Museum Tower Condominium (New York City, New York)

 skyscraper, condominiums, Modern (architecture)

588-foot, 52-story postmodern residential building completed in 1985. Designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates, it was built as a residential tower meant to generate income for the museum, but the midblock curtain wall skyscraper was controversial. Cesar Pelli expanded the Museum of Modern Art's circulation system, renovated some of its galleries, and added the skyscraper, which is surrounded by the museum on three sides.

First proposed and outlined in 1976, the slender 52-storey glass tower was built to help pay for the extension and renovation of the museum -- presently the lower floors of the tower house museum exhibition spaces, expanding museum's floor area considerably.

At the moment there are plans for further expansion of the museum premises, also affecting the tower. In 2004, the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi designed renovations that included the extension to adjacent plots, removal of the glass atrium, as well as altering the south facade of the tower. The glass facade consists of variously tinted blue-green opaque glass and has a series of recessed terraces at the top. The ground floor is clad in polished black granite, with a central entrance that has a revolving door flanked by conventional glass-and-bronze doors, below a stainless-steel marquee.

The glass curtain wall of the upper floors has thin, black aluminum framing, and there are recessed areas at the center of the south facade on the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th floors, as well as the more beginning on the 10th floor. The tower contains 240 condominium units. Its interior resident amenity spaces on the 35th floor were designed by Francois deMenil Architect.

www.museumtowernyc.com/flash.htm
www.fdmarch.com/work/the-museum-tower-resident-amenity-...