1251 Avenue of the Americas | office building, skyscraper, 1971_construction, International style architecture

USA / New Jersey / West New York / Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), 1251
 office building, skyscraper, 1971_construction, International style architecture
750-foot, 54-story International-style office building completed in 1971. Designed by Harrison & Abramovitz & Harris, it was formerly known as The Exxon Building. It is one of the so-called "XYZ" slab towers along the west side of 6th Avenue, built as an extension of Rockefeller Center. Due to the buildings' excess bulk, as opposed to the allowances given by zoning, the western ends of the plots were to be used as north-south public promenades running through each block. The vertical facade striping consists of narrow limestone-clad piers as vertical structural members, with a similar structural system used on the other buildings within the new complex. The large setback from Sixth Avenue accommodates a plaza featuring a reflecting pool and fountain. The 54-story building occupies the plot opposite the Comcast Building, and its vertically accentuated form makes it the second-tallest building in the whole Rockefeller Center. Exxon moved out of the building in 1990 to the Las Colinas area of Irving, Texas, and sold the building to Mitsui Real Estate Development Co. for $610 million.

The double-height ground floor has half the number of piers as above. Along both the north and south facades on 49th & 48th Streets there are two sets of entrances, each with a pair of revolving doors flanked a central traditional door. Each of the four is set below a black metal canopy cantilevering far out over the sidewalk in the form of a "V", with the ends angling up from the center. The far west end of the building has a low-rise, 7-story base section wrapping around the west end of the building and framing the rectangular tower portion, which rises sheer on all four sides. There is a large loading dock at the west end of the north side of the low-rise wing. Besides the lobby areas, the ground floor is occupied by Sushiden restaurant, and a Chase bank branch.

In this building

  1. Natixis
  2. DLA Piper
  3. Toshiba America, Inc.
  4. The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ
  5. Avon Products, Inc.
  6. Rothschild Asset Management Inc.
  7. Paulson & Co. Inc.
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Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1251_Avenue_of_the_Americas
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°45'36"N   73°58'54"W

Comments

  • Exxon moved to Texas in the early 1990's and sold the property to Mitsui Fudosan (America). Mitsui Fudosan and Mitsubishi Estates (owner of 1221 &1271 Avenue of the Americas - also the Rockefeller Group) are the two largest owner/developers in Japan.
This article was last modified 1 year ago