Park Avenue Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, interesting place, Art Deco (architecture), 1928_construction, historic landmark

349-foot, 29-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1928. Designed by Buchman & Kahn, it is clad in differing shades of tan, brown and buff-colored brick above a 3-story light-tan stone base, and is accented by brightly colored terra-cotta tiles of red, green, yellow, black and bright sky-blue. The brick on the flat end bays is a different shade from the brick on the triangular piers, and different again from the brick in the window sills and from the brick in the spandrels.

The ground floor has modernized storefronts between the piers. The east elevation spans eight bays, with ten bays on the north and south sides. There are two freight entrance with roll-down metal gates at the western end of the south facade; each of the three main facades has a central entrance, the main one being on Park Avenue and deeply recessed and framed with marble walls. Around the doors is an elaborate bronze enframement fabricated by the General Bronze Corp. The whole composition is capped by a semi-circular glass transom with a decorative pattern of individual lights.

Iron spandrels separate the 2nd floor (with tripartite windows) from the ground floor, and a rounded cornice sets off the top floor of the base. There are four windows on the 2nd floor above the base, and four windows per bay on the 3rd floor, except for the end bays, which have two windows each.

The building extends straight up from the base through the 17th floor, where a setback occurs. The building then extends from the 18th through the 25th floor and is capped by a recessed, 3-story penthouse and bulkhead. To the west, on both side facades there are wings which bear similar arrangements and ornamentation, but are shorter. On the wings, setbacks occur after the 11th floor and the section ends above the 17th floor. There is a small light court inset at the center of the western side of the building, not visible from any street elevation.

At the upper floors, narrow flat brick piers separate the windows within each bay. Between the bays is a continuous pilaster that begins at the 3rd floor and continues through the 17th floor, where the building sets back in both directions. These pilasters rise from a decoratively corbelled beginning between the bays of the 3rd floor and project from the façade in a shape that is triangular in plan. The spandrels of the windows in the central section are faced with decorative panels of brickwork in a slightly darker shade of tan. The bricks are laid alternately parallel to the façade and perpendicular to it, giving the impression of woven fabric.

At the top two floors of this section, the ornament proliferates to emphasize the end of the first section and the set-back that follows. The spandrel panels of the 16th and 17th floors are faced with colored terra-cotta tiles in green, blue, yellow and red in layered geometric designs. Above the windows of the 17th story, there are a series of yellow vertical projections within each bay that form a parapet that carries the eye upward toward the next section. The tops of the triangular piers separating each bay are faced in blue terra-cotta panels. The end bays of the top two floors are treated with a series of ochre-colored terra-cotta panels in geometric designs in deep relief, that are placed horizontally around each corner. These are capped by narrow layers of red, blue and black terra-cotta panels, some highlighted by yellow verticals.

After the setback above the 17th floor, the building rises for eight more floors. On the lower five stories of this section, the window spandrels have blue terra-cotta panels set on a yellow ground, while the end bays are marked by textured, colored, horizontal terra-cotta bands. The spandrels of the 24th floor have panels of multi-colored terra cotta in a design similar to those on the lower section. Above the windows of this floor are more colored panels with vertical yellow projections. The end bays have horizontal terra-cotta ornamental bands at each level and the top two floors of this section have terra-cotta ornament similar to that on the lower section. After the 25th floor, the building sets back again for the final section. The 25th floor is capped by more colored terra-cotta on the end bays and stepped and layered panels of terra-cotta over the central bays that extend up to form a parapet.

The facades on 32nd and 33rd Streets have very similar motifs to those on Park Avenue. The western façade of the building is somewhat visible over neighboring buildings on the 32nd street side. It is faced with plain brick and has plain, rectangular window openings.

The base of the Park Avenue Building is especially interesting. Within the central opening at the ground floor is a deeply-recessed vestibule with a vivid mosaic ceiling above the entrance. It is said that Asian architects were specifically used in the planning of the mosaic as European-trained architects were not capable of working with such geometric forms. Kahn collaborated with ceramicist Leon Victor Solon on the terra cotta so it is possible he had a hand in the mosaic's design as well.

The ground floor is occupied by a Chase Bank branch, Pret A Manger restaurant, Sweet Green restaurant, Juice Generation, and Gregorys Coffee.

s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2186.pdf
archive.org/details/elyjacqueskahnar0000ster/page/2/mod...
www.newyorkitecture.com/2-park-avenue/
www.6sqft.com/10-of-nycs-most-impressive-terra-cotta-bu...
hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.31210022737660?urlappend=%3Bseq...
hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.31210022737660?urlappend=%3Bseq...
digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF046620/00001/25?search=wroug...
archive.org/details/PracticalRequirementsOfModernBuildi...
usmodernist.org/AMAR/AMAR-1930-02.pdf