New York Life Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper

615-foot, 40-story Neo-Gothic office building completed in 1928. Designed by Cass Gilbert for the New York Life Insurance Company, the building is clad in white Indiana limestone and occupies the whole block. The tower is set well back from the base, and noted for its golden pyramid roof which is often featured in the New York Life's advertisements and also serves as its logo. Since 1985, the pyramid has been dramatically lit at night. The lanterns in the lobby was fabricated by the Sterling Bronze Co.

The building contains thirty-four stories of office and ground-floor commercial space, five basemen levels, a first-floor mezzanine, and six penthouse levels, enclosing mechanical equipment, within the roof structure. It is clad in granite at the base and Indiana limestone on the upper floors. There are setbacks at the 5th, 14th, 26th, 30th, 31st, 34th, and 35th floors. The 8-sided pyramidal roof is topped by a cast-bronze lantern. The building has a 4-story, full-block base and, above that, a 9-story central section from which the 21-story tower rises. The tower is flanked by two square, 12-story wings.

The building retains original storefronts in many of its sidewalk-level masonry bays on all four facades. This infill consists of plate-glass show windows in bronze frames and granite bulkheads. A number of storefronts incorporate ventilation louvers at transom level in various configurations and of unknown date. Two storefronts along East 27th Street have been replaced with truck dock openings.

Directly above the storefronts, the windows of the first floor mezzanine occupy the upper portions of the arched masonry openings at the building's base on all four facades. The building retains the vast majority of its original one-over-one bronze window sash and frames. A number of window openings are partially or completely given over to ventilation louvers.

On Madison Avenue the ground floor consists of a 9-bay arcade with a central, double-height main entryway flanked by smaller openings, all leading into a recessed outer vestibule. The central arch has an ornate surround supported by masked bosses. The flanking openings feature ogee labels with bosses, shields, crockets, and finials. Each opening contains elaborate bronze gates. The entryways are flanked by historic wall lamps. The recessed vestibule features a granite and terrazzo floor, a barrel vault with coffering flanked by domed vaults, bronze and glass doors, multi-light transom with molded enframement and crestwork, and bronze hanging lamps. The 2nd-story windows, which are paired above the storefront arches, sit upon a continuous, molded band and have bracketed sills. They have enframements consisting of compound columns sitting on molded bases. They are topped by carved, projecting panels. The 3rd- and 4th-story windows, which are arranged similarly as those on the second floor, except for the grouped sash above the central arch, are recessed and separated by narrow columns and geometrically-carved panels between the floors. A bracketed balcony, featuring elaborately-carved panels, is located above the main entryway. The 4th-story windows are arched and topped by ogee labels that pierce the crown moldings above the windows and extend into the parapet. The parapet consists of alternating carved and solid sections.

The 7-bay central section, which rises nine floors above the base, has paired sash in the five center bays, divided by compound columns, and single sash in the end bays. The bays are separated by multi-story piers, broken by a wide, molded band at the level of the 12th-floor window sills. Decorative spandrels separate the floors. The 13th-floor window openings are arched and topped by decorative panels below the parapets. The parapets consist of alternating sections of solid stone and sections containing cusped screens. Gargoyles protrude around the entire 13th floor. Flagpoles, dating from 1928, stand at the comers of the 14th-floor setback.

The 5-bay wing facade, beside the tower, rises twelve floors above the 14th-floor setback. Its three center bays are grouped, divided by compound columns and separated from the outer bays by multistory piers. There are paneled spandrels from the 14th to the 21st floors; the 22nd floor window openings are arched and topped by ogee labels that extend through the ornamented spandrels above. Decorative spandrels featuring a shield motif separate the 23rd to the 25th floors. The 25th-floor window openings are arched and topped by decorative panels below open sections of the cusped parapets at the 26th floor setback.

The tower above the 25th floor has five bays, separated by multi-story piers. There are paneled spandrels from the 26th to the 29th floors. The 29th- and 30th-floor window openings are arched and topped by ogee labels that extend through the spandrels to pierce the 30th-floor sills. The 30th and 31st floors have small setbacks. At the 32nd through 34th floors, the three central bays are recessed below relieving arches. They have paired windows separated by compound columns and have ornate spandrels. The 34th-floor window openings are arched. The center piers feature slim pilasters. Gargoyles protrude around the entire 34th floor (72 in total), which is topped by a decorative parapet featuring alternating solid areas and open sections with cusps.

On Park Avenue South, The treatment and detail is similar to that on the Madison A venue facade, including the historic, projecting bronze secondary entryway featuring decorative panels. In addition, one storefront at the north corner of the facade was removed to create a recessed corner entrance. There is also a recessed, historic bronze entryway at the south corner. The details are also similar on the central section, wings and tower.

On East 26th Street, the base has similar articulation and ornament to Madison Avenue and consists of a 19-bay arcade containing entryways in the 7th and 13th bays leading to recessed outer vestibules. The entryways contain elaborate bronze gates, bracketed jambs, flanking bronze wall lamps, and surmounting bronze grilles featuring the New York Life seal. The vestibules contain granite and terrazzo floors , bronze doors, multi-light transoms with molded frames, bronze hanging lamps, and grilled ceilings. There is also a recessed, historic, bronze entryway at the east corner. The 17-bay central section, which rises above the base behind the 5th-floor setback, includes 2-bay light wells that are one bay deep. The bays contain single, paired, and grouped windows. The wings each have three bays.

On East 27th Street, the treatment and detail is similar to that on the East 26th Street facade, except that four of the bays between the vestibule entryways contain loading docks, and one storefront at the east corner of the facade was removed to create a recessed corner entrance.

The crown, which consists of an octagonal pyramid sitting upon a square base, has been significantly altered and simplified over time. The only major loss of original fabric took place during the reconfiguration of the original tower roof in 1966-67, which included the removal of much of the stonework on the 35th floor. The work included removal of the original copper-and-gold-leaf roof, reinforcement and reconfiguring of the structural steel, and extending the slope of the roof downward. The present roof, installed in 1994, consists of gold-toned ceramic tile over a double layer of plywood sheathing.

The ground floor is occupied by Hillstone restaurant, and Mikasa home furnishings. New York Life's desire for a monumental headquarters building allowed Gilbert to finally achieve his wish of creating a skyscraper clad in stone. With the New York Life Insurance Company design, Gilbert melded the neo-Gothic embellishments of his earlier buildings with the cubic geometries of 1920s skyscrapers, making this building a significant transition from the historical revival-style skyscrapers of the 1900s to the Art Deco towers of the late 1920s.

usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1929-09-1.pdf