Park Avenue Atrium (New York City, New York)

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This 285-foot, 21-story modernist office building originally was completed in 1905 as a 6-story building. Designed by Warren & Wetmore, it had ten floors added in 1935, and was completely re-clad in 1981 to a design believed to have been Edward Durrell Stone in light-grey granite and bands of dark-tinted glass, and increased to the current height of 21 floors.

The interior features a full-height atrium in the center, rising to a dark-tinted glass cap on the roof. The atrium has balconies on every floor, a rose granite floor and panels of stainless steel and glass; there are four glass observation elevators in the atrium. An award winning, 245-foot Richard Lippold sculpture titled "Wing Gamma" (1981) hung in the natural light filled atrium.

The ground floor along Lexington Avenue, East 46th Street, and the eastern half of 45th Street is lined with plate-glass storefronts above a grey granite water table; there is a loading dock at the west end of the south facade on East 45th Street. The second floor now also has floor-to-ceiling windows.

There are two main entrances. The one on Lexington Avenue is at the center of the facade, with a double-height glass wall and four sets of doors. A light-grey metal canopy projects from the middle of the glass above the doors, supported by two light-grey, rounded columns that extend to the top of the entrance glass. The other entrance is at the northwest corner, and was heavily remodeled in 2016. It actually sits of the level of the second floor due to the slope of the site, and the corner is cut away at the bottom two floors, with the floors above supported by three light-grey, rounded, metal columns. The entrance is situated higher than the sidewalk, with a small grey granite plaza, approached by a set of granite stairs. The pedestrian plaza extends along the west facade, where the ground floor is recessed behind an arcade of rounded columns.

The west end of the building sets back above the sixth floor. The spandrels between the floors are taller at the lower three floors, somewhat shorter at the next two, and then a uniform narrower width for the remaining upper floors.

The ground floor is occupied by Sticky's restaurant, and a T-Mobile store.

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www.lippoldfoundation.org/winged-gamma
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