Colgate-Palmolive Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, 1955_construction, International style architecture

328-foot, 25-story International-style office building completed in 1955. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons, the building consists of a 14-story base with progressively set back upper floors, all clad in light-grey metal and glass. In 2000, a façade renovation program completely transformed the exterior of the building with new, green-tinted, high-performance windows, aluminum spandrel panels and retail storefronts.

The main entrances are at the center of the east facade on the avenue, spanning three bays, with a recessed glass wall and doors. Stainless-steel piers frame the entrance bays. The rest of the ground floor along the avenue, and on the east halves of the north and south facades, have plate-glass storefronts. The west half of the south facade on 49th Street has metal panels, with secondary entrances and a service door; the west half of the north facade on 50th Street is also clad in metal panels, with service doors and a loading dock. The main north facade is narrower, due to the L-shaped plan of the building. In 2015, four small buildings to the west of the north facade were demolished and replaced by a 4-story addition housing mechanical equipment. The addition is also L-shaped, with the north wing separated from the rest of the main building by a small plaza courtyard. The addition is clad in grey metal panels at the ground floor, with green metal panels above. Its wing that extends to the sidewalk has a loading dock, and the upper floors have numerous metal vents.

Above the ground floor, the main building has bands of small windows with thin metal mullions matching the spandrels. The east facade has a shallow, full-width setbacks above the 14th floor, a deeper setback above the 17th, and another shallow setback above the 23rd. These setbacks are matched on the north and south facades, with the south elevation having additional small setbacks at the west halves, above the 10th, 12th, 16th, and 22nd floors. The southwest wing ends at a lower roof line above the 24th floor. The narrow west section of the north facade also has these small, extra setbacks. The rear, west-facing elevation has continuations of the curtain wall at the north and south ends, with the middle faced in concrete with no openings. The north-facing wall of the south wing also continues the curtain wall cladding, with no setbacks.

Besides the lobby, the ground floor is occupied by Charles Schwab, E+Trade Financial, Joe & The Juice, and Duke Eatery.

dlc.library.columbia.edu/catalog/cul:qbzkh18bhx