Zeckendorf Towers

 condominium, high-rise, 1987_construction, postmodern (architecture)

292-foot, 27-story postmodern four-towered multi-use building completed in 1987. Designed by Davis, Brody & Associates for developer William Zeckendorf, the four residential towers share a common 7-story base that incorporates offices, parking garage and retail storefronts. The towers are clad in red brick and the window frames are arranged to give vertical accents, while the fifth and top floors of the office portion of the base have arched windows. The top of the 29-story towers are each capped with screens in the forms of pyramids that are illuminated at night providing a notable contrast to the illuminated clocktower of the Consolidated Edison Building just across Irving Place.

Prior to Zeckendorf Towers, the site was home to S. Klein On The Square which was a department store whose flagship location sat in two buildings on the corner of 14th Street and Union Square East. Considered a more affordable option to stores such as Macy's and A&S, Klein still offered a furniture department, fur salon, and a full service pet department. The original store (at 14th Street) opened in either 1905 (as stated in the founder's obituary) or by 1912 (as noted in the Landmarks Preservation Commission's East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District Designation Report). The store expanded in 1930 to include the former Union Square Hotel building at the southeast corner of 15th Street. During the 1960s the business expanded, opening stores in New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. By the late 1970s the parent company of the store began closing the locations en masse and selling off the property, including the flagship location, which closed in 1975. The building was demolished in the mid 1980s for the 1987-completed Zeckendorf Towers apartment complex.

Recent development has included the retrofit of 185,000 sq.ft. of office space to house the new Beth Israel Medical Center Phillips Ambulatory Care Clinic. Some of the street-level retail includes Tower Cleaners, Vineyard Theatre, Subway restaurant, Bravo Pizza, Chipotle burritos, Bravo Pizza, Baya Bar smoothies, Subway sandwiches, Target, Starbucks coffee, AT&T Wireless, and FedEx Office.

zeckendorftowers.com/
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