Collaboration between Norman Foster and Hearst

The brilliant collaboration between Hearst and Norman Foster was summarized in a review written by Paul Goldberger for The New Yorker in 2005: “The addition is sheathed in glass and stainless steel — a shiny missile shooting out of [Joseph] Urban’s stone launching pad.”

The new synergistic skyscraper was built on the foundation of the vision of William Randolph Hearst, who had imagined the original Urban building to be a pedestal for a much taller tower. The new tower is both dramatic and functional.

Hearst has long been an integral part of New York City and a vital contributor to the metropolis’ unquenchable passion for boldness and innovation. With its emphasis on architectural distinction, modern technology and sustainable design, Hearst Tower symbolizes the very embodiment of Hearst’s pioneering tradition.

William Randolph Hearst wrote in a 1927 editorial: “The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which have been the wonder of the world for thousands of years, were as nothing to these terraced towers that sketch the skyline of New York and express in their beauty and in their originality the indomitable spirit of American progress — the inspiring American characteristics of freedom and high aspiration.”

Completed in 2006, Hearst Tower is Norman Foster’s first project in the United States and was the first building to receive a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating for core and shell, and interiors in New York City. In 2012 and 2018, Hearst Tower earned a Platinum LEED Rating for Existing Buildings, becoming the first building to receive three LEED certifications.

It has been almost 20 years since the completion of the Hearst Tower. Led by President and CEO Steven R. Swartz, Hearst has successfully carried out the original vision of the Tower. Norman Foster designed the Hearst Tower to be both dynamic and flexible. As Gilbert C. Maurer, Hearst director and former COO, has said, “With its feet in the past and head in the future, Norman’s Tower proves architecture can be an agent of change.”

The collaboration of Foster and Hearst is an attempt to create a skyscraper that can grow into the future — a green skyscraper that flourishes in the urban jungle of New York City. Many talked of leaving New York after 9/11. In the words of Foster, “The completion of Hearst Tower was a defining moment for New York.” Now again after the pandemic, New York faces new challenges. Together the partnership of Norman Foster and Hearst has grown and flourished over the past 20 years. As Hearst Executive Vice Chairman and former CEO Frank A. Bennack Jr., said when Hearst Tower was completed, “In 1928, a Hearst Tower lived solely in dreams. In the Manhattan of 2006, we’d like to think this is the building New York dreamed of.”

Norman Foster has said that cities are our greatest invention — and Hearst agrees.

Steven R. Swartz
Frank A. Bennack Jr.
Gilbert C. Maurer