360 Madison Avenue (New York City, New York)

 office building, interesting place, commercial building

231-foot, 23-story modern International Style office building originally completed in 1917. The original 18-story building was designed by Starrett & Van Vleck as the Abercrombie & Fitch department store building, and had a 20x50-foot log cabin on the roof, with a wood-burning fireplace. It was completely converted to offices in the 1970s, with a new glass curtain wall. It was also joined with the Home Club which was designed c. 1908 by Egerton Swartwout. Furniture was fabricated from by Irving & Casson of Boston.

The building was completely gutted and rebuilt in 2002, to designs by Richard Cook & Associates. It merged the original steel-frame with new concrete tower floors, and is now wrapped in a curtain wall of green-tinted glass and silver aluminum. Within this surface, however, lies a complex archaeology. Aluminum incisions trace former cornice lines and abandoned display windows, betraying the ghost of the old building in the new geometry.

The 2-story base has lighter, more transparent glasss, with horizontal metal ribs at the 2nd floor, and storefronts on the ground floor, with recessed entrances; the central building entrance on the avenue is more deeply recessed. The main entrance is on the south facade, on 45th Street, in the 3rd from the west of the six bays. It has wide, recessed glass doors and infill, with a green-tinted glass canopy above. The 2nd bay from the west has a service entrance and white metal loading bay.

The two western bays have a setback above the 8th floor, and the three east bays set back above the 11th floor. The bay above the entrance is slightly recessed between the other bays, and also sets back above the 8th floor, but lacks the stone cornices that mark the other setbacks. The 11th-floor setback is also present on the east facade. On the south facade, the three west bays set back again above the 16th floor, and the final setback takes place at the east bays above the 20th floor, with a large terrace on the roof.

The north facade and north half of the west elevation are faced in dark-grey pre-cast concrete. The west elevation has three bays of single-windows; the north elevation consists of an east section that projects farther out (and ends at the 20th floor with a terrace) and has three bays of single-windows (to the right of a small strip of curtain wall extends around the corner), and a wider west section, set farther back, that has a bay of double-windows and two bays of single-windows, all at the west end. The ground floor is occupied by a FedEx Office, Men's Wearhouse, and My.Suit.

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