The FunTower, located on the northeast corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, is the ultimate culmination of the events that have shaped and will shape Times Square. It is a flexible amusement skyscaper, able to welcome over 8000 visitors at any given time. Its shape is defined by the zoning envelope, originally intended for the office tower that was planned on the site. Its flexibility is made possible by using a so-called mega-structure frame. The mega-structure creates six large 7-story halls, inside which anything can be built; virtual reality-arcades, a cinema or theater, a kart-racing track, a shopping mall, sporting facilities, a laser-game maze, a discotheque, or a haunted house. It is likely that the amusements or facilities inside a hall will need restyling or refurbishing after a few years, or have to make way for newer or other ones. In that case, an entire hall can be closed, without disrupting any other part of the building. Visitors will be able to view the changes from the elevators and stairs, in much the same way as one sees buildings being demolished and built on lots when passing through the city. The mega-structure can be pictured as seven tables placed on top of each other; the table tops become building lots, making the tower a vertical city. Structually speaking, the forces imposed on the table tops are brought down to the ground through the tables’ legs. Building materials for the to-be-built facilities reach the hall via a container elevator on the east facade of the building.

Entertainment is without a doubt a constant in Times Square. Another constant is change. The FunTower is designed to adapt to these changes; its contents can be as unpredictable as any of the changes that are yet to come to Times Square. Although not specifically designed for it, it (or part of it) can even be turned into office space. As the contents of the building change, so will the facade. The facade is a double layered construction of 1.5 meters wide, consisting of the megastructure trusses, service pipes, and screens or signs. Facilities built in the halls “plug-in” into the facade to get water, drainage, electricity, heating, ventilation, and airconditioning (all service installations are already contained inside the ‘table-tops’ and on top of the tower). The facilities can change their part of the facade behind the curtain-glass according to their needs, be it open (i.e. a restaurant) or closed (a haunted house), or to advertise to the outside world. Schemes in which larger parts of the facade are rented as advertising space can also be imagined. Aside from the necessary service installations, the mega-structure already contains service spaces and elevators, and fire escape stairways.

The lobby has two purposes; to draw passers-by into the building, and to send visitors up to the halls in the tower. While the facade seems very open, attracting a lot of attention to the inside, it strictly follows the design guidelines demanding that 50% be closed. Instead of windows in a closed facade, it is made up of billboards in a glass facade. The lobby can best be compared to a train station; it is a busy place, while there is little in itself to do. All the people in it are there on their way to or coming from a destination. The lobby helps the people find their way by giving directions and by its architectural organization. Furthermore, the lobby provides the visitor with images of the various destinations inside the tower. Many people arriving at FunTower will come from the subway station underneath Times Square, which has an exit inside the lobby. Visitors can change in the lobby from the subway to the rollercoaster-train spiraling the tower, or better yet, to the “upway.” The upway are two enormous elevators of 40m², each carrying over 120 passengers. They ride constantly up and down the building along the south facade, stopping once at every hall for 32 seconds, and overlooking 42nd Street. The entire trip from lobby to top hall takes 6 minutes and 10 seconds; this is also the maximum waiting time, since the elevators travel in each others opposite direction. Considering the elevator as a subway train and being inside an amusement park, this is not a long period at all.

The entire building is open 24 hours a day to the public. It is like going to a shopping mall, or to a fair; one only pays when the person wants to participate in an amusement ride, but he is free to look around. Tickets can be bought in different ways; at each amusement itself, a pass for all amusements inside one hall, or a day pass for all amusements in the entire building.