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In Real Estate there seems to be a trend to use "one" in place 1.
One Madison(NYC), One57(NYC), One WTC(NYC), One Park Drive(NYC), One One One (Brisbane) and many more. Is there any reason to do this? Where did this trend come from?

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  • For what it's worth, ever since it was built in the 1970s, it's been "One Police Plaza" (NYC PD HQ). I've also seen numbers other than "One", including some three-digit numbers ("Three Sixty", but I forgot which Avenue it was on).
    – Jeff Zeitlin
    Commented May 15, 2019 at 15:13
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    Welcome to EL&U, but this is really a question about marketing, not English. In any case, there isn't any "trend" to name buildings by their addresses, which has been done as long as street addresses have existed in the U.S., and I doubt there is a "trend" to spell out street numbers, which has been done not just in names but in street addresses, especially single-digit street numbers as they are uncommon in the U.S. and sometimes taken as errors. Similarly, I Street in Washington, D.C. is commonly represented as Eye Street.
    – choster
    Commented May 15, 2019 at 15:24

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There are two obvious reasons for using the word rather than the numeral.

  1. The number is being treated as a proper name rather than merely a postal address. Many high end restaurants like to use its number in this way. Most particularly this is true of some upmarket commercial properties, such as One Hyde Park in London, England. This is a combination of luxury apartments and retail in the heart of Mayfair.
  2. Prestige is the second motivation, and why such addresses are to be found in real estate offices. The pencil thin One Madison, where all the moneybag residents have a whole floor to themselves, is a case in point: address as status symbol.
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