560 Lexington Avene

 office building, high-rise, 1981_construction, commercial building, Modern (architecture)

292-foot, 22-story modernist office building completed in 1981 for the Rudin Management Company. Designed by The Eggers Partnership, it is clad in dark reddish-brown brick. Nearly the entire building is supported on square columns above a 2-story open-air arcade at the base. The exterior columns, lining the south and east facades on 50th Street and Lexington Avenue, are clad in the same brick, with the slightly thinner columns in the interior of the arcade are faced in limestone. The 6,015-square-foot public area has a subway station entrance near the center, surrounded by a oval of clear glass, open at one end. At the west and north ends of the arcade are retail spaces enclosed by plate-glass at the ground floor and swooping, patterned brick at the 2nd level; the western one angles inward. An angled, 2-story glass wall enclosed the lobby at the northwest corner, spanning between the two retail wings. The ceiling of the arcade is composed of white tiling.

The exterior facade is divided into seven bays along 50th Street and four bays on the avenue by the projecting brick piers. Additional piers beginning above the arcade at the 3rd floor subdivide each bay into two smaller bays of double-windows with dark-tinted glass. The piers and window bays run uninterrupted to the roof line. At the west end there is a recessed, 6-story extension also clad in brick, with bands of four windows on the 3rd-6th floors, and a tall loading dock below. The west facade matches the east facade above the 6-story extension.

The ground floor is occupied by a Starbucks coffee, and Godiva Chocolatier.

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