Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is a large convention center located on Eleventh Avenue, between 34th and 40th streets, on the West side of Manhattan in New York, United States. It was designed by architect James Ingo Freed of I. M. Pei and partners. The revolutionary space frame structure was begun in 1980 and finished in 1986 and named for United States Senator Jacob K. Javits, who died that year. The Center is operated and maintained by the New York City Convention Center Operating Corporation.
The exhibit space is over 675,000 square feet (62,700 m2). Planning and constructing a convention center on Manhattan's west side has had a long and controversial history, including efforts starting in the early 1970s to produce a West Side development megaproject.
When the Center opened, it replaced the New York Coliseum as the city's major convention facility, making way for the demolition of the Coliseum and future construction of the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.
In 1995 the Independent Review Board charged that jobs at the Center had come under Mafia control.
Read more about Jacob K. Javits Convention Center: Early Convention Center Planning, Major Components of Center, Expansion
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“I think that New York is not the cultural center of America, but the business and administrative center of American culture.”
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