UOB Building

 office building, bank

11-story modernist office building originally completed in 1911 as a 5-story store-and-loft building. Designed by Carrère & Hastings for the Black, Starr & Frost jewelry company, it was later expanded with new floors on top and converted to offices. The 1964 facade was clad in white marble, with double-height, recessed bays on the ground floor; three bays on the avenue, and nine bays along the north facade on 48th Street. Those alterations were made by Hausman & Rosenberg for the Trade Bank & Trust Company.

The main entrance is at the west end of the north facade on 48th Street, with glass-and-stainless-steel double-doors below a steel canopy. Extending to the east are plate-glass show-windows along the ground floor. The 2nd floor has a long curtain wall of glass, except at the west end.

The upper floors have regular rows of narrow windows, and the facade is highlighted by random, geometric decoration in the form of thin, vertical and horizontal fins of white metal and a couple red ones. The top two floors are set back at the east end, and have 11 bays on the north facade, and five on the east, each with double-windows and grey metal spandrels between the two floors within each bay. A black metal-clad mechanical penthouse is located on the southwest part of the roof.

The exterior was redesigned again in 2018 by Yshihara Mckee Architects, and now has a skin of light-silver aluminum panels. The ground floor is occupied by a United Overseas Bank branch, and a Lululemon apparel store.

www.beyondthegildedage.com/2012/01/more-on-black-starr-...
daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-mutilated-bl...
archive.org/details/newyorklandmarks0000unse_u9w7/page/...
www.architecturalrecord.com/ext/resources/archives/back...
hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015086699223?urlappend=%3Bseq...