Stand on Glass Skyboxes 92 Floors Up at SUMMIT
Timed entry to three levels of mirrored rooms, the Levitation skyboxes, and a wrap-around terrace above Grand Central.
The entrance sits inside Grand Central Terminal's main concourse, a few steps from the trains. SUMMIT occupies three levels near the top of One Vanderbilt, and the operator counts 30,375 square feet of mirror spread across them.
Two clocks run during a visit. The mirrored rooms reward slow movement and second looks from different corners, and they hold up in any weather. The glass skyboxes and the open-air terrace depend on the hour and the sky.
Every SUMMIT ticket covers the Levitation skyboxes at no extra charge. One part of the building sits behind a different ticket, and it is the part most people picture first.
Admission covers three floors. The 91st holds Transcendence 1, Reflect and the Affinity balloon room. The 92nd holds Transcendence 2, Levitation and Unity. The 93rd holds Après, the terrace, the boutique and the entrance to Ascent.
The operator sells the elevator as its own ticket tier rather than a door add-on, and its FAQ answers the question plainly: general admission does not carry Ascent. Confirm the package name on the booking page before paying.
Residents of New York City and Long Island pay less on the operator's own site, checked against the billing ZIP code on the card.
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt TicketTimed admission to the three SUMMIT levels at One Vanderbilt.affiliate.klook.comWhat the Mirrors Actually Do
Air is the work of Kenzo Digital and runs across the 91st and 92nd floors. Transcendence 1 and Transcendence 2 stack, and you look down through one into the other. Affinity fills a room with reflective silver balloons at head height. Unity sets a wall-sized moving sky opposite the real one.
The mirrors change what the windows do. One skyline arrives from the ceiling, the floor and four walls at once, and the room reads far larger than its footprint. The operator's own count of mirror surface, 30,375 square feet, is the number that explains the effect.
Worth knowing before you go up:
- The mirrored floors are reflective underfoot and the rooms are dim by design
- Transcendence 2 exits onto Levitation, which makes the skyboxes a natural next stop
- Reflect, an installation the operator credits to Yayoi Kusama, sits on the 91st floor
The 93rd Floor Holds the Upgrades
Ascent is an exterior glass elevator boarding on the 93rd floor. It climbs 12 stories beyond that floor on the outside of the building, with glass underfoot. The operator describes it as the largest all-glass exterior elevator anywhere.
It carries the one real upgrade decision here. The Ascent tier bundles general admission with the elevator, and an all-in-one tier adds a cocktail at Après. Set against entry admission, the elevator tier runs roughly half again the price.
Après is the café and bar on the same floor, designed by Snøhetta. The room comes with admission. Coffee, cocktails and the seasonal bites are charged when you order them.
The terrace wraps the south and west sides of the tower. The operator puts its reach at up to 80 miles and attaches no visibility condition to that number.
How Long to Allow
The operator's own guided tier runs 90 minutes, a reasonable planning anchor for covering the same ground unguided.
A workable order: ride up, walk the two mirrored floors once without stopping to photograph, then go back through a second time. The rooms behave differently once you know where the sightlines land. Levitation and the terrace come after that, and Après last.
Booking about an hour before sunset puts the daylight view and the lit skyline on one ticket. The mirrored rooms hold up in any light. The terrace does not.
Doors open at 8:00 AM, the other end of the posted day, for anyone who would rather have the rooms than the skyline.
Three Ways In
The address is 45 E 42nd St. The operator lists three entrances, and which one you use depends on how you arrive.
- Main Concourse level of Grand Central Terminal, for anyone coming off a train
- Street level at 45 East 42nd Street
- The Transit Hall inside One Vanderbilt, at Vanderbilt Avenue and 43rd Street
All three lead to level B1, where entry and preparation happen before the ride up.
Posted hours are 8:00 AM to 12:00 AM, with last entry at 10:30 PM. The operator lists those as daily hours and publishes no seasonal exception, though the opening time has moved within the past year.
Last entry at 10:30 PM leaves room for an after-dinner visit.
Buying on the operator's own site adds a processing fee to each order. Cancellation and change terms differ by seller, and the terms shown on the booking card above are the ones that apply to a booking made there.