Steinway Tower

The story of Steinway Hall in New York begins in 1866 on 14th Street, where William Steinway realized an innovative concept that combined European concert halls with a sales showroom. Visitors were deliberately guided through rooms displaying more than a hundred pianos on their way to the concert hall, a layout meant to boost sales of the instruments. With 2,500 seats, this hall was the largest in the city for a quarter of a century and served as the home of the New York Philharmonic until Carnegie Hall was built. Alongside top-tier musical events featuring artists such as Anton Rubinstein and Charles Dickens, the hall also hosted political gatherings and advertising campaigns. After internal disputes over the financial value of running a concert venue and the later sale of the property in 1958, which was bought back in 1999, the construction of the new Steinway Tower beginning in 2015 marked the end of this era at the site.

Today's building on 57th Street, erected in 1925, is a postmodern structure with marble-clad showrooms and sales rooms characterized by vaulted ceilings and domes. In the basement it houses a special "bank" for concert grand pianos, where renowned artists, accompanied by technicians, select and adjust their instruments for performances. The pianos stored there include the very first modern D concert grand from 1884. After the building was sold to a financial investor in 2013, the company moved its showroom to new premises on the Avenue of the Americas. The original Steinway Building was integrated into the construction of the 435-meter-tall (1,428-foot) apartment skyscraper known as Steinway Tower, which carries on the historical significance of the site in New York's modern cityscape.