277 Park Avenue | office building, skyscraper, 1963_construction, International style architecture, Modern (architecture)

 office building, skyscraper, 1963_construction, International style architecture, Modern (architecture)

687-foot, 50-story International-style office building completed in 1963. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons, the building currently houses parts of JPMorgan Chase's Investment Bank, Commercial Bank, and other corporate functions. JP Morgan's takeover of Bear Stearns in 2008 resulted in most investment banking employees moving to 383 Madison Avenue to reduce the leased real estate footprint in Midtown. 277 Park Avenue remains under the ownership of the family-owned Stahl Organization, the building's original developer. Renovations were made to the first floor by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in 2020.

The rectangular tower facing Park Avenue has lower, projecting wings on the north and south sides, extending all the way to the east end of the site at Lexington Avenue. The entire building's facades are clad in a curtain wall of black metal spandrels, clear glass, and thin, silver metal mullions, above a black granite ground floor that begins as the low wall of the front plaza on the west side, then joins the tower facade to act as a base, and grows in height as it moves east, due to the slope of the site. It is punctuated only by a couple small, metal service doors near the center until it reaches the east end, where there are a row of loading docks on the south side, and storefronts on the east facade on Lexington, with an entrance of recessed glass doors at the center, up a wide but short set of stone steps. The north side on 48th Street has three widely-spaced storefront windows and a commercial entrance at the east end, with an entrance to the underground parking garage near the center.

The raised plaza in front of the tower on Park Avenue has landscaping and trees at the corners, and steel planter boxes in the center, in front of the main entrance; there are also two flagpoles at the southwest corner of the plaza. The double-height ground floor on the west facade is recessed under the floors above, with black metal piers supporting the tower and dividing the facade into six bays, each with sets of revolving or traditional doors in a glass wall.

The north and south wings have setbacks above the 7th & 13th floors, although at the east end rises to the 10th floor before the first setback. There top section of the east end rises to the 18th floor, where the lower roof supports HVAC equipment. The main tower on the west rises sheer to a flat roof line. The main tower has a mechanical floor midway up, with black vents in place of windows. There are two more mechanical floors at the top.

The ground floor is occupied by Cohen's Fashion Optical, Blank Street Coffee, Beekman Liquors, and an entrance to the Manhattan Athletic Club, located on the 2nd floor. Tenants include JPMorgan Chase & Co., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, Visa, ANZ Bank, and Agricultural Bank of China.