Three Worldwide Plaza

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7-story postmodern residential building completed in 1989 as the smaller third main element of the complete Worldwide Plaza complex. Designed by Frank Williams & Associates, it shares similar materials and styles with the Two Worldwide Plaza tower, to which it is linked by twelve 6-story and 5-story townhouses on 50th & 49th Street, with a courtyard in the center.

Both the townhouses and the main Three Worldwide Plaza building (which are connected seamlessly) are clad in red brick with beige-brick trim. The west facade along 9th Avenue is symmetrical, with seven large, segmental-arched bays, each filled by a metal-and-glass storefront with side panes that recess back into the wall. The center bay is also flanked by a smaller bay on either side, both with smaller, tripartite display windows.

The 2nd floor has a pair of double-windows in each bay (one in each of the narrow bays), with a continuous beige-brick lintel course and a two beige brick bands framing metal vents below the windows. Above the 2nd floor the center section has two double-windows flanked by tripartite windows with wrap-around corners to the recessed areas in the bays flanking the center. The two recessed bays both have a pair of double-windows. The next bay to the outside has tripartite windows with wrap-around corners at the inner part, and double-windows at the outer part. The end bays are a mirror image of this, with the tripartite windows wrapping around the end corners. Above the 2nd floor, the windows have beige-brick lintels joined by brick bands that drop to a lower level across the piers. Metal railings front the small terraces created at the 3rd floor by the recessed bays. The outer two bays on each side end at the 6th floor, where the two double-windows are joined into a wide window with six panes. A double row of beige brick and stone coping caps these bays. The recessed bays and center section rise to the 7th floor, where the two double-windows in the middle bay are joined, and matching beige-brick bands and stone coping cap the roof lines. Rising up above the center bay is a red-brick mechanical penthouse topped by a copper pyramid, which is a similar crown to both One and Two Worldwide Plaza.

The north and south facades run into the townhouses, with sections of two alternating styles. At the west end there are 6-story sections with two segmental-arched bays with storefronts at the ground floor. The upper floors match those on the west facade. The next section to the east is only five floors, with a residential entrance on the south side on 49th Street (with bronze-and-glass doors, including a revolving center door, covered by a rounded, green canvas canopy), while the north side on 50th Street has a metal service door, and an entrance and exit to the underground parking garage. The 2nd floor continues unbroken from the west, but the upper floors are set back (behind two metal railings) with a rounded, projecting section of two tripartite windows in the middle at the 3rd-4th floors, flanked by double-window bays. The top of the curved, projecting section at the 4th floor has metal railings around a small 5th-floor terrace.

These two styles (the 6-story sections and the 5-story sections with recessed upper floors and rounded, projecting bays) continue in alternating fashion for the rest of the townhouses, joining into the base of Two Worldwide Plaza near the center of the block. At the center of each townhouse section is a recessed entry area; grey stone stone lead into the vestibules, with small, low brick walls with planters on either side, and pale-red metal gates spanning the openings into the vestibules. At the recessed rear wall, there are pairs of wood-and-glass doors, and narrow double-windows at the sides. The ground floor at the west end is occupied by Petland, Orange Theory fitness, and Body Factory skin care.