300 Madison Avenue (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, 2003_construction

535-foot, 38-story modernist office building completed in 2003. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the building's elevated, spacious lobby features a striking 8-story glass atrium ascending above the building's main entrance at the corner of 42nd Street and Madison Avenue. The building also features an auditorium and dining facilities on the expansive lower levels, and is home to PricewaterhouseCoopers and The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. It was once set out to be the New York, CIBC Center; however, it was sublet to PriceWaterhouseCoopers after a concern of having all employees of CIBC/Oppenheimer & Co. under one roof following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The subway station entrance at 42nd and Madison was refurbished as part of the development.

The building's 8-story base fills the entire blockfront on Madison Avenue. The ground floor is clad in white pre-cast stone. Due to the downward slope of the site from south to north, the ground floor grows taller toward the north, with a band of plate-glass storefront windows progressively increasing in height, with an entrance near the north end. At the actual northeast corner, the main building entrance is recessed, with glass doors opening onto escalators up to the elevated lobby. More plate-glass storefront windows line the north facade, with a service door at the west end. The south facade, where the site is higher, has a large glass entrance opening directly into the lobby. To the left the white stone cladding is interrupted by two large loading docks with roll-down metal gates, and topped by a band of metal louvers.

The rest of the base is clad in a curtain wall of silvery reflective glass, except for at the west end of the south facade, where there is white pre-cast stone and bands of windows (7 panes across) at each of the five floor below the first setback. Further to the east, as well as at the north and east elevations, the first setback is above the 8th floor. Along the east and north facades the upper level of the lobby and the entire northeast corner of the base are clad in clear glass with grey metal framing instead of the reflective panes elsewhere, revealing the spaces within.

The four sides of the square upper tower is clad in alternating bands of grey stone and silver-blue glass. Each of the floors is accented by rows of short, narrow, vertical fins of stainless-steel that project out slightly from the facade. The top three floors are mechanical levels and have dark-grey metal panels in place of windows.

The storefronts on 42nd Street (separated by a recessed subway entrance) are occupied by Sugarfina candy store, and Sephora cosmetics.

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