CONTEMPORARY NY
Top Ten NYC Architecture top twenty skyscrapers  
     
1 World Trade Center  

architect

Minoru Yamasaki

location

Church to West Streets, Liberty to Vesey Streets   

date

1966-70 (Destroyed 2001).

style

International Style II

construction

 

type

Office Building
 
     
2 Empire State Building  

architect

Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, William F. Lamb as chief designer

location

350 Fifth Ave., bet. W33 and W34

date

1930-1931

style

Art Deco

construction

Steel frame 102 floors, 1252 feet, 381 meters high. Effective use of setbacks to emphasize tower.
The building is clad in Indiana limestone and granite, with the mullions lined in shiny aluminium. There are in all 6,500 windows, with spandrels sandblasted to blend their tone to that of the windows, visually creating the vertical striping on the facade. The windows and spandrels are also flush with the limestone facing, an aesthetic and economic decision.

type

Office Building
  Click here for an Empire State Building gallery

The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York City, New York at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building became for the second time, the tallest building in New York City.

The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In 2007, it was ranked number one on the List of America's Favorite Architecture according to the AIA. The building is owned by Harold Helmsley's company and managed by its management/leasing division Helmsley-Spear.
 
     
3 Chrysler Building  

architect

William Van Alen

location

405 Lexington Avenue at 42nd Street 

date

1928-1930

style

Art Deco  

construction

77 floors, 319.5m (1048 feet) high, 29961 tons of steel, 3,826,000 bricks, near 5000 windows. Cost: $ 20,000,000
The building is clad in white brick and dark gray brickwork is used as horizontal decoration to enhance the window rows. The eccentric crescent-shaped steps of the spire (spire scaffolding) were made of stainless steel (or rather, similar nirosta chrome-nickel steel) as a stylized sunburst motif, and underneath it steel gargoyles, depicting American eagles (image), stare over the city. Sculptures modeled after Chrysler automobile radiator caps (image) decorate the lower setbacks, along with ornaments of car wheels. 

The three storeys high, upwards tapering entrance lobby has a triangular form, with entrances from three sides, Lexington Avenue, 42nd and 43rd Streets. The lobby is lavishly decorated with Red Moroccan marble walls, sienna-coloured floor and onyx, blue marble and steel in Art Deco compositions. The ceiling murals, painted by Edward Trumbull, praise the modern-day technical progress -- and of course the building itself and its builders at work. The lobby was refurbished in 1978 by JCS Design Assocs. and Joseph Pell Lombardi. 

type

Office Building
  Click here for Chrysler Building gallery
 
     
4 Rockefeller Center  

architect

Associated Architects

location

30 Rockefeller Plaza, bet W50 and W51. West 48th to 51st Streets between 5th and 6th Avenues

date

1931-1933

style

Art Deco  

construction

Steel frame with limestone cladding

type

Office Building

 

see also GE Building, originally RCA Building

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st Streets in New York City. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It is the largest privately held complex of its kind in the world, and an international symbol of modernist architectural style blended with capitalism.

The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of the Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC. At 850 feet (259 meters) tall, the 70-story building is the 8th tallest building in New York City and the 32nd tallest in the United States. The building is sometimes referred to as 30 Rock, a reference to its address at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
 
     
5 Woolworth Building  

architect

Cass Gilbert

location

233 Broadway  

date

1911-1913

style

Neo-GothicArt Deco

construction

Height: 792 feet, 241 meters
Rising from a 27-storey base, with limestone and granite lower floors, the tower is clad in white terra-cotta and capped with an elaborate set-back Gothic top, with the spire rising to the height of 241.5 m. It was to be the tallest building in the world for 17 years, until the completion of the 40 Wall Street. 

type

Office Building
 
     
6 United Nations Headquarters  

architect

United Nations Board of Design, headed by Wallace K. Harrison, overall composition by Le Corbusier

location

United Nations Plaza (First Avenue bet. 42nd and 48th Streets)

date

1947-53

style

International Style II  

construction

New York's earliest glass curtain wall, 38 stories or 544 feet tall

type

Office Building
 
     
7 Seagram Building  

architect

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson (interiors) and Kahn & Jacobs

location

375 Park Ave.  (at 53rd Street)

date

1958

style

International Style II  

construction

The plan of the building is based on a 8.50 m grid, pursued to unprecedented Miesian accuracy. The elevator core is placed to the back of the building, forming the protruding, windowless back wall of the tower. 
Set on bronze-clad pillars, the 38-storey facade consists of alternating bands of bronze plating and "whisky brown"-tinted glass (the material and colour choices were a result of Bronfman's insistance of having a warmer-toned facade than in the Lake Shore Drive Apts). The building was, notably, the first with floor-to-ceiling windows, making the wall a true curtain of glass, as foreseen by the visionaries of Modern Movement, like Mies himself. Between the windows, there are vertical decorative bronze I-profiled beams attached to the mullions to emphasize the vertical rise of the facade. Van der Rohe personally stated that this was his only building in the United States which met exactly his European standards. 

type

Office Building
 
     
8 Lever House  

architect

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Gordon Bunshaft as chief designer

location

390 Park Ave.  (at 53rd Street)

date

1948-52

style

International Style II

construction

This 24-storey building replaced the heavy (and heavy-looking as well) masonry walls of the contemporary skyscrapers with mere green-tinted glass curtains and stainless steel sheathing. Although the building was also criticized for its appearance amidst the old masonry apartment houses, it was nevertheless usually taken with enthusiasm as a pioneer of the new style. 
The top of the low horizontal base also functions as an outside "elevated" plaza, accessible from the employee cafeteria at the base of the tower. 
The vertical main mass of the building raises on columns from the base and is positioned at right angles to Park Avenue, with the wider portion of the tower slab facing south. The tower is set back 30 m from the south building line and 13 m from the north, giving the office premises an unprecedented amount of light and air. It was also the first fully climate-controlled, fixed-windowed office building in NYC. The top three floors, distinguishable on the facade, house technical installations and machinery. 

type

Office Building
 
     
9 McGraw-Hill Building  

architect

Raymond Hood with Godley & Fouilhoux

location

330 W42, Bet. Eighth and Ninth Aves. 

date

1930-1931

style

Art Deco Streamline Moderne International Style I  

construction

The entrance sports dynamic Art Deco decor, whereas the 35-storey facade itself is non-ornamented, with glazed tiling (blue-green coloured terra-cotta brick that grades in hue as the building rises) between horizontal stripes of large, green metal-framed windows, giving an unprecedented amount of light. The more decorative top of the building, with the name of the company displayed in large Art Deco letters, is again less strict. 
The use of horizontal bands of windows -- and disposing of the traditional masonry walls in favour of totally using the advantages of steel frame -- was dictated by the need to secure as much natural light as possible. The form of the building also follows the usage of its interior, with the lower floors housing the company's printing plant, with office floors occupying the tower above and executive floors at the top. 
The lobby of the building is decorated with opaque Carrera glass and stainless steel. 

type

Office Building
 
     
10 TRUMP BUILDING  

architect

H. Craig Severance & Yasuo Matsui, Shreve & Lamb
Engineers: Starrett Bros. & Eken  Clients/Developers:Bank of Manhattan Trust Company

location

40 Wall Street between William and Broad Streets

date

1930

style

Art Deco  

construction

281,8m / 927.0ft.120.141sq. m. / 1,300,000sq. ft.72 floors steel structure
 limestone

type

Office Building
 
     
11 THE BUSH TOWER  

architect

Helmle & Corbett

location

130 W 42nd St 

date

1916-1918

style

Art Deco   Gothic  

construction

The building site is only 15 m wide and 27.5 m deep, and the architects remarked that they wanted to make the building "a model for the tall, narrow building in the center of a city block." And it was regarded as such for the next decade of feverish urban construction. 
The style of the building follows the "traditional" early skyscraper style with its Gothic appearance -- English this time. On the side facaces, trompe l'oeil brickwork creates vertical "ribs" with a fake "shade" pattern to enhance the verticality. The windows are concentrated to the north and south facades, as well as to a recessed mid-facade light-well on the east facade. 

type

Office Building

THE NARROW 32-story Bush Tower was the first skyscraper built after the Zoning Code of 1916, but it had been designed before the code went into effect. Nonetheless, Harvey Wiley Corbett accurately foresaw how architects would respond to the new setback envelope presented by the code.
 
     
12 American International Building  

architect

Clinton & Russell and Holton & George

location

70 Pine St.   

date

1930-1932

style

Art Deco

construction

Height: 952 ft (290 m), 66 floors

type

Office Building
 
     
13 Hearst Magazine Building  

architect

Joseph Urban, tower Sir Norman Foster

location

951-969 Eighth Ave at W47. 

date

1928, tower 2004.

style

Art Moderne, tower Late Modern

construction

stone

type

Office Building
 
     
14 Time Warner Center  

architect

David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

location

10 Columbus Circle

date

2003

style

Late Modern (International Style III)  

construction

Height: 750 ft (229 m)  Floors over ground: 55

type

Office Building

The Time Warner Center is a mixed-use skyscraper developed by The Related Companies in New York City. Its design, by David Childs and Mustafa Kemal Abadan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, consists of two 229 m (750 ft) towers bridged by a multi-story atrium containing upscale retail shops. Construction began in November 2000, following the demolition of the New York Coliseum, and a topping-out ceremony was held on February 27, 2003. It is the property with the highest-listed market value in New York City, $1.1 billion in 2006. Originally constructed as the "AOL Time Warner Center," the building surrounds half of Columbus Circle in Midtown Manhattan. The total floor area of 260,000 m² (2.8 million ft²) is divided between offices (notably the offices of Time Warner Inc.), residential condominiums, and the Mandarin Oriental hotel. The Shops at Columbus Circle is an upscale shopping mall located in a curving arcade at the base of the building, with a large Whole Foods Market grocery store in the basement. The complex is also home to a 1,200 seat theater for Jazz at Lincoln Center as well as CNN studios, from where Anderson Cooper 360° and Lou Dobbs Tonight, among other shows, are broadcast live. CNN's Jeanne Moos, known for her offbeat "man on the street" reporting, frequently accosts her interview subjects just outside the building. In 2005, Jazz at Lincoln Center announced a partnership with XM Satellite Radio which gave XM studio space at Frederick P. Rose Hall to broadcast both daily jazz programming and special events such as an Aartist Confidential show featuring Carlos Santana.
 
15 Chanin Building  

architect

Sloan & Robertson  (René Chambellan and Jacques L. Delamarre for the lobby and the ornementation)

location

122 East 42nd Street  (southwest corner of Lexington Avenue)

date

1927-1929

style

Art Deco

construction

Steel frame.  56 floors, 207m (680 feet) high. Cost: $14,000,000
The steel frame is clad in buff brick and terra cotta and it is set back in conformance with the 1916 Zoning Law. The facade illustrates the introduction of colored glass, stone and metal on the exterior of tall buildings. Materials such as bronze, Belgian marble and terra-cotta are used here in an inventive and exuberant way.

type

Office Building

The Chanin Building is a skyscraper located at 122 East 42nd Street in New York City. Built by Irwin S. Chanin in 1929, it is 56 stories high, reaching 197.8 metres excluding the spire (207.3 metres/680 feet including spire). It was designed by Sloan & Robertson in the Art Deco style, [1] and incorporates architectural sculpture by Rene Paul Chambellan. When originally completed, the 50th floor had a silver-and-black high-brow movie theater. This floor and the 51st are now offices joined by a stairwell instead. Initially a dominant landmark in the midtown skyline, the building had an open air observatory on the 54th floor. [2] Having been surpassed in height by a number of buildings, most notably, the Chrysler Building located across the street, the observatory has been long closed.
 
     
16 One  Wall Street  

architect

Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker 

location

One  Wall Street, at Broadway 

date

1931

style

Art Deco

construction

limestone

type

Bank

In contrast to the American Surety Building, where height is minimized by the subdivision of its facade, the design of the Irving Trust building has an insistent verticality which emphasizes its tall form. This set back skyscraper is modeled as if it was chiselled out of a single piece of stone and it is a good example of the Art Deco style popular in the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s. The building's pointed windows echo the Gothic details of Trinity Church across the street, and its Art Deco interior is one of the finest in New York City.
 
     
17 Majestic Apartments  

architect

Jacques Delamarre
Like the Century Apartments, the Majestic was developed by Irwin S. Chanin (who was also behind the Chanin Building in Midtown).

location

115 Central Park West 

date

1930-1931

style

Art Deco

construction

The base is of limestone, with the upper facade clad in light brown brick. The designer from Chanin's namesake building, René Chambellan, designed the patterned brickwork of the facade. The main mass below the setbacks and towers has columnless corners which form glazed solariums within the corner apartments.
The wall on the slightly protruding tower facades extends as piers to the top to form riblike protrusions. On the west side, the wings of the tower have similar, albeit curved, tops of true Art Deco nature.

type

Apartment Building
 
     
18 American Standard (Radiator) Building  

architect

Raymond Hood & André Fouilhoux

location

40 West 40th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues, south of Bryant Park) 

date

1923-1924

style

Art Deco, neo-gothic

construction

Steel frame, 23 stories, 102.7 m (337 feet) high 
The black brickwork on the facade was chosen to lessen the visual contrast between the walls and the windows and thus give the tower an effect of solidity and massiveness. The Gothic-style pinnacles and the terra-cotta friezes on the edges of the setbacks are coated with gold. 
The base is clad in bronze plating and black granite. There are carved allegories, symbolizing the transformation of matter into energy, quite appropriate for a heater company. The entrance lobby is decorated with black marble and mirrors. 

type

Office Building
 
     
19 General Electric Building  

architect

Cross & Cross

location

570 Lexington Avenue at 51st St.

date

1929-1931

style

Art Deco

construction

194,6m / 640.0ft, 50 floors  salmon brick, terra-cotta
The base is of rose-coloured granite, while the set-back mass above and the tower shaft are clad in glazed tan brick. 
The undoubtedly most striking feature of this 195 m tall building is its, indeed, flamboyant top, a curious mixture of Gothic spires in limestone and brickwork with wavy, filigree style decoration and lightning bolt motifs, depicting the electricity of radio transmission waves sent by the Radio Corporation of America. At night this "crown" of the building is illuminated from within, making the top look like a giant torch. 
The entrance lobby has a vaulted ceiling of aluminium plating with sunburst motifs and walls of light pink marble. The lamp fixtures are of aquamarine-colored glass. 

type

Office Building

The General Electric Building is a historic 50-floor skyscraper in Midtown New York City, United States, at 570 Lexington Avenue (southwest corner of Lexington and 51st Street). Originally known as the "RCA Victor Building" when designed by Cross and Cross in 1931, and sometimes known by its address to avoid confusion with the later GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Center.
It backs up to the low Byzantine dome of St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue and shares the same salmon brick color. But from Lexington, the building is an insistently tall 50-floor stylized Gothic tower with its own identity, a classic Art Deco visual statement of suggested power through simplification. The base contains elaborate, generous masonry, architectural figural sculpture, and at on the corner above the main entrance, a conspicuous corner clock with the curvy GE logo and a pair of silver disembodied forearms. The crown of the building is a dynamic-looking burst of Gothic tracery, which is supposed to represent radio waves, and is lit from within at night.
 
     
20 885 Third Ave Lipstick Building  

architect

Philip Johnson & John Burgee

location

885 Third Ave., between East 53rd and East 54th Streets

date

1986

style

Post-Modernism  

construction

The 143 m tall building consists of four oval-shaped cylinders placed above each other, each smaller in diameter than the one below, creating the building a set-back appearance. On the 36-storey facade, red granite spandrels alternate with the shiny steel of horizontal window bands.
The elliptical lobby has a colonnade of steel-banded and round pillars along the glassed outer wall line, and the columns double on the outside, forming a narrow arcade there.

type

Office Building

The Lipstick Building is Johnson's second postmodern contribution to the Manhattan skyline, following his nearby AT&T Building two years earlier. This time the unusual shape, which has given the building its nickname, was a requirement of the developer, to make the building stand out and compensate for the less fashionable location of Third Avenue. The elliptical shape also claims to make all the exterior offices "corner" offices.
 
     
21 Municipal Building  

architect

McKim, Mead & White, William M. Kendall as chief designer

location

1 Centre St.  

date

1914

style

Roman Imperial, Renaissance Revival  
Basing the design on their competition entry for Grand Central Station, McKim Mead and White interpreted New York City's greatest civic skyscraper in an eclectic fashion incorporating elements from from Roman Imperial, Italian Renaissance and French Renaissance architecture. The tripartite facade organization echoes that of a classical column. An arcaded loggia forms a triumphal arch marking the terminal point of Chambers Street. Above the ground floor colonnade, sculptural reliefs emphasize civic virtues: Progress, Civic Duty, Guidance and Executive Power, Civic Pride and Prudence. Emblems of municipal departments adorn panels between the second floor windows.

construction

60.070sq. m. / 650,000sq. ft., 169,9m / 559.0ft, 40 floors, light-colored Maine granite
The design was influenced by the "City Beautiful" movement of the 1890s which promoted plans for creating public buildings in landscaped parks. The mid-part of the 34-storey tripartite facade is a U-shaped mass of austere light-toned granite over a high colonnade that forms the building's base and separates a front yard from the sidewalk. The top facade forms a colonnade of Corinthian columns and pilasters. 
On the top, above the middle section of the building, there are three tiered drums on top of another, flanked by four smaller pinnacle turrets, symbolizing the four boroughs joined to Manhattan. At the height of 177 m stands the 6 m high statue Civic Fame by Adolph A. Weinman, New York City's second largest statue after the Statue of Liberty. The statue holds a crown with five turrets, symbolizing New York City's five boroughs

type

Government 
  Click here for a MUNICIPAL BUILDING gallery