Helmsley Building (New York City, New York) | office building, skyscraper, 1929_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture), Renaissance Revival (architecture)

 office building, skyscraper, 1929_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture), Renaissance Revival (architecture)

565-foot, 35-story Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1929. Designed by Warren & Wetmore for the New York Central Railroad Co. for use as its headquarters. When the building was sold, its name was changed to the "New York General Building", reportedly because this name only required changing two letters. When Harry Helmsley purchased the building he named it The Helmsely Building. It was sold to in 2005 to Istithmar, an investment firm owned by the royal family of Dubai, for $705 million, then to a group headed by Goldman Sachs in December, 2007 for $1.15 billion, and then to property firm RXR Realty in May 2015 for $1.2 billion.

The Helmsley Building stands astride Park Avenue. Traffic exits and enters the Park Avenue Viaduct through the building, through two portals, one for uptown traffic and one for downtown. They connect to Park Avenue proper at East 46th Street.

The rectangular, 3-story base is clad in Indiana limestone and Texas pink granite and pierced on all four elevations by ground-level storefronts/display windows and by building entrances on the north, south and west. The north and south facades are also pierced by pairs of vehicular and pedestrian tunnels. The base, like the office block above, is comprised of two unequal halves, asymmetrically extended by two additional bays on the west.

On the north facade on 46th Street, the storefront bays have black bronze sculptural friezes dividing the lower two floors, with grotesque busts in a foliate surround flanked by fruit-filled cornucopia. The sculptures rest on a bronze paneled ground atop a frieze with bead-and-reel, broad and narrow foliate moldings. The 3rd floor has paired windows, each with keystones, above a limestone sill supported on a boldly projecting foliate bracket on a floral ground. The storefront windows in the 4th bay from the west are replaced by a metal service door in a grey granite frame.

Between the storefront bays, the five middle bays are set back from the property line in a shallow apse. They are joined by a denticular entablature with a gilded string course. At the center of the limestone frieze is the gilded inscription: "230 THE HELMSLEY BUILDING 230." Above the entablature is a clock framed with sculptures of two giant, reposing gods, and above each vehicular tunnel is an escutcheon with a gilded "H." The center bay contains the main building entrance. It has six bronze-framed glass doors topped by a bronze lintel. Above the lintel is a gilded address plate with foliate surround. The doors are topped by a multi -pane window ensemble, the broad structural mullions and muntins of which are embossed with a floral motif. Pairs of simple narrow mullions divide the lights between the broad structural mullions. The top band of the ensemble is filled with bronze decorative open-grille panels. The deeply recessed window and door ensemble is framed by prominent limestone roll moldings and topped by a recessed 4-over-1 window at the 3rd-floor level; the window is surrounded by a broad, gilded, shouldered frame, flanked on either side by gilded military insignia. Below the sill is a partially gilded globe with foliage, fruit and scroll on a gilded ground. Above the group is a foliate garland-draped bracket keystone that overlays the broad gilded foliate frame (recessed into the wall surface) that surrounds the entire entrance bay. On either side of the bay is an angled flag pole with an elaborate foliate anchor.

Flanking the central bay are the two round-arched entrances (with coffered intrados) to the vehicular tunnels. They have triple-height square-headed broad limestone foliate frames (recessed into wall surface) with projecting foliate bracket keystones. To the outside of the vehicular entrances are the two entrances to the pedestrian corridors. They are square-headed, double-height open portals in concave walls with prominent roll molding frames, surmounted by a gilded plumed helmet and military devices in high relief on a foliate limestone lintel. Directly above is a concave window ensemble with broad limestone and gilded shouldered frames; topped by an elaborate gilded high relief of garlands, plumes, scrolls and drapery which descends along the sides of the ensemble.

The 45th Street side of the base is dominated by three triple-story arches: an entrance bay and two flanking arches, (occupied by ground floor storefronts (with sculptural friezes) with double-height open viaduct arches above). The three arches are flanked in turn by the building's two pedestrian corridors and by variously sized storefronts, each of which is surmounted on the 2nd floor by a balustrade and a large rectangular open aperture which ventilates the vehicular tunnels. All six apertures are crowned by foliate scroll brackets on a floral ground. On the far east and far west of the 45th Street facade are wider storefronts topped by an unornamented viaduct entrance/exit. With the exception of the triple-height arches, each bay has paired windows at the 3rd floor. The main entrance in the middle bay is similar to the one on the north side, but with some differences. There is a 9-pane deeply recessed oculus topping the limestone frame; below the oculus is an elaborate fruit-laden garland with terminal imperial eagles. There are again two flagpoles, and four elaborate gilded canopy anchors (depicting the winged wheel of Progress on an energized cloud-like ground); angled from the anchors are the gilded spiral supports of the decorative bronze canopy which overhangs the entire bay; smaller versions of the same canopy appear above the entrances to the pedestrian corridors although with simpler anchors. A prominent limestone arch enframes the entrance ensemble; the arch is crowned by a foliate scroll bracket and flanked on either side by a bronze ventilation grille. The entrance is flanked by two deeply recessed service doors, each surrounded by a broad granite frame with a simple granite keystone.

The east and west facades are 11 bays wide, and mostly match the storefront bays from the north facade. The 4th bay from the north has two deeply recessed bronze-framed glass doors flanked by bronze-framed side lights with a decorative bronze lintel above. The center bay has a building entrance, with two recessed bronze-framed doors with transom; the portal is crowned by a foliate limestone lintel with bracket keystone. The three middle bays are joined by a double-height, projecting, square-headed roll molding with a bracket keystone with foliate and draped surround. The 3rd floor has paired windows, except for the narrower center bay, which has a single-window.

On the east facade, a new freight entrance was constructed in 1982 along the southeast corner of the building, stairs installed on the north of the newly-created pedestrian mall, and modern commercial spaces in glass enclosures erected along most of the building's ground floor. These were renovated in 2016. The bays otherwise are plainer than those on the other facades; the wall is faced in brick instead on stone except for the end bays, and the windows have brick lintels.

Above the base, the 11-story office block is clad in oversized buff-colored brick. Rising from the rectangular base, and surrounding the building's slender tower on the south, east and west, the office block rises like an irregular "H," its narrow east and west side elevations being deeply recessed with setback light wells. On the major (north) facade the office block is divided into two wings which curve away gently from the flush central tower. The bays have paired windows with metal spandrels with decorative inset borders. There are flush limestone keystones above the 15th-floor windows. A conntinuous cornice above the 15th floor ornamented with large terra-cotta bison heads and decorative medallions, surmounted by a limestone balustrade.

The upper tower, almost square in plan, is completely exposed above the 15th floor, with four identical elevations. The cladding pattern established below is continued. The 28th floor has limestone keystones above the windows, surmounted by a heavily bracketed cornice supporting fluted engaged triple-height composite columns. The capitals carry prominent impost blocks (above the 31st floor) which support scroll brackets (32nd floor level) and the 33rd-story balustrade. The 31st floor has an elaborate dentilated entablature, and the 32nd floor has a dentiled string course and prominent scroll brackets. The 33rd floor has projecting bracketed keystones over the windows, an observation deck with limestone balustrade, and a broad dentiled cornice with an upper course of medallions and 8 projecting heads. The 34th floor has three pairs of windows identical to those throughout the tower, but elaborately framed with banded buff brick and limestone, and crowned, above a strapwork lintel, by exuberant brackets, shells and scrolls. The three window pairs are flanked on either side by a square-headed dormer (each crowned by a grotesque head) which projects from the roof. A tall chimney stack rises from each corner of the roof. The top floor consists of a standing-seam metal roof with three rows of elaborately framed oval oculi of decreasing size. Crowning the tower is a bracketed and elaborately decorated baldacchino-like arched lantern crowned by a copper dome with a terminal open drum and pierced orb.

The two pedestrian corridors are lined with shops, burrowing through the building at ground level, essentially continues the Park Avenue sidewalk. The corridors have painted limestone walls, a pink granite bulkhead and concrete pavement which rises at the north and south. The ceiling drops lower at the southern end of the corridors where the vehicular ramp passes overhead.

The lobby of the New York Central Building, faced with rich marble and ornamented by a wealth of bronze, provided the railroad with a princely entrance to the railroad and otherwise prestigious tenants. With consummate elegance and a monumentality independent of size, it ranks among the finest lobbies in New York. It was intended as a pedestrian through corridor between 45th and 46th Streets which required special insulation against the vibrations of racing traffic around it. The lobby and its vestibules are illuminated by five large and ten smaller chandeliers. Their elaborate bronze detail is surpassed only by the marvelous tendril-like sign supports which project into the lobby from each arched alcove, reinforcing its impression of Medicean splendor with the initials of the New York Central on it. Each elevator door has a unique Chinese red tracery cut back to reveal bronze symbols of industrial progress amid grotteschi and foliate arabesques.

The ground floor is occupied by Bobby Van's restaurant, a Duane-Reade pharmacy, Hai Street Kitchen sushi, Starbucks coffee, Maman bakery, Sweetgreen restaurant, Urban Space Vanderbilt food hall, and a shoe shine shop. It is both a New York City exterior and interior landmark.

230parkavenue.com/
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1297.pdf
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1298.pdf
untappedcities.com/2016/06/01/the-top-10-secrets-of-230...