5 Bryant Park (New York City, New York) | office building, skyscraper, interesting place, Modern (architecture)

 office building, skyscraper, interesting place, Modern (architecture)

449-foot, 35-story International-style office building completed in 1957 for the Union Dime Bank. Designed by Kahn & Jacobs with Sydney Goldstone, it also goes by the addresses 111 40th Street and 5 Bryant Park. The building is L-shaped, with a wing extending north to 41st Street. It is clad in a curtain wall of light-grey aluminum piers, dark-grey brick spandrels and clear glass. The east facade on the avenue overlooking the park has 20 narrow bays, the south facade on West 40th Street spans 40 bays, and the north facade has 16 bays.

There is a setback on the west half of the south facade above the 9th floor, and above the 14th floor on the rest of the main facades, while the first setback on the north facade occurs above the 10th floor. There are additional cascading setbacks on each facade, culminating in a thin rectangular upper tower oriented east-west, eight bays wide on these shorter sides, and 23 bays along the south and north sides. There is also a windowless, dark grey-brown brick-clad elevator core at the west end of the upper tower, extending out to the north, continuing the L-form of the building. The ground floor is clad in grey polished granite, with a deeply recessed entrance with two revolving doors at the west end on 40th Street, and metal-and-glass storefronts in the other bays. A subway entrance is built into the southeast corner. The ground floor is occupied by The Little Beet restaurant, an entrance to Blink Fitness (in the basement level), a Citibank branch, L'Adresse American Bistro, and Zucker's Bagels, and on the 41st Street side the ground floor is occupied by Soul Cycle, with a loading dock at the west end.

Outside the lobby is a large mural which was created in 1958 for the building by Max Spivak. The building was intended for garment businesses and the forms were intended to evoke mannequins, needles, awls, irons, and other tools. The piece was restored by Miotto Mosaic under the direction of Gonzalez Architects for Equity Office/Blackstone LP.

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