Salmon Tower (New York City, New York)

370-foot, 32-story Renaissance-revival office building completed in 1927. Designed by Albert J. Wilcox and York & Sawyer for Walter J. Salmon, who also built 500 Fifth Avenue next door, it is clad in buff-colored brick above a 3-stor base of limestone, granite, metal, and glass.

The south facade on 42nd Street is 11 bays wide, and the north facade on 43rd has nine bays. Two light courts roughly give the building an H-shape, creating eight corner offices per floor. The north facade's entrance is in the 3rd bay from the east, and the south facade's main entrance is in the central bay, aligning with the northern entrance. Both entrance bays are framed in limestone, on low marble plinths, with round-arches lined with rope moldings. Six panels on either side of the arch are carved with illustrations of the 12 zodiac signs, and the names of the months attributed to them. Above the arches, an entablature has an arcade of small blind arches topped a frieze, with a group of human figures below; there are 11 standing Greek figures, the head of each filling the small arch above, and two kneeling figures. A panel with a carved eagle flanks either side of this frieze, and a small cornice with a decorative band of foliate carving caps the entrance at the 2nd floor. Within both arches is a very deeply recessed vault lined with three arches on each side wall, leading back to the metal-and-glass doors. A pair of hanging light fixtures light the interior of the vaults, which have tile ceilings produced by Guastavino Fireproof Tile Co.

The two bays flanking the south entrance on 42nd Street are framed in brown polished granite, as are the three middle bays at the 3rd floor. At the ground floor these bays are recessed (though not quite as deeply as the main entry vaults), with hanging light fixtures, and backed by show-windows. The inner side walls open into the central entry vault. Wall-mounted lanterns flank the outside of these two bays, which have simple plate-glass windows at the 2nd floor; the 3rd floor has tripartite windows, with a pair of projecting flagpoles. The other bays have plate-glass and metal storefronts at the ground floor on both facades, with a freight entrance at the westernmost bay on 43rd Street. The storefronts are topped by black metal louvers with ornamental brass patterns at the bottom and top edges, and brass-edges black metal panels at the base of the 2nd floor, which has joined bands of tripartite windows with transoms. The limestone 3rd floor has smaller tripartite windows with transoms, and a corbelled band course setting off the upper floors.

All of the bays of the upper floors have paired windows, except for the two bays at each end of the facades, which are grouped visually as a wider bay of four windows. The middle window bays are slightly recessed between the piers, and, on the south facade, have corbel courses at the top of the 18th floor, and pairs of blind round-arches at the top of each window at the 19th floor, which is capped by a dentiled coping across the setback that spans the middle bays. The end bays have plain, tall spandrels between the 19th & 20th floors, where the windows have the same treatment as on the 19th floor in the middle bays. There is a very shallow setback at the end bays above the 20th floor, and then deeper setbacks above the 21st and 24th floors.

In the middle bays, the five center bays above the main setback match those below, with corbel courses at the 23rd floor, where there is a shallow setback, and at the 28th floor. The outer two bays are not recessed between the piers and don't have the corbel courses. The end bays, above the last end-bay setback, reduce to single-windows and are slightly set-back from the middle bays. A 2-story penthouse with round-arched windows at the top is set far back on the main roof.

On the north facade, corbel courses appear above the windows of the three middle bays on the 13th floor, with the flanking bays having projecting brick balconies with broad corbels. All the bays set back above the 14th floor, except for the two flanking the three middle bays, which extend to the 17th before they set back, along with the end bays. The three middle bays then set back above the 19th floor, followed by the end bays setting back above the 20th floor, and the flanking bays setting back above the 23rd floor. The final setback for the north facade is above the 25th floor, with the north roof line above the 26th floor, which has triple-windows.

The walls facing inward on the light courts have bays of paired and single-windows. Most of the rooftop mechanical equipment is on the lower, north roof. New York University occupies part of the building. The ground floor on 42nd Street is occupied by Cava restaurant, Chop't Salads, M&T Bank, and Amazon Go.

Categories: office building, skyscraper, 1927_construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture)