Tag Archives: commercial

Lever House

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Lever House (1952) was New York’s first curtain wall skyscraper, beginning Park Avenue’s switch from masonry to glass buildings. The 24-story green glass tower gave impetus to the International Style of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. What’s more, it led the owner to switch careers, from sales back to architecture! Lever Brothers president Charles Luckman quit the company before Lever House was completed, moved to California and his first love, architecture. (He had trained for architecture at the University of Illinois, but was sidetracked to sales during the Great Depression.)

Though Luckman was involved in Lever House’s design, the architect of record was Gordon Bunshaft of famed Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

Lever House avoided the typical “wedding cake” skyscraper design by occupying less than 25 percent of its lot (an exception to the 1916 zoning law that dictated stepped setbacks to permit sunlight to reach the street). Lever House’s success was widely copied by other tower and plaza designs (notably Mies van der Rohe’s masterpiece Seagram Building, diagonally across the street!).

Most of the Lever House ground floor is open plaza; the glass-enclosed portion includes an art gallery open to the public.

Along with the steel and glass curtain walls came another timely innovation: a window-washing gondola mounted on a rooftop track!

While the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission gave Lever House Landmark status November 9, 1982, the building’s original steel and glass facade had deteriorated. In 1998 Unilever sold the building; the new owners replaced the crumbling steel and glass with an aluminum and glass curtain wall – completed in 2001 and again designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

Lever House Vital Statistics
  • Location: 390 Park Avenue between E 53rd and E 54th Streets
  • Year completed: 1952
  • Architect: Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owens & Merrill
  • Floors: 24
  • Style: International
  • New York City Landmark: 1982
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1983
Lever House Suggested Reading

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Bloomberg Tower

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Bloomberg Tower, aka 731 Lexington Avenue, aka One Beacon Court, is an imaginative 55-story* mixed-use building that occupies the site of the former Alexander’s department store** – the entire block bounded by Lexington and Third Avenues and E58th and E59th Streets. The bottom floors are retail stores and banks; the middle floors are offices – primarily Bloomberg LP; and the top floors are luxury condominium apartments.

The tower may be considered three buildings: A 55-story high-rise on Lexington Avenue, an 11-story building on Third Avenue, and a seven-story atrium – One Beacon Court – bridging the two, like a glass-and-steel semicolon. Vornado Realty Trust was the developer, César Pelli & Associates was the architect.

To accommodate the different needs of commercial and residential space, the lower 30 floors are built on a steel frame; the top 25 floors are concrete. The five-story crown – a bright white beacon at night – contains mechanical equipment, including a tuned mass damper to offset any wind-induced swaying.

While Bloomberg Tower is a child, age-wise (completed 2004), it’s a giant among New York’s residential buildings among the tallest in New York City.

* The building height ranges between 53 and 55 stories, depending on source. The owner’s website states 55 stories.

** I must confess, Alexander’s was demolished before I got re-interested in architecture. The only thing I remember about the store is that lingerie was on the first floor.

Bloomberg Tower Vital Statistics
  • Location: 731 Lexington Avenue between E 58th and E 59th Streets
  • Year completed: 2004
  • Architect: César Pelli & Associates
  • Floors: 55
  • Style: Postmodern
Bloomberg Tower Suggested Reading

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Solow Building

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The Solow Building, also known as 9 West 57th Street, is one of those “love it or hate it” buildings. It’s bold and innovative, meeting New York’s setback zoning requirements with a dramatic swoosh, like the Nike logo. And that’s the problem, say critics – it ruins the block’s cohesiveness, like a 50-story black and white scar.

There’s no denying that the building, taken by itself, is among New York’s most recognizable buildings. Only one other building – the W.R. Grace Building on 42nd Street, by the same architect – looks anything like it.

Since completion in 1974, one major change was made to Solow Building’s 57th Street entry. The escalator bank was replaced with stairs leading down to a restaurant, “8-1/2,” and enclosed in glass. Look to the building’s W 58th Street side for an idea of the “before.”

Solow Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 9 W 57th Street, just off Fifth Avenue
  • Year completed: 1974
  • Architect: Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
  • Floors: 50
  • Style: Postmodern
Solow Building Suggested Reading

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560 Lexington Avenue

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More often than not, architects strive to make their creations stand out. The Eggers Partnership was asked to make 560 Lexington Avenue blend in. Their creation is both outstanding and it blends in with landmark neighbors General Electric Building and St. Bartholomew’s Church.

The 22-story red brick block picks up the colors of its neighbors, the restrained design doesn’t compete with next-door’s towering Art Deco or St. Bart’s Romanesque.

560 Lex takes the place of a school associated with St. Patrick’s Cathedral (two blocks away); a reminder is the Terence Cardinal Cooke – Cathedral Library in the basement level. The library (and subway, below that) have their own entry kiosk built into the two-story arcade that forms the building’s base. The walls above the shops are textured with a “brick sculpture” by Aleksandra Kasuba.

560 Lexington Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 560 Lexington Avenue at E 50th Street
  • Year completed: 1981
  • Architect: Eggers Partnership
  • Floors: 22
  • Style: Modern
560 Lexington Avenue Suggested Reading

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Decoration and Design Building

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The crossroads of the interior design world, Decoration and Design Building claims more than 120 showrooms in its 17 floors. The white brick structure was completed in 1966, and designed by David & Earl Levy.

The building’s “L” shape shows a profile from every angle, clearly demonstrating New York City’s zoning law: Steeper setbacks facing wide Third Avenue, a more pronounced slope along the narrower streets. The E 58th Street side, in particular, shows artful symmetry. Ribbon windows wrap around all corners. The base of the building is an arcade of display windows.

Decoration and Design Building’s Third Avenue lobby continues the showcase theme: It’s a series of display cases under a low white barrel vault ceiling, what the owners call a “showhall.”

Decoration and Design Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 979 Third Avenue between E 58th and E 59th Streets
  • Year completed: 1966
  • Architect: David & Earl Levy
  • Floors: 17
  • Style: Modernism
Decoration and Design Building Suggested Reading

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Worldwide Plaza

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Worldwide Plaza is the whole-block development of William Zeckendorf, Jr. that helped reshape the Clinton neighborhood in 1989. (Not everyone agreed that that was a good thing, but there you go.)

Formerly the site of Madison Square Garden, the development includes One Worldwide Plaza, a 50-story office tower on Eighth Avenue; Two Worldwide Plaza, a 38-story condominium apartment tower located mid-block; and Three Worldwide Plaza (aka The Residences at Worldwide Plaza), a seven-story condominium complex on Ninth Avenue. (The Residences also include ground-floor retail spaces.) A plaza separates the two towers, and an off-Broadway theater is built under the plaza.

The office tower was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; the residential units were designed by Frank Williams. The copper-and-glass crown on One Worldwide Plaza is known as “David’s Diamond,” after SOM architect David Childs.

Destined for landmark status, Worldwide Plaza is not loved by all. The “AIA Guide to New York City” sniffs, “Heavy-handed, the office tower aspires to the serene solidity of Rockefeller Center, but lacks that center’s graceful slenderness, setbacks and elegant understated urban space: Rockefeller Plaza and its skating rink.”

Worldwide Plaza was important enough for PBS to film a four-part documentary, “Reach For The Sky” and companion book “Skyscraper: The Making of a Building.” (Links to both, below.)

One Worldwide Plaza Vital Statistics
  • Location: Eighth Avenue between W 49th and W 50th Streets
  • Year completed: 1989
  • Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
  • Floors: 50
  • Style: Postmodern
Two Worldwide Plaza Vital Statistics
  • Location: Between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, block-through W 49th to W 50th Street
  • Year completed: 1989
  • Architect: Frank Williams
  • Floors: 38
  • Style: Postmodern
Three Worldwide Plaza Vital Statistics
  • Location: Ninth Avenue between W 49th and W 50th Streets
  • Year completed: 1989
  • Architect: Frank Williams
  • Floors: 7
Worldwide Plaza Suggested Reading

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International Plaza

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International Plaza (aka 750 Lexington Avenue) brings striking colors and shapes to upper midtown Manhattan – though not without a puzzle or two.

The 30-story office tower was designed by Helmut Jahn and completed in 1988. The conical-stepped crown – visible only from a distance – is the structure’s most distinctive feature; it caps a cobalt blue glass cylinder buttressed by glass and granite wings above a 13-floor granite and glass base. From certain angles the tower reminds one of a satellite with its solar arrays unfurled. The glass and steel of the building’s granite base are tinted blue-green; along Lexington Avenue, the street-level stores have two-floor bowed display windows. The base is set back generously along East 59th and East 60th Streets and Lexington Avenue – not quite the plaza that the building’s name claims, but more than twice the average sidewalk width for the neighborhood.

Two puzzles erupt from International Plaza’s side facades. The main entrance on East 59th Street is under a boxy three-story portico that doesn’t seem to fit. And on the East 60th Street side, a four-story grey box juts out into the sidewalk, with no apparent purpose. Further, the box is pierced by windows and doors of another era, as though torn from the face of a brownstone. A memorial to a former occupant of the site?

As it turns out, that is what remains of 134 E 60th Street, a townhouse whose last tenant refused to move. The stubborn holdout died in the 1990s, but the townhouse remains. (Untapped Cities blog).

Chicago-based Helmut Jahn designed five other distinctive buildings in New York – three of which were completed in 1987: 425 Lexington Avenue (31 floors, across E43rd Street from the Chrysler building); CitySpire Center (75 floors); Park Avenue Tower (36 floors); America Apartments (37 floors). The fifth (and most recent – 1989) structure is the 12-story Metropolitan Transportation Authority building in downtown Brooklyn.

International Plaza Vital Statistics
  • Location: 750 Lexington Avenue between E 59th and E 60th Streets
  • Year completed: 1988
  • Architect: Helmut Jahn
  • Floors: 30
  • Style: Postmodern
International Plaza Suggested Reading

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Park Avenue Tower

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Located just two blocks north of New York’s landmark Lever House, Park Avenue Tower is intriguing faceted architecture, with so many angled planes it would seem more at home in the Diamond District. It might also be more at home on Park Avenue proper instead of up the block – a point that The New York Times made in its commentary.

Blue tinted glass and gray granite are the predominant colors on upper floors; rose-colored granite and glass spandrels predominate on the seven-story base. The E 55th Street entrance has a small plaza, the E 56th Street entrance is almost flush with the property line. The primary tenant – Paul Hastings – has its own entry on the downtown side.

The 36-story building was designed by Helmut Jahn (Murphy/Jahn) and completed in 1987. The Chicago-based architect designed five other distinctive buildings in New York – three of which were completed in 1987: 425 Lexington Avenue (31 floors, across E 43rd Street from the Chrysler building); CitySpire Center (75 floors); International Plaza (30 floors); The America apartments (37 floors). The fifth (and most recent – 1989) structure is the 12-story Metropolitan Transportation Authority building in downtown Brooklyn.

Park Avenue Tower Vital Statistics
  • Location: 65 E 55th Street between Madison and Park Avenues
  • Year Completed: 1987
  • Architect: Helmut Jahn
  • Floors: 36
  • Style: Postmodern
Park Avenue Tower Suggested Reading

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Masonic Hall

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Masonic Hall and the associated Masonic Building owe their existence to a third building, the Masonic Temple, which was demolished in 1910. The Masonic Temple was designed by by Napoleon LeBrun (himself a Mason) and erected on W 23rd Street in 1870. The Masons built Masonic Hall on adjoining property on W 24th Street as an addition to the Temple, in 1909. Harry P. Knowles, head-draftsman of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons (and also a Mason), designed the addition. The Masons then decided to replace the Masonic Temple with a loft building, to generate income to finance the lodge’s activities. This building, too, was designed by Knowles and erected in 1913.

Both Masonic Hall and Masonic Building are designed on the three-part scheme that treats tall buildings as classical columns: base, shaft and capital. Masonic Hall was designed in Beaux Arts style, Masonic Building in neo-Renaissance style; both are built without setbacks, as they were erected before the 1916 zoning law change. The buildings are interconnected via a pedestrian passage with shops and a restaurant.

Masonic Hall and Masonic Building are included in the Ladies Mile Historic District, designated by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1989.

Harry P. Knowles also designed Mecca Temple on W 55th Street – now known as City Center.

Masonic Hall Vital Statistics
  • Location: 46 W 24th Street at Sixth Avenue
  • Year completed: 1909
  • Architect: Harry P. Knowles
  • Floors: 18
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1989
Masonic Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 71 W 23rd Street at Sixth Avenue
  • Year completed: 1913
  • Architect: Harry P. Knowles
  • Floors: 19
  • Style: neo-Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1989
Masonic Hall & Building Suggested Reading

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Greeley Square Building

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Greeley Square Building was designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag, prolific architects who specialized in residential projects in New York City. The Renaissance Revival-style office building is attractive and prominent, one block south of Greeley Square, but by no means famous. But it does point to a minor mystery.

The firm of Gronenberg & Leuchtag filed 309 new building applications in New York City between 1910 and 1931, according to the Office of Metropolitan History new buildings database (based on NYC Department of Buildings records). As mentioned, the company specialized in residential buildings, but also designed hotels, commercial office buildings, lofts, houses of worship, theaters, even Turkish baths.

Yet there doesn’t seem to be a real record of the architects. No books, no Wikipedia entry, no website pages about Gronenberg & Leuchtag. Lots of complimentary references to the firm in listings and articles about G & L buildings – references to “the famed Gronenberg & Leuchtag,” and “the prolific Gronenberg & Leuchtag,” but no articles (that I could find with Google) about the Gronenberg & Leuchtag firm or its principals. The most that I could find, in several hours of online research, was this paragraph from the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Grand Concourse Historic District Designation Report:

Herman Gronenberg and Albert J. H. Leuchtag formed a successful architectural partnership and were active in the first decades of the 20th century. The firm specialized in the design of apartment buildings and examples of their work can be seen in the Upper East Side and Extension, Expanded Carnegie Hill, NoHo, and Greenwich Village Historic Districts. Gronenberg died in 1931 and five years later the New York Times announced that A. J. H. Leuchtag had resumed the practice of architecture. In the Grand Concourse Historic District the firm designed five apartment buildings.

So today’s puzzle: How can architects who averaged a new building application every 25 days for 21 years remain so invisible? If you know the answer, please let me know. Thank you!

Greeley Square Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 875 Sixth Avenue / 101 W31st Street
  • Year completed: 1927
  • Architect: Gronenberg & Leuchtag
  • Floors: 25
  • Style: Renaissance Revival
Greeley Square Building Suggested Reading

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