Designed by Cook & Fox Architects, the 58-floor Bank of America Tower is famed for its striking crystal shape, piercing 255ft spire, and enviable green credentials. The stats are impressive: a clean-burning, on-site cogeneration plant providing around 65% of the tower's annual electricity requirements; CO₂-detecting air filters that channel oxygenated air where needed; and elevators designed to avoid empty-car trips. On the ground floor is the glass-walled public Urban Garden Room (8am to 8pm), used by locals in bad weather.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Bryant Park

0.11 MILES

European coffee kiosks, alfresco chess games, summer film screenings and winter ice skating: it's hard to believe that this leafy oasis was a crime-ridden…

2. Le Carrousel

0.12 MILES

Among Bryant Park's attractions is this French-inspired, Brooklyn-made carousel, with over a dozen delightfully baroque animals you can ride to the sounds…

3. Times Square

0.15 MILES

Love it or hate it, the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Ave (aka Times Square) pumps out the NYC of the global imagination – yellow cabs, golden…

4. New York Public Library

0.16 MILES

Loyally guarded by 'Patience' and 'Fortitude' (the marble lions overlooking Fifth Ave), this beaux-arts show-off is one of NYC's best free attractions…

5. Garment District

0.26 MILES

Otherwise known as the Fashion District, this thread-obsessed territory might look like an unremarkable stretch of designers' offices and wholesale and…

6. Diamond District

0.26 MILES

Like Diagon Alley in Harry Potter, the Diamond District is a world unto itself. Best experienced on weekdays, it's an industrious whirl of Hasidic Jewish…

7. Top of the Rock

0.37 MILES

When it comes to views in New York City, you’ll be spoiled for choice. The One World Observatory may have the edge for height, and the Empire State…

8. Herald Square

0.38 MILES

This crowded convergence is best known as the home of mammoth department store Macy's, where you can still ride some of the original wooden elevators. As…