55 Hudson Yards (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, 2018 construction

761-foot, 51-story modernist office building completed in 2018. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox in collaboration with Kevin Roche Dinkeloo Associates, it is clad in silver-blue glass and matte gunmetal dark-grey metal. The 10-story base has a grid of near-black squares that is based on the cast iron facades of buildings in SoHo. Each square has a beveled outline and rounded inner corners framing the glass panes. Most of of the same size, but several larger squares are formed by combining four smaller squares at various places on the base. While most of the squares of the grid contain windows, some have flat metal panels of the same dark-grey color.

The west facade spans 13 square, with two super squares near the center; the northern one contains an entrance, with a glass revolving door and traditional door. The main entrance is at the northeast corner, in an even larger super square combining 3-by-3 of the smaller squares at the east end of the north facade and the north end of the east facade (facing onto the adjoining park). Each side has two sets of revolving glass doors as well as traditional glass doors. Two super squares at the edges of the north facade (at the 3rd-4th floors on the west side, and the 5th-6th on the east) are deeply recessed, with matching recessed super squares on the corresponding areas of the west and east facades, creating open-air voids. There is a similar void at the southeast corner of the 7th-8th floors. The east end of the ground floor on 33rd Street has a couple bays of loading docks. The base sets back to the main tower above the 10th floor. The east elevation of the base angles slightly away from the rest of the building. It forms a subtle trapezoid to adhere to the diagonal line that follows Hudson Park & Boulevard.

The upper portion has a more regular grid of glass, formed into a grid of vertical rectangles by extruded metal mullions and spandrels. Both the east and west facades have three 2-story deeply-recessed areas at the middles of their respective floors. Those on the west facade occur at the 24th-25th, 36th-37th, and 50th-51st floors. On the east facade, they are placed at the 24th-25th, 34th-35th, and 38th-39th floors. Two mechanical levels at the top are clad in taller panes of opaque glass.

The building's principal tenants are the law firms of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, and Cooley LP. Blade Air Mobility is located on the 14th floor.

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www.kpf.com/projects/55-hudson-yards