Bankers Trust Building (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / Park Avenue, 280
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412-foot, 31-story International-style office building completed in 1961 for the Bankers Trust Company of New York. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons, it is linked to the annex building to the west, completed seven years later, by a lower connecting section in the middle. The interior was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates with Henry Dreyfuss who was an industrial designer.

The property features a raised granite plaza with seating that leads up to the main building entrance on Park Avenue. The east tower is clad in a curtain wall of dark-tinted rectangular windows in individual frames of white stone with beveled edges.The east facade facing the avenue spans 29 windows, while the north and south sides have 18. The base consists of a double-height, white marble lobby, with glass walls recessed behind black, squared, steel piers. These divide the base into four bays on the north and south sides, and seven bays on the east. The west half of the 2nd floor on both the north and south facades has black metal louvers in place of windows.

The building has deep setbacks above the 15th floor on the north and south sides; creating the effect of a box stacked on a larger box. The 15th floor itself has deeply-recessed windows, with planter boxes lining the spaces in front. The upper portion of the tower spans 13 windows on the east side, and 14 on the north and south, with a narrow section of concrete core at the rear (west) end of the north and south sides and across the west elevation. The top three levels are mechanical floor, with taller metal panels in place of windows.

The 17-story connecting section, which is the highest level that joins the two buildings, has unique features, including extra-high 16-foot ceilings and skylights looking up from the small roof space that sits between the two towers. It is narrower, set back between the two buildings, and clad in a curtain wall of dark-tinted reflective glass above a base that matches the main building's. There are additional entrances on both sides.

The property's impressive tenant roster includes Cohen & Steers, Fiduciary Trust, and Promontory Financial Group. Besides the main lobby, the ground floor is occupied by a Starbucks coffee.

In 2011, the building was purchased by SL Green Realty Corporation and Vornado Realty Trust who had alterations later made to the lobby by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/applicants/en...
www.kpf.com/project/280-park-avenue
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Coordinates:   40°45'23"N   73°58'30"W
This article was last modified 2 years ago