Random House Building (New York City, New York) | office building, skyscraper

 office building, skyscraper

522-foot, 40-story International-style office building completed in 1969. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons, the tower has one major setback and is roughly L-shaped. It is clad in a curtain wall of black steel and green-tinted glass, with darker glass spandrel panels. The ground floor has storefront bays with a variety of infill; there are four along the avenue (wider at the ends), and seven on the south facade along 50th Street. The 3rd bay from the east on this facade has a deeply-recessed main entrance with three sets of glass doors.

Above the ground floor the curtain wall extends up to a large setback above the 11th floor. There is a projecting wing on the east end of the north side of the tower, giving it its L-shape. Instead of the glass curtain wall, this wing is clad in a contrasting facing of dark-grey metal panels; there is a single bay of windows on the west-facing elevation of this section, where it joins with the curtain wall of the rest of the tower, and has a similar single bay on the east-facing elevation; it is otherwise windowless, rising to the main roof line of the tower. On the north-facing wall there is a band of conduit pipes running up the full height of the building. The top of the curtain wall section has black metal vents indicating the mechanical levels at the crown.

The ground floor is occupied by Super Runner Shop.