299 Park Avenue (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, movie / film / TV location, 1967_construction, International style architecture

574-foot, 43-story International-style office building completed in 1967. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons, it is clad in alternating shiny and matte thin, black, stainless steel mullions emphasizing its height, with black glass spandrels. The double-height ground floor has polished black granite piers dividing the north, west, and south facades into six bays of plate-glass. There is also a black granite wall along 48th Street, with stairs at the east end up to the plaza level; it grows shorter to the west due to the slope of the site; near the west end it is interrupted by a metal-and-glass train terminal entrance to an escalator, framed on both sides by landscaping. There are three low sections of wall along Park Avenue, with two wide sets of steps leading up to the plaza level, where the ground floor is.

The two end bays on the west facade are recessed between the piers, while the four middle bays are further recessed , with two main entrances into the lobby in the 2nd bays from the ends. There is another section of wall at the west half of the north facade, along 49th Street, with a wheelchair ramp included. The wall ends at another set of steps at the 3rd bay from the east; the eastern two bays have loading docks with large black metal panels above. The rear, east facade (facing a pedestrian passageway) is faced in black metal panels at the base, with no openings except for black metal vents near the top.

Above the base, all four facades have five windows in each bay, divided by two thin, narrow, silver, stainless-steel mullions into a central group of three and single panes at the ends. The windows and mullions project slightly from the black steel piers. There is a mechanical floor at the 15th floor, with narrow black vents along the north and south facades. There are also vents at the mechanical levels on the top two floors.

The building was originally constructed over the primary rail tracks for Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line, which made the building's construction and engineering highly complicated. For much of its history, the building was commonly referred to as the Westvaco Building and was the headquarters of Westvaco. Today, the company's successor, MeadWestvaco, continues to use the building as a regional office.

The building was home to the New York headquarters of UBS Investment Bank which occupied approximately two-thirds of the floors as well as Fisher Brothers (for whom it was built), MeadWestvaco, and GE Capital, as well as other private equity firms and investment banking boutiques. It is now the corporate headquarters of Capitol One Bank after they streamlined their operations in 2018 The building also houses the Japanese consulate in New York City.

The exterior was used as a filming location for S1E1 of the Amazon series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" where Midge and Joel are leaving the office.