One Columbus Place (New York City, New York)

 skyscraper, apartment building, 1999_construction

463-foot, 49-story postmodern residential towers completed in 1999. Designed by Schuman Lichtenstein Claman & Efron, the towers are oriented at a 90-degree angle from each other and rise from a 3-story base clustered around the 1892 former William J. Syms Operating Theater at the northeast corner - the landmarked building was incorporated into the base of the new complex.

The podium base is clad in orange-red brick, rising three floors except for along the western section on 58th Street, where it drops down to a single story. The 1-story section spans six bays of storefronts - except for the 2nd bay from the west, which has an entrance/exit for the underground parking garage, and the eastern bay at the 1-story section, which has a loading dock (separated from the other five bays by a set of metal service doors). Above the storefronts and garage entry there are pairs of large square openings with black metal louvers and beige stone sills. A brick parapet framed by stone bands caps the ground floor here, and a narrow, tall vent separates the 1-story section of the base on 58th Street from the 3-story section to the east. The east section hasfive bays, with storefronts on the ground floor, where the brick piers are decorated with projecting stone diamond shapes at the top, framed in beige stone and bisected by stone bands. The 2nd & 3rd floors have pairs of square openings with tripartite windows in black metal framing, with continuous stone sills, as well as flat stone lintels on the 3rd floor. The east facade of the base along the avenue has another five bays with the same design. The small area of north-facing facade, where the base joins in with the set-back older building of the Syms Operating Theater, has one window at the east edge of the 2nd floor, and two tripartite windows at the 3rd floor. All three elevations of the 3-story sections of the base are capped by a brick parapet surmounted by a stone cornice.

The north facade of the base on 60th Street, where it continues after wrapping around the older building, is clad in the same brick. It is fronted by landscaping contained by low, grey stone walls with iron fencing on top. The walls have red brick end posts where they are interrupted by two main entrances, one at the east near the older building, and the other closer to the middle of the base. The east entrance has glass sliding doors and is framed by brick pilasters that curve back, and is topped by a brick and stone lintel, with a metal canopy (with a peaked glass roof) extending out to the sidewalk, where it is supported by two round metal columns. Two square openings at the ground floor with black metal louvers separates the other main entrance, which has a revolving door flanked by sidelights and single glass doors, below a suspended metal canopy. To the west there are six more square opening with metal louvers; there are windows below the eastern two, behind the landscaping. The landscaping retaining wall ends here, and there is a glass door and sidelight below the next louver opening, and two bays with an entrance and exit to the parking garage below the western three openings. The 2nd floor has five bays of paired tripartite windows (like those on the other facades), and the 3rd floor has six bays (the extra, eastern bay is taken up at the 2nd floor by a trio of decorative stone squares in brick frames. The same style of parapet and cornice caps the base here as well.

Tower I is oriented north-south and sits atop the eastern part of the base along Ninth Avenue, while Tower II is oriented east-west and sits atop the northwest part of the base along 60th Street. Both are clad in pale-orange and dark-red brick. The east elevation of Tower I has two central bays with dark-red brick and tripartite windows; these bays project from the rest of the facade, and the windows wraps around to the short north- and south-facing side walls, with dark-grey metal mullions at the corners and single-panes at the side walls. To either side are three bays, clad in orange brick, with tripartite windows flanking double-windows. The end bays also wrap around the corners with metal mullions. At the outer bays, red brick does extend up to the 6th floor, as well as the spandrel between the 7th & 8th floors having a thin band of red brick at the top and bottom, and the spandrel between the 8th & 9th floors being entirely red brick. There are grey stone sill courses running across each floor, and black metal air-conditioning vents below each window bay. The end panes of the tripartite windows are set slightly back from the larger middle panes, and open by sliding behind the middle pane. The end bays set back above the 34th floor; at the next seven floors, the adjoining bay is now the end bay and the windows wrap around the corners, until a setback above the 41st floor. The two middle bays set back above the 45th floor, and the outer bays are wider at the top floors, again wrapping around the corners. The west elevation is very similar, except that the outer bays consist of two bays of double-windows closer to the middle, and an end bay of two double-windows joined together.

The south elevation has orange brick, except for red-brick at the lower floors, matching the east and west facades. There are six bays of double-windows of unequal width, with the end bays wrapping around the corners from the other facades. Only the 3rd bay from the west has vents below the windows. Starting at the 26th floor the two middle bays shift inward towards the center, and the flanking bays expand from double-windows to tripartite windows. The end bays set back above the 34th floor, and the 35th-41st floors have three wider bays of four windows in the center, and five at the ends, wrapping around the corners. There is a full-floor setback above the 41st floor, and the top floors have four bays of double-windows, the end bays wrapping around the corners. The two middle bays join into one wider bay at the 46th-49th floors. The north elevation has seven bays, with double-windows in the center, flanked by single-windows, then double-windows both outer bays on each side. The end bays set back above the 34th floor; at the 35th-41st floors there are two center bays of single-windows, and wide end bays that wrap around the corners. The top eight floors have two bays of tripartite windows projecting out, flanked by recessed bays of narrow single-windows, and end bays of joined double-windows wrapping around the corners. The setbacks create a slightly-elongated plus-shape at the tower roof, surmounted by an orange-brick water tank enclosure; a brick-clad chimney pipe extends from the northwest corner.

Tower II to the northwest is very similar, but has some design differences. There is a low, 6-story section connecting the two towers at the north, extending up to 15 floors at the east end of Tower II. These are clad in red brick, except for the 14th & 15th floors, which have orange brick. This lower section merges seamlessly with the upper floors of the tower on the north and south facades, extending five bays to the east. On the north facade, these bays have (from west to east) double-windows, double-windows, tripartite windows, double-windows, and tripartite windows. The south side has a notch carved out from the east end. There are (from west to east) tripartite windows, a wide bay with tripartite windows separated by a black metal panel from single-windows wrapping around the corner to the set-back eastern section, which has double-windows, single-windows, and joined double-windows. The east elevation has (from north to south) double-windows, single-windows, and tripartite windows at the north part, and the recessed south end has joined double-windows wrapping around the corner.

On the north facade, the main body of the tower has another 10 bays, with the center two projecting forward, with tripartite windows wrapping around the corners. The bays to either side have more tripartite windows, except for those two bays from the center bays, which have double-windows. The orange brick from the 14th & 15th floors continues across the facade, except at the two projecting center bays, which are fully red brick. Continuing up the north facade, the east end bay changes to double-windows that wrap around the corner, and the east end bay changes to joined double-windows, also wrapping around the corner. There is also a bay projecting from the center of the east facade, clad in red brick, that has double-windows on its north- and south-facing sides, wrapping around the corners to the two bays of tripartite windows on its east face. The north facade's end bays set back above the 34th floor, and the end bays from the 35th-40th floors then wrap around the corners before themselves setting back. The projecting, red-brick center two bays set back above the 45th floor. There are red-brick spandrels above the 47th & 49th floors.

The south facade of Tower II has a 3-bay, projecting center section of red brick, with tripartite windows. The three orange-brick outer bays on either side are asymmetrical. On the east side there are two bays of tripartite windows, and a a double-window separated by a black metal panel from a single-window at the corner. On the west side there are tripartite windows, followed by double-windows, and an end bay of tripartite windows up to the 26th floor, above which there are joined double-windows wrapping around the corner. The end bays set back above the 34th floor. At the 35th-40th floors the end bays on both sides have tripartite windows separated by black metal panels from single-panes; these set back to end bays at the 41st-49th floors in the same configuration. The three center bays set back above the 45th floor.

At the east elevation, flanking the projecting, red-brick central bays are two bays of single-windows and end bays of joined double-windows wrapping around to the north and south facades. The outer bays set back above the 34th (where the single-windows are eliminated) & 40th floors, and the center bays set back above the 36th & 40th floors. The west facade has a center section of red brick with two bays of single-windows, and end sections of orange brick. The north one has a bay of double-windows (and single-panes at the corner beginning at the 16th floor, and the south one also has double-windows and single-panes at the corner, both beginning at the 28th floor. At the 35th floor the outer bays set back and change to single-windows inward from joined double-windows, and the center red-brick section has two bays of double-windows separated by a black metal pier with single-panes at the corners. Another setback above the 40th floor eliminates the single-windows from the outer bays, and the black pier at the center section is replaced by a window pane on the 41st-45th floors; the black panel reappears, but one pane to the right, at the top four floors. This tower is topped by another water tower enclosure, this one clad on red brick.

Between the two towers there are a total of 725 apartment units. The ground-floor retail spaces are occupied by a Morton Williams supermarket, a CVS pharmacy, Classic Time Collection watches & jewelry, David Shoe Repair, 1 Columbus Place Cleaners, and Bijou Nails & Spa.

The 3-story Romanesque landmark building incorporated into the complex at the northeast corner was completed in 1892. Designed by W. Wheeler Smith for the neighboring Roosevelt Hospital, the William J. Syms Operating Theater was the most advanced operating theater in the world when it opened and one of the first equipped for aseptic surgery. Besides the surgical amphitheater, the focal point of the building, the structure also included visitors' rooms, recovery rooms, living quarters for nurses and assistant surgeons, a decorated private chief surgeon's room, laboratory rooms, rooms for photography and microscopes, two small operating rooms, surgeons' rooms, an ether room, and various preparation rooms. The operating arena was clad in Italian marble and could accommodate 184 students. The glass dome, 40 feet above the floor, provided natural lighting.

The last surgery was performed in the Syms building in 1941; it was used as a blood bank and mortuary for six years, then in 1948 became a temporary emergency room. In 1953, the rear 17 feet of the building were removed to make way for an expansion of the hospital, and portions of the conical skylights were covered with copper. The building was converted into office space for the Department of Pathology, and was later used by George Soros's Open Society Institute, and since 2013 has housed part of The Speyer Legacy School.

The building is set back on its two street fronts behind narrow planted strips which are bordered along the sidewalk by an iron fence on a granite base with granite capped brick posts. In its massing the building consists of a central block with an elongated semi-conical roof, 1-story wings on either side, a narrow 3-story L-shaped wing adjacent to the central block on the south and west sides, and a square air intake tower adjacent to the west side of this wing above the 1-story wing.

The walls, with curved corners, are clad in red brick of two types, each laid in the same plane in Flemish bond and differentiated by their finish: smooth and evenly colored around windows and corners, rough and varicolored between windows. The smooth brick framing was in a form suggesting quoins creating 2-story bays at the basement and ground-floor levels. Windows have granite sills and lintels and occasional granite mullions in wider windows, sometimes with egg-and-dart moldings or block modillions of terra-cotta.

The ground floor along the avenue has four bays, with two double-windows flanked by single-windows, all with iron grilles, above basement windows. On 60th Street, the building is entered through a large rounded arch of glazed brick which is reached by a short flight of stairs; the entrance has paneled wood-and-glass double-doors and matching sidelights. To the left is a bay of double-windows and a single-window bay, above basement windows. To the right are two bays of single-windows (the western one where the 1-story section begins), followed by a double-window and another single-window. Above the entrance arch, at the 2nd floor, is a granite panel with raised letters saying "The Wm. J. Syms Operating Theater of the Roosevelt Hospital, 1891". There is a double-window to either side of this panel.

The various roof lines are marked by brick corbels surmounted by double stone bands framing brick parapets. The roof, whose distinctive form signals the amphitheater below, is crowned by a decorative iron finial in the form of a caduceus surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, and is clad in two tiers of skylights across the front, slate shingles on the sides, and tin flashing. The roof is pierced by a large unadorned chimney in either flank, above the back wall of the amphitheater, and a massive exhaust chimney behind the amphitheater with a Romanesque corbelled cornice. A small 3rd-floor section is visible behind and to the right of the dome.