UPS Customer Service Center (New York City, New York)

 warehouse, UPS (United Parcel Service), mailing, truck terminal

8-story modernist shipping center/warehouse/truck depot completed in 1962. Designed by Leon & Lionel Levy, the facility takes up the entire block bounded by West 43rd & 44th Streets and 11th & 12th Avenues. It has a red brick base along the west, north and south facades, with beige brick above. The ground floor is lined with numerous small service entrances and large vehicle entrances with roll-down metal gates. The southwest corner is notched, with a low brick wall and short sets of steps leading to the main entrance. The brown-glass wall around the entrance continues up the south end of the west facade to near the roof line, with red brick at the far south edge. The rest of the west facade is rounded, with narrow bands of windows across the top three floors.

Along the north and south facades, the tallest part of the building (at the west end) makes a series of step-downs from eight floors to four for most of the building's length. These facades are lined with long, narrow bands of windows and vents. At the far east ends, both the north and south facades have towers of red brick - there are single-windows at each floor on the north tower, and a curtain wall of dark glass on the south-facing wall of the south one. The east facade is clad completely in beige brick, except for a band of brown stone across the top of the ground floor, which has recessed bays between the brick piers, with an opening for a garage door and service door in the center bay only. A horizontal green stripe runs across the middle of the ground floor, and an American flag in hung in the middle of the facade.