AT&T Long Distance Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, interesting place, Art Deco (architecture), television broadcast station / TV centre, historical building

429-foot, 28-story Art-Deco office/telecom hotel building completed in 1932. 32 Avenue of the Americas, also known as the AT&T Long Distance Building, was designed by Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, and contains 1,150,000 square feet of office space. It is managed by the privately held Rudin Management Company. The building reaches a pinnacle height of 549 feet up to its twin spires.

It is clad in brown brick, with a short granite base. The windows are recessed between piers than run unbroken up the height of the building, emphasizing verticality. The taller center sections of the north and south facades have angled projections on the piers. The main entrance on 6th Avenue is set under a large frostet glass and metal element. The lower part of the 6th Avenue facade is set at an angle to the rest of the building to follow the path of the street. There are a number of setbacks near the top of the tower. The building is also home to the offices of Globo, the biggest television network in Brazil. Other tenants include Clear Channel, Dentsu Advertising, Cambridge University Press, Qwest, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Both the exterior and interior lobby are designated New York City landmarks. Its lobby was designed by Ralph Walker of the firm of Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker to complement the form of telephone lines and radio waves and reinforce the building as a hub of early telecommunication. The painter and decorator, Gustav Johnson, sought to emphasize the modernity of the telephone industry with crisp lines of Art Deco motifs. The ceiling was designed by Hildreth Meière and was fabricated by the Ravenna Mosaics company.

s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1748.pdf
www.hildrethmeiere.org/commissions/att-long-distance-bu...