Pershing Square Building
Pershing Square Building | |
---|---|
SL Green | |
Height | |
Architectural | 363 ft (111 m) |
Roof | 329 ft (100 m) |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 24 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | John Sloan |
Architecture firm | Sloan & Robertson York and Sawyer |
Developer | Henry Mandel |
Main contractor | |
New York City Landmark | |
Designated | November 22, 2016[1] |
Reference no. | 2556 |
References | |
[2] |
The Pershing Square Building, also known as 125 Park Avenue or 100 East 42nd Street, is a 25-story office building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the eastern side of Park Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets, across from Grand Central Terminal to the north and adjacent to 110 East 42nd Street to the east.
The Pershing Square Building was designed in the
The Pershing Square Building, as well as 110 East 42nd Street, were built on the site of the Grand Union Hotel. Construction started in 1921 and was completed in 1923. Ownership of the Pershing Square Building passed to several companies; the latest such change occurred in 2010, when
Site
The Pershing Square Building is at 125 Park Avenue in the
The
Architecture
The building was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by the firms of Sloan & Robertson and York & Sawyer.[2] The design shares many elements with 110 East 42nd Street directly to the east, which was also designed by York & Sawyer.[8]
Form
John Sloan's plan for the Pershing Square Building called for a U-shaped tower above a five-story rectangular base, used in many other New York City skyscrapers erected before the 1916 Zoning Resolution. Above that would be a 14-story middle section, with a recessed "light court" on the eighth floor, followed by a five-story top section and two recessed attic floors.[9] The original plans called for shops and restaurants in the first floor and basement.[10][9]
The design was later changed to fit with the neighboring 110 East 42nd Street.[11][9] As ultimately built, the structure rises from a square 7-story base with 3-story-high decorative arches on the lowest three floors. The tower above the seventh floor continues in a U-shaped configuration to the top floor.[12] The second floor would be 30 feet (9.1 m) high and would be used as a banking floor. The 20 floors above it were to be used as office floors.[13] The wall between the Pershing Square Building and 110 East 42nd was made of hollow tile, as a brick wall would have been too heavy for the foundation, and would have necessitated the removal of the top five or six stories of both buildings.[14]
Sloan also had to design the top floors in order to meet the conditions that the BSA had set in exchange for allowing the Pershing Square Building's zoning variance. For instance, since the cornice could not project more than 1 foot (30 cm) from the building lot line, Sloan's design incorporated corbelling at the top of the facade, and a setback two-story attic above the 23rd floor. The 24th-floor attic is located about 7 feet (2.1 m) behind the building boundary and mostly consists of one story with a hip roof. There are also gable-roofed 25th-story penthouses at 41st and 42nd Streets.[15] The attics, with their roofs made of red tiles, resembled "a villa on the hilltop", as described by architect Charles Downing Lay.[15][16]
Facade
The building
The decorated terracotta tiles were manufactured by Atlantic Terra Cotta, which used small pieces to provide a similarity with the brick cladding.[18] Atlantic Terra Cotta roughened the terracotta pieces before burning them so that they would appear to be a rough surface. The tiles' colors were characterized by Atlantic Terra Cotta's journal as "a soft gray fire-flashed with golden brown".[9][12][14] The color spotting was meant to "tone the marked variations down into a softly harmonious play of color".[18]
Much of the ornamentation is located at the base, particularly around the banking facility on the second floor. These decorations include columns whose capitals depict dolphins, shields, and eagles.[15] One of the figures at the fifth-floor level represents a Roman caduceator, or peace commissioner. He holds a caduceus in one hand as an emblem of office and, in the other, a cornucopia to suggest the benefits of a prospective peace.[15][12]
Subway entrance
The
History
In 1913, the Dual Contracts were signed by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), two companies who operated parts of the present New York City Subway.[21] A set of platforms at Grand Central, now serving the IRT Lexington Avenue Line (4, 5, 6, and <6> trains), was to be built diagonally under the building site as part of the agreement.[22][23] At the time, the site under the proposed station was occupied by Grand Union Hotel, which was condemned via eminent domain in February 1914.[24] The condemnation proceedings for the hotel cost $3.5 million (equal to $76.3 million in 2023[a]).[25] To pay the station's construction cost, the Public Service Commission approved the construction of a 25-story building above the station.[26] By May 1915, the building site had been excavated for the construction of the building.[23] Despite the passage of the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which required architectural setbacks to provide light to the streets below, the building plans conformed with the older zoning codes, which did not require setbacks.[22]
Though the IRT Lexington Avenue Line's 42nd Street station opened in 1918,
Planning and construction
By September 1920, Mandel had created the Pershing Square Building Corporation, of which he was majority stockholder.[28][41] The corporation was headed by Leidesdorf.[42] In January 1921, the Pershing Square Building Corporation received title to the site, with conditions that necessitated a subway entrance and a maximum building height and weight. Mandel gave the Bowery Savings Bank the eastern half of the hotel site, which would be developed into an office building at 110 East 42nd Street.[28] As per the purchase agreement between the bank and the corporation, the structures were to contain interlocking structures,[43] including what was believed to be the city's tallest party wall separating two buildings.[40]
Mandel hired architect John Sloan to create a design for a building, and Sloan had submitted preliminary plans by May 1921.[43] According to Sloan's plans, the structure would contain no setbacks, contravening the 1916 Zoning Resolution.[43][11] Though the Fifth Avenue Association filed a complaint with the city's Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) to enforce the zoning code, Sloan stated that the inclusion of setbacks would be structurally unsafe, expensive, as well as a contravention of the existing agreement. The BSA ruled in favor of the Pershing Square Building Corporation,[43] as the footings had been laid before the zoning resolution was passed.[10] As such, the Pershing Square Building was the last tall building constructed after the 1916 Zoning Resolution that did not contain setbacks or a front plaza.[43]
The firm
Later history
When the Pershing Square Building was completed in 1923, it immediately became popular among tenants. A mezzanine above the second floor, also designed by Sloan, was added in 1924 when Pacific Bank rented space in the building.[15][46] The following year, in 1925, real estate operator Louis Frankel filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court against Samuel Leidesdorf, alleging that he had been denied the profits from the Pershing Square Building's construction, and sought to have all stock in the Pershing Square Building Corporation transferred to him.[47] The State Supreme Court subsequently ruled against Frankel.[48]
The Pershing Square Building was renamed the Continental Can Building when the
The Pershing Square Building received several renovations, especially in the 1990s and 2000s. The upper floors' masonry and windows were replaced; the ground-level facades at Park Avenue and 42nd Street were renovated; and the lobby was renovated with a new 42nd Street entrance in 2006–2008.[50] The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) hosted public hearings in 2013 to determine whether the Pershing Square Building and four other structures in East Midtown should be designated as New York City landmarks. SL Green opposed a potential landmark designation for the Pershing Square Building and the nearby Graybar Building, which it also owned, saying that the designations would prevent SL Green from improving access to the Grand Central–42nd Street station.[55] In mid-2016, the LPC proposed protecting twelve buildings in East Midtown, including the Graybar Building, in advance of proposed changes to the area's zoning.[56][57] On November 22, 2016, the LPC designated the Pershing Square Building and ten other nearby buildings as city landmarks.[58][59][1]
Tenants
A New-York Tribune article in January 1923 stated that, although the Pershing Square Building was not complete yet, its space was 60% leased.[15][60] At the time, the lessees included International Paper[61] and the Royal Baking Powder Company, as well as York & Sawyer's own offices.[60] The second-floor banking space was leased by Pacific Bank in 1924, and the company added a mezzanine above the existing hall.[15][46] Attorneys, realtors, and insurance and investment companies also took space in the building, as did those in the architecture and building construction industry.[15]
The Pershing Square Building served as a hub or offices for several transportation companies in the bus and aviation industries. In 1929, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad started using the Pershing Square Building as one of its waiting rooms for intercity buses, after its previous terminal at Pennsylvania Station had closed down.[62] Besides American Airlines, other airlines such as Trans-Canada Air Lines and Northwest Airlines also rented space in the building.[50] Manhattan Air Terminal, Inc. opened an airline ticket office in the Pershing Square Building's banking room mezzanine in 1972, selling tickets for flights on various airlines.[63]
There were numerous tenants who took space in the Pershing Square Building for several decades. These included Pacific Bank, who occupied the second and second-mezzanine floors starting in 1924;[15][46] American Maize Products Company, which moved into the building in 1929;[15] the company of advertiser William Esty, which rented the entire 23rd floor in 1930;[15][64] and the executive offices of American Airlines, which rented four floors in 1943.[15][65] From 1945 to 1970, the building was named for the American Can Company, who took up the 24th and 25th floors.[15]
The electronics company
Critical reception
The Pershing Square Building's brick-clad facade was unprecedented at the time of its construction.[17] The architect Robert A. M. Stern, in his book New York 1930, called the use of brick ornamentation on the Pershing Square Building's brick facade "increasingly important" as the Lombard Revival architectural movement grew in New York City in later years.[68]
Later reviews were more critical; in 2013, the Real Estate Board of New York published a report claiming that the Pershing Square Building's design "was old-fashioned even before it was finished".[69] Real Estate Weekly said in July 2016, prior to the building's landmark designation that November, that "The building is notably absent from the AIA Guide for New York City", a guidebook of architecturally significant structures in New York City.[70]
References
Notes
- ^ Gross Domestic Product deflatorfigures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
- ^ Mandel was later known for constructing other projects such as the London Terrace apartment complex in Chelsea, Manhattan[36]
Citations
- ^ a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 2016, p. 1.
- ^ a b "Pershing Square Building". Emporis. Archived from the original on November 6, 2013. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
- ^ a b White, Willensky & Leadon 2010, pp. 314–315.
- ^ a b c "125 Park Avenue, 10017". New York City Department of City Planning. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Fitch, James Marston; Waite, Diana S. (1974). Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center: A Historic-critical Estimate of Their Significance. Albany, New York: The Division. p. 6.
- ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 2016, p. 5.
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- ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 2016, pp. 1–2.
- ^ a b c d e f Landmarks Preservation Commission 2016, p. 9.
- ^ a b c d "$6,000,000 Lent to Pershing Square Builders". New-York Tribune. April 25, 1922. p. 9. Retrieved October 24, 2019 – via newspapers.com .
- ^ from the original on October 21, 2019. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
- ^ from the original on October 18, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
- ^ a b "Ready to Build on Grand Union Site". New York Herald. October 15, 1921. p. 20. Retrieved October 24, 2019 – via newspapers.com .
- ^ a b c Atlantic Terra Cotta. Atlantic Terra Cotta Company. 1923. p. 41. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Landmarks Preservation Commission 2016, p. 10.
- ^ Lay, George Downing (1923). "New Architecture in New York". The Arts. Vol. 3–4. Hamilton Easter Field. p. 68. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
- ^ a b Mujica, Francisco (1927). History of the Skyscraper, by Francisco Mujica, ... [Foreword by John Sloan.]. Archaeology and Architecture Press. pp. 60–61. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ a b Laurence, F. S. (October 10, 1923). "The Pershing Square Building: Its Technique of Materials". American Architect & Architecture. Vol. 124. p. 324. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
- ^ "Grand Central Terminal". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Archived from the original on December 6, 2003. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
- ^ Grand Central Subdistrict (PDF). New York City Department of City Planning. November 1991. p. 44. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
- ^ a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 2016, p. 6.
- ^ from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
- ^ "The Passing of Old Hotels" (PDF). The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide. Vol. 93, no. 2407. May 5, 1914. p. 818. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2020 – via columbia.edu.
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- ^ "Grand Union Hotel Site Goes Begging at Auction Sale" (PDF). The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide. Vol. 105, no. 22. May 29, 1920. p. 708. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2020 – via columbia.edu.
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- ^ "Builders Buy Grand Union Site" (PDF). The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide. Vol. 106, no. 6. August 7, 1920. p. 787. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2020 – via columbia.edu.
- ^ from the original on October 28, 2019. Retrieved October 28, 2019.
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- ^ Moodys Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities. Moody Manual Company. 1922. p. 1539. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
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- ^ "Pershing Sq. Building is Sold by Prudential". New York Daily News. September 17, 1977. p. 60. Retrieved October 16, 2019 – via newspapers.com .
- ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 2016, p. 15.
- ^ Agovino, Theresa (May 6, 2010). "SL Green snaps up 125 Park Avenue". Crain's New York Business. Archived from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
- ^ "SL Green Said to Buy Park Avenue Office Tower for $330 Million". www.bloomberg.com. May 7, 2010. Archived from the original on October 28, 2019. Retrieved October 28, 2019.
- ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ Hurowitz, Noah (May 10, 2016). "12 Midtown East Buildings Are Up for Landmark Consideration, City Says". DNAinfo New York. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Kaszuba, Brian (August 2, 2016). "Hearings Held on Five Potential Landmarks as Part of Greater East Midtown Plan". CityLand. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
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- ^ Wachs, Audrey (November 22, 2016). "Preservationists rejoice as 11 new Midtown East landmarks are created". The Architect’s Newspaper. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ a b "Big Business Firms Claim New Space In Terminal Zone: Pershing Square Building 60% Rented. Although Structure Will Not Be Complied Before May". New-York Tribune. January 14, 1923. p. B1. Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved October 27, 2019 – via ProQuest.
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Sources
- "Pershing Square Building" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. November 22, 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.