522 Fifth Avenue (New York City, New York)

 office building  Add category

318-foot, 23-story office building originally completed in 1898 as the 11-story Sherry Hotel. Designed by McKim, Mead & White, it was converted to offices in 1919 by Cross & Cross. It was the scene of notorious parties while the Sherry Hotel: At one held by C.K.G. Billings in 1903 to celebrate the opening of his stables, the guests sat on horseback and the waiters dressed as jockeys. James Hazen Hyde, vice president of Equitable Life Insurance, spent $200,000 of his company's money here at a party meant to recreate Versailles; public outrage forced Hyde to flee the country and prompted reform of the insurance industry.

The building was extensively renovated and expanded in 1960, to designs by Eggers & Higgins, with a setback ziggurat peak rising to 23 stories. The building was renovated again in 1996 to a design by Sydness Architects, when the sole tenant was still JP Morgan, and a new base by Gensler Architects was constructed in 2016, except for at the west end on 44th Street. On the Fifth Avenue side, the building is distinguished by a landmark clock and a grand colonnaded entrance foyer illuminated by tiered iron chandeliers. It was reclad in 2018.

The modern 2-story base is clad in a glass curtain wall with clear panes exposing pale-green paneled piers. Beige metal panels run across the tops of the 1st & 2nd floors. The main entrance is at the center of the east facade on 5th Avenue. The western bays on 44th Street are clad in light-grey granite with light rustication. There is a service entrance is the westernmost bay and a loading dock in the next bay to the left, both with brown metal louvers at the 2nd floor.

The upper floors are clad in limestone, with rows of single-windows in silver metal frames. The western two bays on the north facade set back above the 10th floor, with the rest of the building setting back above the 11th floor. In the western two bays, the windows are replaced by metal louvers at the 3rd & 4th floors, and also at the 3rd floor in the next bay to the east. There are additional setbacks above the 14th, 18th, and 21st floor, deeper on the east facade than the north.

522 Fifth Avenue had been home to J.P Morgan since 1919, and is also currently occupied by Botticelli and Orvis, however, in 2006 Morgan Stanley executed a long-term lease of the 595,430 square foot facility to house its growing wealth management business.

www.sydnessarchitects.com/project/jp-morgan-522-5th-ave...
hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015033430243?urlappend=%3Bseq...
collections.library.nd.edu/44f213dbe9/exploring-archite...
digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/9653ad40-5102-0134-4c...