Pepsi-Cola Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, International Style (architecture) (Bauhaus), Modern (architecture)

11-story early-modernist office building completed in 1960. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois as lead), it was originally called the Pepsi-Cola Building for the beverage manufacturer, and later the Olivetti Building and then Amro Bank Building. A much taller office and condominium tower known as 500 Park Tower was constructed adjoining this building to the west in 1986, joined harmoniously with the older building - in fact, they are treated much as a single building.

The former Pepsi building is clad in silver aluminum and glass. There is a small, low plaza up a couple of steps in front of the ground floor, which is recessed under the upper floors. There is a brushed stainless-steel signage cube at the corner of 59th & Park Avenue, at the end of the plaza. In order to preserve the symmetry of the building’s east façade and to prevent its south elevation from butting with its Park Avenue neighbor, the designers set back the building 15 feet on the south and set its narrow service core back from the street line. Covered by black granite on its eleven stories, the south wall gives the impression of a pocket of dark space isolating the light-colored curtain-walled office block from its massive neighbor.

The penthouse level is set back on both the north and east sides, with a landscaped terrace surrounding it on the roof of the 10th floor. On top of the penthouse level is an even further-recessed mechanical bulkhead tucked back to the southwest corner. The main entrance to the building, through a revolving door and glass double-doors, is near the west end of the north facade on 59th Street. In front of this the plaza features a granite base with two brushed stainless-steel flagpoles. At the west edge, there is a metal canopy extending from the street all the way back to the main entrance for 500 Park Tower, at the intersection of the two structures.

The 9-story curtain wall above the ground floor features five bays along the avenue, and nine along 59th Street, each with a 9-by-13-foot pane of polished gray-green plate glass between the anodized aluminum spandrels and thin mullions. In 2016, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill returned to renovate the interior.

www.som.com/projects/pepsi-cola-corporation-world-headq...
www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/1995...
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