Western Electric Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper

393-foot, 31-story early-modern office building completed in 1961. Designed by Shreve Lamb & Harmon Associates, it is the former corporate HQ office building of the Western Electric Corp., now occupied principally by merchant and investment banking corporation Merrill Lynch.

The facades are clad with white brick piers, light-grey brick spandrels, and stainless steel-framed windows, above a glassy 2-story base that was updated in 2013. The northwest corner of the base was originally cut away, with a recessed entry; the renovation replaced this feature with an angled corner housing new retail space.

There are small setbacks above the 14th floor on the north, south, and west elevations. The 15th floor is clad in glass, breaking up the pattern of brick piers and windows, which continues above the 15th floor's glass band. The eastern half of the building on the south side also has two shallow setbacks below the 15th floor, and three more above, culminating in a tall, glass-clad 23rd floor and a flat roof. The northern facade has a larger setback on the eastern half, with the far east end of the north facade also ending in the tall glass 23rd floor, but to the west of this (in roughly the center of the north facade), a blank wall of white brick that rises straight up to the full building height. A blank white brick wall is also visible rising above the setbacks on the south side.

The western half of the building rises vertically for three more floors above the 15th, and then has a larger setback, with the remainder of the tower rising vertically, and matching the height of the narrower, blank brick-walled portion. The last several floors of the west tower section are windowless, housing mechanical equipment. At the top level, there are double-height openings for vents below a flat roof parapet.

The ground floor is occupied by a Chase Bank branch, and Zara sportswear.

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