Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is a large convention center on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. It was designed by architects I. M. Pei and partners, built in 1986, and named for New York Senator Jacob K. Javits, who died that year.  Planning and constructing a convention center on Manhattan’s west side has had a long and controversial history, including efforts starting in the early 70's to produce a megaproject involving a redevelopment concept.  When the Center opened, it largely replaced the New York Coliseum as the city’s major convention facility, making way for the demolition of the Coliseum and construction of the Time Warner Center.
 
The Javits Center was to reposition New York in the highly competitive national trade show industry while encouraging development in an underutilized part of midtown Manhattan along the Hudson River.  The 1.6 million sq. foot building was designed to house the world’s largest exhibition hall under a single roof.  It contains offices, shops, varied dining, storage, service areas, over 100 flexible meeting rooms and advanced communications systems including the simultaneous translation of multiple languages. All of these components are organized around a glazed urban room of great size yet delicate space-framed construction.
 
With its 1,000-foot long public concourse, 15-story Crystal Palace, Galleria, 2,500-seat auditorium, and 1.1-acre outdoor plaza, the Javits Center transformed the traditional notion of a convention center from a large windowless box cut off from everything around into a welcoming public building integrally related to the surrounding city. The project’s full significance lies as much in its monumental public spaces as in the exhibition halls they surround. Funded by the taxpayers and executed with their interests firmly in mind, the Javits Center remains the largest and most important public building undertaken in New York City in more than half a century.

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