Manhattan Plaza

Manhattan Plaza is a large federally subsidized residential complex at 400 and 484 West 43rd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City. It has 1,688 units and about 3,500 tenants. 70% of the tenants are from the performing arts, 15% are neighborhood residents, and 15% are elderly.

It occupies the city block bounded north by 43rd Street, east by 9th Avenue, south by 42nd Street, and west by 10th Avenue.

The complex was built with federal U.S. Housing and Urban Development Section 8 subsidies, and New York State Mitchell-Lama. Under Section 8, low-income tenants pay no more than 30% of their income for rent, and the Section 8 program pays the rest. Under Mitchell-Lama, rents are also subsidized but incomes are higher. Manhattan Plaza was designed by architect David Todd.

Constructed in the 1970s, the complex originally was intended to be luxury apartments before the developers declared bankruptcy and left the mostly completed structures vacant. The all-electric heating became uneconomic after the oil crisis raised the costs of electricity, and prospective tenants found the neighborhood of the time, with its crime and sexually oriented book stores and movies, undesirable.

Shortly after Manhattan Plaza opened, the City was hit by the AIDS crisis, and many residents in the performing arts came down with AIDS. To respond to their needs, General Manager Rodney Kirk, an Episcopal minister by training, established social service programs with paid staff and volunteers, and the help of the Actors' Fund, to care for them and for non-residents. According to health officials, a greater proportion of people have died of AIDS in that apartment complex compared to any other residence building in the country. As HIV/AIDS came under control, the focus of the social services program shifted to the elderly, who are aging in place, and are sometimes unable to care for themselves. Kirk retired in 1997 and died in 2001. His work was continued by General Manager Richard Hunnings, his companion of 42 years.

To compensate for the fact that the block is on a slightly tilted slope, the 10th Avenue building has 46 stories while the other has one fewer, thereby creating the illusion of equal height.

Aside from the McGraw-Hill Building, the complex was the tallest in the Hell's Kitchen area at the time it was completed, and is still highly visible from the north, south, and west sides. Between the two buildings are a multi-story garage, a fitness center (including a swimming pool), a basketball court, a playground, tennis courts, a wall-climbing center, and town houses.

Though the majority of occupants work in the performing arts, there are a number of long-time residents who were offered apartments because they were displaced from the old neighborhood.

Located within the 10th Avenue building is the 43rd St Kids Preschool, which was founded in 1981. It is a private, non-profit, parent cooperative school, and accepts children ages 19 months to 5 years. More than 1,500 one-act plays including more than 40 by Lewis Black have been staged at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in the West Bank Cafe (where Bruce Willis was a bartender) at the base of the building.