L'Oreal Building (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / Fifth Avenue, 575
 office building  Add category

486-foot, 35-story postmodern office building completed in 1983. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons, it is clad in beige pre-cast stone above a 3-story base of white glass with thin aluminum framing. The main entrance is on the north facade on 47th Street, with two revolving doors covered by a glass-and-metal canopy. Clear glass panes replaced the opaque white glass directly on either side and above the entrance. To the left, another entrance and two large show-windows are covered by a silver metal canopy. There is a loading dock with a metal roll-down gate at the far east end. The west end and west facade on the avenue have glass-and-metal storefront between the white glass panels on the ground floor, with additional show-windows on the 2nd & 3rd floors of the west facade.

Above the base the floors span 14 bays on the north facade, and nine bays on the west. On the north side, the middle bay is the widest; to either side there are two square bays flanked by rectangular window-bays (one to the inside and two at the outer edge), with wide end bays. On the west facade the middle bay is also the widest, with four narrow, single-window bays on either side. The middle bays on both facades have recessed windows, as do the adjoining windows on each side (on the north facade, that is three windows on each side at the 4th & 5th floors, two windows on each side at the 6th floor, and one window on each side at the 7th floor) - (on the west facade that is two windows on either side at the 4th-5th floors, and one window on either side at the 6th-7th floors); the other windows are flush with the facade. The narrow bays flanking the center bay are also recessed up to the 20th floor, and the next outside bays up to the 12th floor.

The west facade of the upper floors has three even bays of wide windows, with the middle windows recessed from the 13th to the top floor. The south facade mirrors the north facade, and the east elevation has five bays of small, square windows at north side of the lower floors, and two bays of wide windows at the edges of the upper floors, growing wider at the 21st and 31st floors. There is a mechanical penthouse on the east half of the roof.
The tower has a stair-stepped setback on the north, west, and south sides above the 7th floor, crossing a windowless mechanical level at the 8th floor. The upper floors have alternating bays of wide and narrow windows on the north facade, with the center bay having recessed windows for the full height of the tower. The two end bays on each side join together into a wider bay at the 21st floor, with the next innermost bays joining at the 27th & 32nd floors, leaving just the recessed center bay and two long end bays at the top four floors.

Since L'Oreal occupies most of the floors, the building was renamed after them. It was also home to the corporate offices of the Barneys New York department store on floors 9-11 until the chain closed in 2020. The ground floor is occupied by a Starbucks coffee on 47th Street.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°45'22"N   73°58'41"W
This article was last modified 11 months ago