AXA Equitable Center (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, movie / film / TV location, 1985_construction, postmodern (architecture)

752-foot, 54-story postmodern office building completed in 1986. Designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes & Associates, it was originally simply called the Equitable Tower. It currently serves as the Headquarters for AXA Financial, which consists of a number of subsidiaries of french-based insurance and banking company AXA, such as AXA Equitable Life Insurance and Mutual of New York. It is also partially occupied by BNP Paribas.

The facade is clad in reddish-brown granite in a gridiron pattern with a white limestone background and grey-tinted windows. The tower has two main setbacks, on the north and south, indicated by recessed bays on the facade. The tower rises from about the center of the site, flanked on the west by a 6-story base section, and on the east by an 8-story section. The half of the east section closest to the tower includes the open-air galleria arcade that connects 51st & 52nd Streets. The arcade is 6 stories high, with two floors above it connecting the tower with the far east section of the complete building. AXA Center is connected to the extensive Rockefeller Center underground concourse. Pedestrian traffic moves through this tower (via an arched galleria at the main 7th Avenue entrance), across the open mall (between West 51st and 52nd Streets), and into the older, eastern Equitable Tower that fronts 6th Avenue.

The skylighted entrance atrium public space on 7th Avenue features a large (22.3 x 10.8 meters) mural by Roy Lichtenstein called Mural with Blue Brushstroke, which he completed in 1986. The focal point of the west facade is the enormous, 5-story round-arch, framed in reddish granite and with recessed glass infill, and two sets of revolving doors and two glass doors at the bottom. The north and south thirds of the west facade project forward, each bordered by red granite, with storefronts at the ground floor, and bands of limestone cladding on the spandrels between the 2nd-6th floors. There are no openings at the 2nd floor, but the 3rd-6th have bands of dark-tinted windows. Capping the base there are gilded letters above the arch reading "AXA EQUITABLE".

The 6-story western base section spans four bays along 51st & 52nd Streets. At the lower two floors the western three bays are recessed, and have tall display-windows at the ground floor, with shorter ones at the 2nd floor. The 4th bay has a very deeply-recessed, double-height secondary entrance into the main atrium, with more glass infill and glass doors. The red granite piers continue on the 3rd-6th floors, where each bay has a band of five window panes and limestone spandrel panels.

The main tower portion spans six bays on the north and south, with the same window patterns above the 2nd floor. The lower two floors are slightly-recessed between the piers, with restaurant storefronts. The 12th floor has metal louvers in place of windows, and at the 13th-14th floors each bay is recessed between the piers in double-height openings. The first setback occurs at the north and south facades above the 14th floor. The facade continues up in a similar fashion to another set of double-height recessed bays at the 39th-40th floors, where the 2nd setback occurs. The last setback is at the lower roof line on the north and south sides (where there are, again, double-height recessed bays), with the center section extending in a tall crown. The plain top has only vertical striping in addition to the large arched windows of the Equitable boardroom at the ends. The west and east facades have four wide bays.

To the east of the main tower, the east- and west-facing interior facades of the arcade are clad in the same granite and limestone materials as the rest of the building, with colorful panels above the ground-level storefronts that line both sides of the arcade. The ceiling of the arcade is formed by large skylights, with the north and south ends framed by 2-story sections spanning the arcade and connecting the main tower to the far east section of the building, where it meets the older building on 6th Avenue. The far east section is two bays wide and matches the rest of the facade design. On the north side on 52nd Street, this section has four loading docks at the ground level.

Included within the building is a 487-seat auditorium, a fitness club and several restaurants. The ground floor is occupied by Aldo Sohm Wine Bar, Le Bernardin restaurant, a Citibank branch, Pret-A-Manger restaurant, Starbucks coffee, and Urban Space food hall. The exterior was used as a filming location for S6E15 of the Starz Network show "Power".

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