Solow Building

Solow Building

The Solow Building from 5th Avenue and 59th Street
General information
Type Commercial offices
Location 9 West 57th Street
New York City, New York
Completed 1974
Owner Sheldon Solow
Height
Roof 689 ft (210 m)[1]
Technical details
Floor count 49
Lifts/elevators 33
Design and construction
Architect Gordon Bunshaft
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
References
[1]
The Solow Building

The Solow Building, located at 9 West 57th Street, is a Manhattan skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill's Gordon Bunshaft and built in 1974. It is located just west of Fifth Avenue, sandwiched between the 57th and 58th Street, next to such prominent buildings as the Bergdorf Goodman department store and the Plaza Hotel. Consisting of 49 stories and 689 ft (210 m),[1] the building's only competitor by height in the neighborhood is the GM Building, located one block north and east. Floors above the 23rd floor offer a virtually unobstructed view of northern Manhattan and a complete view of Central Park and The Plaza Hotel.

One of the notable aesthetic attributes of the building is the concave vertical slope of its north and south facades, on 57th and 58th Street. This is similar to another of Bunshaft's creations, the 192-metre tall W. R. Grace Building, which is no coincidence, as he had used the initial, rejected façade design for the Solow Building in his design for the Grace Building.[2]

The name of the building is attributed to Sheldon Solow, a real estate mogul who invested in the construction of the building.

Owners

The building is owned by billionaire Sheldon Solow. In the 1960s, he commissioned architect Gordon Bunshaft to build the tower. The building is privately managed and tenancy is held by Mr. Solow's estate.

Tenants

The Solow Building features some of the most expensive rents in Manhattan. The Solow Building Company occupies a permanent lease of the top floor of the skyscraper. Well-known tenants include the U.S. Headquarters of the French Corporate and Investment Bank Natixis and private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (42nd fl.), Apollo Management (43rd/48th fl.), Silver Lake Partners (32nd fl.), Providence Equity Partners (49th fl.), and Highland Capital Management (38th fl.).

Several law firms and hedge funds occupy a majority of the remaining space, including Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb (50th fl.), Och-Ziff Capital Management (39th fl.), Tiger Global Management (35th fl.), Highbridge Capital Management (27th fl.), and Coatue Management (25th fl.). The corporate offices of Chanel (44th fl.) and Avis Budget Group (37th fl.) are also located in the building.[3][4][5]

Amenities

The building features an underground parking garage, currently available retail space on the north side bordering 58th Street, an underground space occupied by the Brasserie 8½ restaurant, a 2 floor trading floor on floors 2-3, a newsstand in the lobby, and 24 high-speed elevators subdivided into sets of floors.

Name issues

In 1971, Avon Products, Inc. rented 21 floors, quickly expanding to occupy 25 floors, and the building was soon being referred to as "the Avon building" (a moniker that persists and can still cause confusion nearly 40 years later). In 1975, the building's owner, Sheldon Solow, sued Avon for misappropriating the building's trademark without compensation. Although Avon moved out of the building in 1997, in May 2005, the lawsuit finally went to trial and was subsequently dismissed two months later.[6]

In popular culture

"The Red 9" in front of the Solow Building

See also

References

External links

Media related to Solow Building at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 40°45′49.90″N 73°58′29.26″W / 40.7638611°N 73.9747944°W / 40.7638611; -73.9747944

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