The Paley Center for Media

 museum, cultural center / centre, commercial building

16-story postmodern museum/commercial building completed in 1990. Designed by Philip Johnson, it houses the New York branch of the Paley Center for Media. There is also a location in Los Angeles.

The Paley Center for Media, formerly The Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and The Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution dedicated to the discussion of the cultural, creative and social significance of television, radio and emerging platforms for the professional community and media-interested public.

It was renamed The Paley Center for Media on June 5, 2007, to encompass emerging broadcasting technologies such as the Internet, mobile video and podcasting, as well as to expand its role as a neutral setting where media professionals can engage in discussion and debate about the evolving media landscape.

The ground-level floor of the New York museum features the ticket and information area, a combination bookstore/gift shop and the Steven Spielberg Gallery, used for exhibitions, receptions and fund-raising events. Reservations to use the Library are made at the front desk. In addition to the elevator, a staircase on the first floor leads down to the large basement-level theater. The fourth floor has numerous Macintosh computers, used by visitors to scan titles in the collection.

The facade is clad in rusticated blocks of white limestone. The central entrance is recessed, with a prominent round-arch above the middle of the entry supported by a pair of rounded columns that grow slightly wider at the bases. The doors are bronze-and-glass, with a revolving door in the center. The edges of the arch are lined with large quoins, and at the rear of the arch (above the doors) is a medallion with metal letters in a circle reading "THE PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA". The only part of the facade that is not symmetrical is a grey metal service door at the west edge of the ground floor.

The edges of the lower floors are slightly recessed and change form from square corners to octagons at the top of the 5th floor; octagonal caps to the end columns frame a peaked parapet across the middle, above which the rest of the facade is set back from the base. The 3rd-5th floors have a large grid of dark-tinted 2-over-3 windows organized by limestone spandrels and mullions into six bays. This 3-story grouping of windows is underlined by a projecting stone balcony-like band with a paneled front, supported by two end brackets.

The four facades of the upper floors above the base have matching grids of windows, each reaching to the top floor. The tops of the four corners have octagonal caps matching those on the base.

www.paleycenter.org/about