"We created a home for bandwidth-hungry tenants," explains John J. Gilbert, NYITC's chief technology officer. "Our philosophy is to extend the information superhighway from the curbs of our buildings to the users' desktops. We provide that bandwidth to our tenants as any landlord would with heat, water, etc."

The 30-story, 400,000-square-foot 55 Broad St. headquarters can service up to 70 tenants at this time. Those tenants can rent office space and attach their equipment to NYITC's network. Individuals and/or companies may choose among seven service providers for their Internet access and other te lecommunications needs.

Tenants also have the opportunity to select from several platforms available on the center's network. NYITC "controls the last 100 feet of the [information] superhighway," Gilbert says. "The tenants want connectivity and we provide that for them." The NYITC headquarters offers any background information needed to make the final choice.

Satellite connectivity also may be accessed through the NYITC network. Tenants can connect to the 2 Ku band steerable uplinks and various downlink facilities from the headquarters' backbone. Signals from the NYITC satellite system can be bounced off any dish worldwide. Gilbert narrows his greatest challenge to "getting the telecom companies to work together. In our infrastructure, tenants can have NYNEX for local telephone calls and MCI for Internet access."

The Broad Street site also contains a 16-screen, 13-foot diagonal high-resolution video wall in its lobby. According to Gilbert, the video wall is utilized for company presentations and connects to the Internet through a T1. NYITC often hosts education demonstrations geared toward young children. Most recently, the video wall displayed a Hubble spacecraft graphic for the children to learn about that vehicle.

Among those companies that take advantage of these services are N2K (music Web site developers); Discreet Logic (Web site developer using Vapour Virtual Set blue-screen studio to place information digitally on screen), Ascend Communications, Auspex Systems and K2 Designs (online commerce).

The NYITC also wires three other structures in the Wall Street area: Jacob Javits Convention Center, 11 Broadway and 80 Pine St. By June 1997, Gilbert expects to have 14 properties completely hooked into the NYITC network. Capacity will be added as needed. "The beauty of our [network's] design is that it grows with time, based on the t enants' demands," he states.