1325 Avenue of the Americas (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, 1989_construction, postmodern (architecture)

502-foot, 36-story postmodern office building completed in 1989. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, it combines expansion space for the adjacent New York Hilton Hotel and office space with a through-block galleria. The building was portrayed as Elaine's workplace on the TV show Seinfeld. Despite the address of 1325 Avenue of the Americas, no part of the building actually meets the avenue, as it is instead a mid-block building, and is actually physically closer to 7th Avenue than 6th.

It is clad in grey granite with a tall ground floor that has a black polished granite water table; the lobby has a 27-foot-high ceiling. The main part of the building has an 7-story base, with the tower set back above it. Near the east end is a through-block arcade separating a 6-story windowless section at the east end (wider on 54th Street than 53rd). The entrances to the open-air arcade are framed in black polished granite topped by 5 floors with a silver metal and blue-green glass curtain wall at both the north and south ends. The roof of the arcade in between is a barrel-vaulted glass ceiling. The east side of the arcade connects with the Hilton Hotel, and the west side has retail spaces.

The main entrances are on 53rd and 54th Street, near the center of the main base section. Both are recessed behind large, square columns with vertical grooves, and have central glass revolving doors flanked by traditional glass doors. Additional sets of glass double-doors are located to either side. To the east of these is a small storefront in two narrow bays, one with glass double-doors, and the other a window. To the west on 54th Street is a wide bay with an entrance to the underground parking garage, and at the west end is a loading dock. To the west on 53rd Street are two bays with opaque glass infill and glass double-doors.

Above the tall ground floor, the rest of the base had subtle banding with two different tones of grey granite, identical on the north and south facades. On either side of the entrance are three bays of windows - square windows on the 2nd & 7th floors, and 4-story vertical stripes of windows with thin silver metal mullions dividing them vertically into two panes at each floor, and with three horizontal mullions between each floor. A pair of banner, mounted vertically between horizontal-projecting poles, are located just inside of both of these groups. There are deep recessed areas at each window bay at the top of the 7th floor, with trios of vertical metal rods at the piers between the bays. The top of the 7th floor is clad in white granite and marks the end of the base.

The upper floors have double-windows in each bay, with a total of 12 bays on the north and south facades; the end bays are set farther back. The middle two bays are also set slightly farther back; the other bays have a shallow set back above the 9th floor, marked by a white granite cap, above which begins two vertical bands, each consisting of two bays, that projects slightly outward at an angle toward the center. There is no pier between the two bays making up both of these angled, vertical bands and the spandrels between the floors are metal instead of stone. These bands end at the 24th floor, and there are small setbacks across all full facades at the 25th floor (above the 24th floor at the end bays).

The upper part of the tower mirrors the design below, with two new vertical, angled bands beginning at the 26th floor and continuing to just below the top. The middle two bays and end bays remain set farther back than the rest of the facades. The end bays have another setback above the 32nd and 36th floors. The middle bays also end above the 36th floor, with mechanical spaces rising higher in two masses above the middle section. The angled bands continue up onto these crown sections, which have vertical grooves running along the sides, and have metal, postmodern geometric ornament accenting the tops, with metal finials rising above the upper roof lines.

The east and west elevations, also with bays of double-windows, span 14 bays above the base, with an additional bay at each end, due to the set-back end bays on the north and south facades. At the 33-35th floors there are metal spandrels instead of stone, and the top floor has slightly recessed windows. Besides the lobby, the ground floor is occupied by Remi restaurant.