3 Columbus Circle (New York City, New York)

 office building  Add category

315-foot, 26-story Neo-modernist office building originally completed in 1928. Designed by William Welles Bosworth and Shreve & Lamb, it was completely covered in a curtain wall of glass and steel in 2011 to a design by Gensler, when it was also renamed 3 Columbus Circle. The 3-story base by Bosworth was actually completed in 1923, known as the Colonnade Building, but designed to support the 23-story Shreve & Lamb tower that was added on top in 1927-28. The old Beaux-Arts masonry facade is now hidden behind a curtain wall of reflective blue glass and silver steel. The building was built as the headquarters for the General Motors Corporation. G.M. remained there until 1968, when it moved to its new building on Fifth Avenue.

The building has a trapezoidal footprint, with each of the four corners chamfered. The main entrance is at the center of the east facade on Broadway, with a deeply-recessed glass wall set at an angle featuring two revolving doors. A metal-and-glass canopy lighted from within covers the entrance. Metal-and-glass storefronts line most of the rest of the ground floor. There is a loading dock and service entrance at the center of the west facade on 8th Avenue, and retail entrances at each of the corners.

Horizontal bands of steel vents run between each floor. Above the 3rd floor the middle section of the east and west facades are deeply recessed; the east facade at this section is oriented to follow the regular street grid instead of the angled base and lower wings that are aligned with Broadway. The wings set back above the 17th floor, with setbacks at the chamfered corners above the 15th floor, created notched corners at the 16th-17th floors. There is a final setback on the north and south facades above the 23rd floor.

The ground floor is occupied by Nordstrom (which also has space on the 2nd floor in the east half of the building), a CVS pharmacy (also with space on the 2nd floor), and a Chase Bank branch. The building now serves as the headquarters of the Young & Rubicam advertising agency.