June 21, 1954: Plans to build on Columbus Circle required demolition of 1819 Broadway, a tower of offices that would be “the tallest building ever to come down anywhere in the world,” according to H. B. Mack, president of Wreckers and Excavators Inc. The demolition, which displaced pigeons and others, was to make space for the New York Coliseum, a convention center that stood there from 1956 till 2000, when the Time Warner Center moved in.
