Hudson Commons | office building, high-rise, 1962_construction

 office building, high-rise, 1962_construction

422-foot, 25-story modernist office building originally completed in 1962 as an 8-story warehouse, and was converted to an office building in 1983. In 2018-2019, a 17-story addition was built on top, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. The 8-story base (the original building) is clad in dark-grey brick with ribbon bands of windows. The ground-floor band has been replaced by larger plate-glass windows and glass storefronts. The main entrance is centered on the east facade, facing the avenue, framed by dark-grey marble. It is deeply recessed, lined with white marble, and has two sets of revolving glass doors as well as traditional glass doors. There are loading docks at the west end of both the north and south facades.

The ribbon windows wrapping around the perimeters were expanded in height by nearly 50% to allow more natural sunlight inside. Each band has four rows of small rectangular panes framed by a grid of thin aluminum. The bands are continuous around all three main facades of the base, while the rear, west-facing elevation has no openings on its north end, with two bays of windows at the south end that are made up of shorter ribbon band segments. On the north facade, the base has terraced setbacks beginning above the 5th floor, about a third of the way from the west end.

The new upper tower is set back from the base, organized into several boxy masses, and clad in a curtain wall of blue glass arrange into grids by white metal framing members. The massing creates a number of small terraces. At the north end is an exposed concrete side core in the form of a slender rectangle. It has a small bay of windows running up the east end of the north elevation, with two more thinner glass strips running up the west end. There is also a wider glass strip running up the east elevation of the core.

The east side of the upper section features three prominent glass balconies, nestled next to the concrete core section. Part of the ground floor is occupied by In Common NYC restaurant.