444 Madison Avenue (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper

518-foot, 43-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1931. Designed by Robert D. Kohn, Frank E. Vitolo and John J. Knight, it occupies a full blockfront with its narrow tower centered on a mid-rise base with setbacks. The former home of Newsweek (1959-1994) and New York magazine (1996-2007), the building is clad in brown brick above a 3-story limestone base. It is principally occupied by the US offices of Burberry Group, the luxury clothing brand.

The main entrance is at the center of the east facade, spanning two of the 10 bays along the avenue, with a double-height glass wall, into which are inserted two sets of revolving glass doors, flanked by traditional glass doors. A panel of vertical neon lights is visible above the doors, behind the glass in the lobby. The entry portal is covered by a 4-layered stainless-steel canopy, with the stainless-steel number "444' projecting from the top. The four bays on either side have glass storefronts with black polished granite water tables. The 2nd floor is also covered in plate-glass, divided from the storefront by pale blue-grey glass spandrel panels. The 3rd floor has paired windows in each bay, except for the end bays, which have three windows, and the two above the entrance, which share a joined band of 10 window panes. The stone spandrels above and below the 3rd floor have three strips of projecting horizontal banding, which interweaves into geometric patterns in the middle two bays. The centers of the stone piers extend up partially into the brick piers of the 4th floor.

The south facade of the base on 49th Street has four bays, with matching storefronts and glass-covered 2nd floor, and three windows per bay at the upper floors. The north facade on 50th Street is one bay narrower, with two storefronts, and a loading dock in the west bay, recessed between angled sidewalls. The middle bay has paired windows, and the end bays have three windows. The upper floors have vertical grooves lining the main piers, and stone squares in the center of the brick spandrels between the 4th & 5th floors. All of the brick spandrels are slightly darker than the surrounding brick.

The base has setbacks above the 12th floor, except at the middle four bays of the east facade that extend up to the 14th floor before setting back. Two additional setbacks occur above the 16th & 20th floors (above the 18th & 21st floors at the middle bays), from which the rest of the tower rises as a narrow, shear slab to the crown. This upper shaft has four bays of paired windows on the east facade, with end bays of single-windows, and the north and south facades have a middle bay of wider single-windows flanked by end bays of paired windows.

At the 39th floor, the paired windows at the middle bays are taller and round-arched. The end bays set back at the corners, leaving four bays of 4-over-2 windows on the 40th & 41st floors of the east facade, and a single bay of tripartite windows on the north and south at the 40th floor. The 41st floor on these elevations has a horizontal single-window in a triangular gable. The three main piers on the east facade rises up as projecting buttresses above the 42nd-floor setback tot he topmost mechanical floor.

The rear, west-facing elevation has four bays of single-windows, flanked by a bay of paired windows, and two end bays of single-windows. As on the other facades, the brick spandrels are darker than the rest of the facade; the spandrels begin above the 7th floor. At the upper tower portion, there are only windows at the end bays (paired windows) and in the middle. The crown on the west side is treated the same as on the east.

When Newsweek moved into the building, it was renamed the Newsweek Building, and lighted signs announcing the time and temperature were added beneath the Newsweek logo at the top of the tower. After Newsweek relocated to the West Side in the mid-1990s, the prominent signage at the top of the tower was changed to "New York" as the magazine of that name moved into this building. The signs are now for Burberry, the British luxury goods brand that is one of the retail tenants anchoring the base, who also moved their US headquarters into the building in 2009. They sometimes have their private sample sales inside.

The ground floor is occupied by a TD Bank branch.

www.444madison.com/