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I wasn't very sympathetic about that particular site, and I certainly didn't think the building they were going to put up was what they should put up--just as a piece of architecture. I didn't think we belonged on Park Avenue, although later I acquired land on behalf of CBS on Park Avenue, where Citicorp is now. That whole block I had options on, with the idea of putting a building up there jointly with--can't think the name of the company now. But the person who carried the torch for me was Phil [Philip A.] Graham, whose father-in-law, Eugene Meyer, was the power behind the company that was going to be the other end of the building.
Phil and I had decided that this was a large block, a large tract of land--I think 200 feet on Park Avenue and 800 feet from Park to Lexington. It was one of those very long blocks. And the code would allow us to put up a substantial building there. We were going to cut it right down through the middle, and we were to have the Park Avenue side and the chemical--Allied Chemical--was to have the Lexington Avenue end.
Quemoy and Matsu, or something in the world affairs, came along, and there was a question about going ahead with it at that time. We shelved that, and I went to the board-- with Paley's knowledge, because he was going to be a party to it--and said that I had acquired the options--not with any CBS money, but they were oral commitments and that before we announced we weren't going to go ahead, if that was the board's position, it was something I thought I would like to step into, because I thought it was one helluva a real estate development.
I scooted out, and the board was perfectly willing to have me do that. And who was my partner in that deal? It was Paley.
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