360 Lexington Avenue

 office building, diplomatic / foreign mission / representation

305-foot, 26-story early-modernist office building completed in 1958. Designed by Schuman & Lichtenstein, it is clad in white brick with ribbon bands of dark-tinted windows. Black steel mullions divide the ribbon bands into almost-square panes. At the 2-story base there are black granite-faced piers dividing the east facade into five unequal-width bays, and the south facade on 40th Street into six evenly-spaced bays. The main entrance is in the northern bay on the avenue, recessed with glass-and-metal doors. The other bays on the avenue, and the eastern bay on 40th Street have metal-and-glass storefronts; the next three bays to the west have white stone infill, while the western two have metal louvers and a freight entrance. On the east facade, the 2nd floor has black-metal-framed windows, four in the northern and two southernmost bays, and three in the other two. White stone panels with silver lettering for the various storefront businesses (and the address above the main entrance) separate the 2nd floor from the 1st. On the south facade, there is a matching panel only over the storefront in the eastern bay; in the other bays the stone infill or metal louvers extend up to the bands of four windows in each bay. Due to the upward slope of the site to the west, the ground-floor bays get shorter as they move west, and the westernmost bay with the freight entance has a single floor at the base instead of two.

The upper floors set back above the 10th floor at the southern three bays on the east facade, and at the eastern two bays on the south facade. The westernmost bay sets back earlier, above the 8th floor. Additional setbacks are located across both full facades above the 12th, 14th, 16th, and 18th floors, and also at the northern two bays (and middle bays of the south facade) above the 20th & 22nd floors. There are no windows at the north two bays on the 21st-22nd floors, or the floors above, which rise vertically to the roof line. There is one final setback above the 24th floor at the rest of the facades; while the window bands continue at the west end of the south facade, the bays nearest the corner instead have larger triple-windows on the top two floors.

On the west elevation, the adjoining building abuts 360 Lexington up to the 10th-floor setback. Above, the facade is clad in the same white brick, with bays of triple-windows. The north elevation also has white brick, with one band of windows at the east end, consisting of bands of four windows (halving to two panes and then dropping off at the setbacks), and another similar band at the west end; the middle section has no openings. The ground floor is occupied by European Wax Center, and a Starbucks Coffee.