101 Park Avenue (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, movie / film / TV location, Modern (architecture)

629-foot, 50-story modernist office building completed in 1982 for H.J. Kalikow & Company. Designed by Eli Attia, it is clad in a curtain wall of black metal and glass. The tower's plan is rotated at a 45° angle from the block geometry, with the north and south halves offset. Two corners of the rectangular plan were cut off and then added to the remaining corners, bringing the composition back to the block grid and creating alignments at the street with the base. The main, southwest side is fronted with a large grey granite plaza, providing a link between the exterior and interior of the building as well as an urban breathing space in an area that lacks public open spaces. At the east end of the plaza, above the entrance/exit to the underground parking garage, a 7-story segment angles forward to connect with the neighboring building to the east. The 1982 building replaced the Architects' Building on the site prior.

There are two main entrances - at the southwest facade at the rear of the plaza, and on the north facade on 41st Street. The southwest entrance has three wide bays with revolving doors, framed by four large, 5-story grey granite columns that support the floors above the steep-angled, glass skylight that tops the entrances. The north entrance has three recessed revolving doors. There is a recessed, large, angled grey granite column between the western two doorways, and a smaller, non-recessed granite column further to the east. At the far east end of the ground floor is a freight entrance with a black roll-down metal gate. The glass forming the ceiling of the entry vestibule angles up toward the front, composed of large, square panes. The same clear-glass panes replace the smaller, darker panes of the rest of the facade above the entrance, extending up for several floors at various points. A section of these panes also extend to the east above the ground floor, ending above the freight entrance and the small angled section that just forward to meet the wall of the adjoining building. There is a small cutaway at the northwest corner of the lobby, with a revolving door, and a granite column supporting the floors above.

An interesting result of the original plan configuration are two corner offices per floor offering as wide as 315° panoramic views. 101 Park Avenue was used as George Costanza's workplace in one of the Seinfeld episodes, and was featured in the 1987 movie "The Secret of My Success" and the 1990 movie "Gremlins 2: The New Batch". Besides the lobby, the ground floor is occupied by Convene event venue, a convenience store, and The Museum of the Dog.

www.101park.com/
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