Step onto the stage of West Side (hi)story
Long before One50 stood as part of the Lincoln Towers community, the land it occupies had a different story to tell. In the early 1960s, the area known as San Juan Hill was reshaped as part of one of New York City’s most ambitious urban renewal projects, transforming into Lincoln Square — home to the world-renowned Lincoln Center and a reimagined residential landscape.
But before the transformation began, this very spot was immortalized on screen. Many key scenes from the original West Side Story (1961) were filmed exactly where One50 now stands. What was once 68th Street between Amsterdam and West End Avenue (now a part of the Lincoln Towers superblock) served as the backdrop for one of cinema’s most iconic musical rivalries. Today, residents walk in and out of One50 every day, quite literally stepping onto a piece of motion picture history.
One50 was built alongside five other buildings as part of Lincoln Towers, originally designed as middle-class rental residences. By the 1980s, as the Upper West Side evolved into one of Manhattan’s most desirable neighborhoods, the buildings underwent a major transition — residents banded together to convert Lincoln Towers into a cooperative community. What started as a middle-class enclave has since grown into a thriving upper-middle-class residential haven, known for its strong sense of community and commitment to thoughtful modernization.
Today, One50 continues to balance its rich history with a modern vision, offering residents the best of Lincoln Square living—where the past meets the present in one of New York City’s most dynamic neighborhoods.
Aerial view of Lincoln Center. 165 and 185 Lincoln Towers are visible in the foreground, while One50 was still a pile of rubble (John Rooney, Associated Press).
This pile of rubble seen in the prologue of West Side Story would give way to One50.
Courtesy of New York World-Telegram Photograph Collection, Library of Congress
The corner of 63rd and Amsterdam in 1956 (Public Domain: Committee on Slum Clearance, Lincoln Square)
Columbus Circle: before the Deutsche Bank Center and before the Coliseum. (Public Domain: Committee on Slum Clearance, Columbus Circle)
Learn More
A Lincoln Center project to explore the neighborhoods that existed in and around the area where Lincoln Center was built in the 1950s and 1960s.
Legacies of San Juan Hill
A detailed account of the filming locations of West Side Story and the urban renewal that transformed San Juan Hill into Lincoln Square.
PopSpot by Bob Egan
Before Harlem: The Black Experience in New York City Before World War I (Politics and Culture in Modern America), University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.