Helmsley Building
The Helmsley Building is a 35-story skyscraper at 230 Park Avenue between East 45th and 46th Streets, just north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was built between 1927 and 1929 as the New York Central Building, and was designed by Warren & Wetmore in the Beaux-Arts style. The building has been described as the last major project built as part of the Terminal City complex around Grand Central.
The facade of the four-story base is composed of limestone and Texas pink granite, while the upper stories are clad with brick. The top of the Helmsley Building is a pyramid with an ornate cupola. Vehicular traffic is carried through its base, with traffic entering and exiting the Park Avenue Viaduct through two portals. Flanking the viaduct's ramps are passageways connecting 45th and 46th Streets, with entrances to Grand Central Terminal. The lobby of the building is between the vehicular portals and contains bronze and marble detailing. The Helmsley Building has of office space.
Before the construction of Grand Central Terminal, the area to the north of the predecessor Grand Central Depot was occupied by an open-air rail yard; the tracks and depot were operated by the New York Central Railroad. After the terminal was completed in 1913, the tracks were buried under a series of buildings that were constructed over the tracks as part of the Terminal City development. The New York Central Building was renamed the New York General Building in 1958 and the Helmsley Building in 1978, though ownership was changed several times afterward. The building's facade and lobby became New York City designated landmarks in 1987. RXR Realty has owned the building since 2015.
Site
The Helmsley Building was developed as part of the original "Terminal City" complex above Grand Central Terminal's rail yards. It straddles the ramps of the Park Avenue Viaduct in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, bounded by 45th Street to the south, Vanderbilt Avenue to the west, 46th Street to the north, and Depew Place to the east. The building has an address of 230 Park Avenue and is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10169; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes as of 2019. The Helmsley Building measures north-south and west-east.Immediately to the south are Grand Central Terminal and the MetLife Building. In addition, the building is near 50 Vanderbilt Avenue to the southwest, the Roosevelt Hotel to the west, 383 Madison Avenue to the northwest, 245 Park Avenue to the northeast, and 450 Lexington Avenue to the southeast.
Architecture
The Helmsley Building was designed by Warren & Wetmore in the Beaux-Arts style. Its design is influenced by that of the Manhattan Municipal Building in Lower Manhattan—which also spanned a street, Chambers Street—and includes side wings projecting to the west and east. The wings slightly resemble the "court of honor" designed by Reed and Stem, another collaborator in the Grand Central project.Inside the base are two S-ramps carrying Park Avenue to the Park Avenue Viaduct between 45th and 46th Streets. The western ramp carries southbound traffic and the eastern ramp the northbound. The building's lobby lies between the portals, with storefront-lined pedestrian arcades running on the outside of either ramp. The arcades are connected to Grand Central North, a system of passageways that lead to Grand Central, which opened in 1999.
The eastern and western wings are each 15 stories tall, with a centrally positioned tower rising to 35 stories. The lowest four stories comprise the base, which include the lobbies and the viaduct ramps. The eleven stories above it comprise an office block with a floor plan shaped like an irregular "H" aligned west–east. The western wings project further than the eastern wings, and the center of the northern facade curves slightly inward. The 20-story tower has a floor plan measuring. It terminates in a pyramidal roof with an octagonal base.
Facade
The facade of the four-story base is composed of limestone and Texas pink granite. It includes bronze grilles as well as sculptures depicting industrial progress. A diameter clock sits atop the base, above the ground, flanked on its left by a figure of the god Mercury, representing transportation, and on its right by a figure of the goddess Ceres, representing agriculture. The composition measures tall by wide and was designed by Edward McCartan. The windows on the base contain one of four types of display-window designs: the original designs installed with the rest of the building in 1929, and one of three modifications. The pedimental sculptures were carved by the Ardolino Brothers.The upper stories are faced with brick. The northern facade of the fifth through 15th stories curve along the wings. The facade of this section contains paired sash windows with decorative metal spandrels, as well as limestone keystones above the windows on the 15th story. Above the 15th floor is a cornice with 78 terracotta bison heads, symbolizing industry. The cornice also contains images of Mercury's winged helmet, winged wheels representing advancement, scrolls of wisdom, wheels of progress, and other motifs. The 15th story of the eastern facade had a sky bridge that connected to 466 Lexington Avenue until 1982.
The 16th through 35th-story facades are faced with brick and contain paired sash windows, with identical decorative elements on all sides. Above the 28th floor are limestone keystones over the windows, as well as a cornice with brackets. There is an ornate entablature above the 31st floor; keystones above the 32nd-floor windows; bracketed keystones above the 33rd floor windows; and an observation deck on the 33rd floor. The last full floor, the 34th, has three pairs of dormered windows on all sides.
The top of the Helmsley Building is a pyramid with an ornate cupola. The roof was lit at night by electric floodlights and torches with up to 100,000 candlepower. At the pinnacle were "32-marine-type fixtures" that each had a capacity of up to 100 watts. The cupola had oval openings and was topped by a glass ball with a 6,000 watt lantern. Eight projectors, one from each corner of the octagon's base, also illuminated the roof. The lighting made the Helmsley Building a point of interest that could be seen from several miles away. When the Helmsley Building was completed, the copper roof was gilded, but by the late 1950s had been painted green. The gilding was restored in the 1970s and removed in 2002.
Features
The building has of office space. Of this, the lower 15 floors each have an area of and the upper 20 floors each cover. The building was erected with 40 elevators, only 25 of which were in use as of 2022.Structural features
The building uses of steel, of which went into the foundation. There are two levels of tracks underneath the building. Due to the different track layouts on each level, the columns on each level were offset, preventing through-columns from being built. Furthermore, the tracks were electrified and more than 700 trains passed through each day. As a solution, girders were installed above the lower track level, and the steel frame for the building was placed upon these girders and insulated with vibration-proof mats and cork tubes.The Helmsley Building did not have basements because that space was occupied by the tracks. Because of this, the machinery, utilities, and storage areas were installed on the 15th floor.
Lobby
The lobby's interior is designed to evoke New York Central's "prowess". This is evidenced in the walls, which are made of marble, as well as the detailing of the bronze, where the railroad's initials are repeated many times. A vestibule leads from 46th Street and contains multi-pane windows, bronze doors, a chandelier, and a pair of flanking vestibules with small storefronts. Another nearly-identical but smaller vestibule on the southern end, near 45th Street, leads to the western walkway.The lobby contains bronze chandeliers and an elaborate cornice with brackets and friezes. There are thirty-two elevators, grouped in eight banks of four, labeled "A" through "H". The elevator banks are double-height arched vestibules, with marble frames around the elevator openings, as well as bronze-ornamented elevator indicators. The elevators contain elaborately decorated bronze doors painted "Chinese red", with the railroad's initials. The bronze reliefs above the elevator doors contain winged helmets flanking a globe, a symbol of global influence. The elevator cab interiors contain Chinese red walls with wood moldings, as well as ceilings with gift domes and painted cloudscapes. The elevator banks and cabs are similar, with minor variations.
History
In the 19th century, the New York Central Railroad lines north of Grand Central Depot in Midtown Manhattan were served exclusively by steam locomotives, and the rising traffic soon caused accumulations of smoke and soot in the Park Avenue Tunnel, the only approach to the depot. After a fatal crash in 1902, the New York state legislature passed a law to ban all steam trains in Manhattan by 1908. New York Central's vice president William J. Wilgus proposed electrifying the line and building a new electric-train terminal underground, a plan that was implemented almost in its entirety. The old Grand Central Depot was torn down in phases and replaced by the current Grand Central Terminal. Construction on Grand Central Terminal started on June 19, 1903, and the new terminal was opened on February 2, 1913.Passenger traffic on the commuter lines into Grand Central more than doubled in the years following the terminal's completion. The terminal spurred development in the surrounding area, particularly in Terminal City, a commercial and office district created above where the tracks were covered. Terminal City soon became Manhattan's most desirable commercial and office district. A 1920 New York Times article said, "With its hotels, office buildings, apartments and underground Streets it not only is a wonderful railroad terminal, but also a great civic centre." Most of these buildings were designed by Warren & Wetmore, which had also designed the terminal itself.