan to refinance the property following the acquisition. Shortly after origination, Goldman Sachs syndicated 25 percent of the loan to Deutsche Bank. The loan consisted of $940 million in senior debt and a $260 million junior loan. At the time, an appraisal valued the property at $1.74 billion since the building was 98.4 percent occupied and generating net cash flows of over $85 million a year. By 2023, Nomura sought to downsize its space at One Worldwide Plaza, while Cravath, Swaine & Moore planned to relocate to Hudson Yards. These two tenants collectively occupied 70 percent of the building, prompting concerns that a $940 million loan on the Worldwide Plaza complex could not be paid off.

When One Worldwide Plaza was announced, New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger criticized the cheapness of the building's materials, including the use of brick and the lack of granite, as well as the large massing of the tower and the small size of the driveway. He also noted the building's inspiration from the New York Life Building and Crown Building. Nonetheless, Goldberger wrote: "In general, this is the sort of plan the West Side of midtown Manhattan has been waiting for." Following Worldwide Plaza's completion, Goldberger declared that the project had "turned one of the harshest blocks of midtown Manhattan into a glittering island of corporate luxury." He did describe One Worldwide Plaza's lower stories as resembling "stone wallpaper" because the cladding was so thin. Herbert Muschamp, also of the Times, regarded the building as one of the city's "Art Deco retreads". Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post wrote: "Worldwide within its single city block thus epitomizes the transformation from commercial to residential, and it does so in buildings of singular handsomeness and distinction." The architect Robert A. M. Stern described One Worldwide Plaza as "the first office building of any importance to be built west of Eighth Avenue" since 330 West 42nd Street was completed in 1931. Conversely, Daniel Bluestone wrote for Design Book Review in 1992: "For all of its massive display of urbanity, the recoil of the development from its neighborhood is striking." Brendan Gill, writing for The New Yorker in 1990, criticized the project as having "cool reasonableness", which he saw as "a defect that its designers and builders must have seen as a virtue". Gill also disliked the fact that the complex's largest structure (One Worldwide Plaza) was on Eighth Avenue rather than the middle of the block, and he believed the classical detailing to be excessive. In addition, Karl Sabbagh wrote the book Skyscraper: The Making of a Building to complement the PBS miniseries.