Murray Hill Tower (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / East 40th Street, 245
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385-foot, 35-story modernist residential building completed in 1975. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons, it is clad in beige brick. The tower is set behind landscaping on 39th Street enclosed by a low brick wall of the same color as the building. At the west end there is a short driveway and entrance to the underground parking garage, above which the base is clad in brown metal panels. The rest of the ground floor is black polished granite and glass. Along the east facade on the avenue the ground floor's glass wall is recessed behind the granite piers. At the south end is the main entrance, with a revolving door, fronted by a semi-circular driveway off the avenue. The entry area is covered by a black metal canopy. North of the entrance, the rest of the tower extends farther out toward the sidewalk; at the far north end the recessed glass wall of the ground floor projects farther out, past the piers, but not quite to the edge of the upper floors. There is a set of glass doors hear accessing the commercial space, occupied by Lenox Hill Radiology. The rest of the ground floor is occupied by The Goddard School, and the residential lobby. The projecting base section has nine bays of single-windows, and the 3rd floor is topped by a glass-and-metal railing where it sets back to the rest of the tower slab.

The upper floors of the east facade have, from south to north: a tripartite window bay, a single-window, two more tripartite windows, a bay of French doors opening onto projecting concrete balconies with glass-and-metal railings, another single-window, and three more tripartite windows. There are recessed notches at the north and south corners, both with balconies beginning at the 4th floor; the north corner bay of balconies is wider. The south half of this facade has a band of windows across the top floor.

The south facade on 40th Street has a recessed corner bay of balconies at the west end as well as the east (the same bay from the east facade). A center bay of balconies also begins at the 4th floor. To the west of the center bay is a single-window flanked by two tripartite windows, and to the east is a single-window to the left of two tripartite windows. The east half of this facade has a wide band of windows at the top floor.

The north facade overlooks a shorter building on 41st Street, with a small 1-story wing at the west end extending out to the street with a garage entrance. Behind it the main facade has two sections: the wider east section has recessed corner bays with balconies, and in between are two middle bays of single-windows and two other single-windows paired with smaller bathroom windows. The smaller west section is set far back, with a tripartite window bay at each end.

Near the junction between the set-back east part of the north facade and the north west-facing elevation, a metal pipe ascends the full height of the tower. The north section of west-facing facade has (south of the corner balconies) three tripartite window bays, and then a double-window bay on the other side of the pipe. The south section of west-facing facade, which is not set back, has a double-window at the north end (wrapping around the corner), and two tripartite windows flanking a single-window, as well as the corner bay of balconies at the south end. Rising above the main roof line at the southwest section is a housing for a rooftop swimming pool with a glass curtain wall facing west, topped by a glass-and-metal roof sloping down toward the mechanical housing and water tower enclosure at the middle of the roof. Part of the roof is planted with trees.

The building was originally called Marlborough House Apartments, but was renamed Archstone Murray Hill in 2012, and then changed names again to Murray Hill Tower in 2015. The building contains 270 apartment units.
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Coordinates:   40°44'56"N   73°58'23"W
This article was last modified 4 years ago