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450 Lexington Avenue

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450 Lexington Avenue
450 Lexington Avenue

450 Lexington Avenue is a 38-story office building located on Lexington Avenue between East 44th and 45th Streets, in East Midtown, Manhattan, New York City. The building, which was built in 1992, is clad in Sardinian gray granite and features a repeating diamond motif that highlights the building setbacks and its crown. The stone used in the building was quarried direct at source in Italy and tested by Cawdor Ramsey prior to shipment to New York and the subsequent installation. The tower was built within and on top of the preexisting Grand Central Post Office, which was designed by Warren and Wetmore and constructed from 1906 to 1909. It was originally developed by Hines after anchor tenant and original developer Prudential Financial backed out of the project. It was ultimately developed by Sterling Equities and still stands below the modern skyscraper.The building was owned by Istithmar World from 2006 to 2012, and has been owned by RXR Realty since 2012. Istithmar purchased 450 Lexington in 2006 but refinanced the property the following year for $600 million. Current tenants include Brixmor Property Group, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Herbert Smith Freehills, Warburg Pincus, and WeWork.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article 450 Lexington Avenue (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

450 Lexington Avenue
East 48th Street, New York Manhattan

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Latitude Longitude
N 40.753268 ° E -73.975443 °
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Grand Central Terminal

East 48th Street
10017 New York, Manhattan
New York, United States
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450 Lexington Avenue
450 Lexington Avenue
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MetLife Building
MetLife Building

The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed in the International style by Richard Roth, Walter Gropius, and Pietro Belluschi and completed in 1962, the MetLife Building is 808 feet (246 m) tall with 59 stories. It was advertised as the world's largest commercial office space by square footage at its opening, with 2.4 million square feet (220,000 m2) of usable office space. As of 2021, the MetLife Building remains one of the 100 tallest buildings in the United States. The MetLife Building contains an elongated octagonal massing with the longer axis perpendicular to Park Avenue. The building sits atop two levels of railroad tracks leading into Grand Central Terminal. The facade is one of the first precast concrete exterior walls in a building in New York City. In the lobby is a pedestrian passage to Grand Central's Main Concourse, a lobby with artwork, and a parking garage at the building's base. The roof also contained a heliport that briefly operated during the 1960s and 1970s. The MetLife Building's design has been widely criticized since it was proposed, largely due to its location next to Grand Central Terminal. Proposals for a skyscraper to replace Grand Central Terminal were announced in 1954 to raise money for the New York Central Railroad and New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, the financially struggling railroads that operated the terminal. Subsequently, plans were announced for what later became the MetLife Building, to be built behind the terminal rather than in place of it. Work on the project, initially known as Grand Central City, started in 1959 and the building was formally opened on March 7, 1963. At its opening, the building was named for Pan American World Airways, for which it served as headquarters. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) bought the Pan Am Building in 1981 and used it as their headquarters before selling the building in 2005. The MetLife Building has been renovated several times in its history, including in the mid-1980s, early 2000s, and late 2010s.

Helmsley Building
Helmsley Building

The Helmsley Building is a 35-story building at 230 Park Avenue between East 45th and 46th streets in Midtown Manhattan, just north of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It was built in 1929 as the New York Central Building and was designed by Warren & Wetmore in the Beaux-Arts style. It was the tallest structure in the "Terminal City" complex around Grand Central prior to the completion of what is now the MetLife Building. The Helmsley Building carries vehicular traffic through its base: traffic exits and enters the Park Avenue Viaduct through two portals passing under the building. The lobby of the building is between the vehicular portals. Flanking the viaduct's ramps are passageways connecting 45th and 46th streets, with entrances to Grand Central Terminal. 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 erected for the railroad between 1927 and 1929 as the last major structure to be built within Terminal City. It 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.

Grand Central Art Galleries
Grand Central Art Galleries

The Grand Central Art Galleries were the exhibition and administrative space of the nonprofit Painters and Sculptors Gallery Association, an artists' cooperative established in 1922 by Walter Leighton Clark together with John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, and others. Artists closely associated with the Grand Central Art Galleries included Hovsep Pushman, George de Forest Brush, and especially Sargent, whose posthumous show took place there in 1928.The Galleries were active from 1923 until 1994. For 29 years they were located on the sixth floor of Grand Central Terminal. At their 1923 opening, the Galleries covered 14,000 square feet (1,300 m2) and offered nine exhibition areas and a reception room, described as "the largest sales gallery of art in the world." In 1958 the Galleries moved to the second floor of the Biltmore Hotel, where they had six exhibition rooms and an office. They remained at the Biltmore for 23 years, until it was converted into an office building. The Galleries then moved to 24 West 57th Street, where they remained until they ceased activity.In addition to their main offices, the Grand Central Art Galleries directed a number of other enterprises. They launched the Grand Central School of Art in 1923, opened a branch gallery at Fifth Avenue and 51st Street in 1933, and in 1947 established Grand Central Moderns to show non-figurative works. The Grand Central Art Galleries were also responsible for the creation, design, and construction of the United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Chrysler Building

The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At 1,046 feet (319 m), it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel framework, and it was the world's tallest building for 11 months after its completion in 1930. As of 2019, the Chrysler is the 11th-tallest building in the city, tied with The New York Times Building.Originally a project of real estate developer and former New York State Senator William H. Reynolds, the building was constructed by Walter Chrysler, the head of the Chrysler Corporation. The construction of the Chrysler Building, an early skyscraper, was characterized by a competition with 40 Wall Street and the Empire State Building to become the world's tallest building. Although the Chrysler Building was built and designed specifically for the car manufacturer, the corporation did not pay for its construction and never owned it; Walter Chrysler decided to fund the entire cost personally so his children could inherit it. An annex was completed in 1952, and the building was sold by the Chrysler family the next year, with numerous subsequent owners. When the Chrysler Building opened, there were mixed reviews of the building's design, ranging from views of it as inane and unoriginal to the idea that it was modernist and iconic. Perceptions of the building have slowly evolved into its now being seen as a paragon of the Art Deco architectural style; and in 2007, it was ranked ninth on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects. The building was designated a New York City landmark in 1978, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

Industrial Airplane Show

The First Industrial Aeroplane Show, an industrial show, of exhibited full-size airplanes, opened on New Year's Eve 1910 as part of the 11th U.S. International Auto Show at the Grand Central Palace in New York City. The aviation show was organised by the Aero Club of New York. There was much media attention, and local newspapers such as the New York Times and The Brooklyn Daily Eagle covered it for many days. The New York Times reported on January 2, 1911 that "All Palace attendance records were smashed Saturday when over 15,000 persons passed through the doors." The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that many spectators bypassed the cars to look at the airplanes. Major General Frederick Dent Grant, USA Department Commander of the East, was one of the main speakers. General Grant attended with three of his aides—Colonel Stephen Mills, General Staff; Captain C.W. Fenton, Second Cavalry; and Marion W. Howze, First Field Artillery. The speakers discussed at the airplane show the possible use of planes for wars, and that the U.S. government should provide funding for airplane research and development. It may have been the first public speech by the military regarding the use of early military aircraft.Most of the spectators had never seen a full-size airplane before. The Aero Club of New York said to the media that their aim was "to bring under one roof the various machines of domestic and foreign design so as to enable the visitors to the Palace to see the astonishingly rapid advancement made in the field of aeronautics. " A few days before the exhibition The Philadelphia Inquirer published an article predicting that the "Show will be an Eye-Opener" and that "the managers of the International Show at the Grand Central Palace, say that aside from record-breaking attendance of visitors at the exhibition, in connection with which is to be held with the First International Aviation Show, that it will be an eye-opener as a 'Dealer's' Show."