1221 Avenue of the Americas
1221 Avenue of the Americas (formerly also known as the McGraw-Hill Building) is an international-style skyscraper at 1221 Sixth Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 51-floor structure has a seven-story base and a simple, cuboid massing. The facade has no decoration and consists of red granite piers alternating with glass stripes to underline the tower's verticality.
| 1221 Avenue of the Americas | |
|---|---|
 1221 Avenue of the Americas with 1251 Avenue of the Americas visible to left | |
| Former names | McGraw-Hill Building |
| General information | |
| Status | Completed |
| Type | Office |
| Architectural style | International style |
| Location | 1221 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 U.S. |
| Coordinates | 40°45′33″N 73°58′54″W |
| Construction started | 1966 |
| Completed | 1969 |
| Opening | 1972 |
| Owner | Rockefeller Group (Mitsubishi Estate) |
| Height | |
| Roof | 674 feet (205 m) |
| Top floor | 50 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 51 |
| Floor area | 2,199,982 sq ft (204,385 m2) |
| Lifts/elevators | 36 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Wallace Harrison |
| References | |
| [1] | |
The building is set back 115 feet (35 m) from Sixth Avenue, with a sunken courtyard dominated by Sun Triangle, an 49-foot (15 m) abstract steel sculpture by Athelstan Spilhaus. The tower's lobby is clad in dark red terrazzo and red marble, with aphorisms by Plato and John F. Kennedy.[2]
Background
Buildings and structures in Rockefeller Center:
The building was part of the later Rockefeller Center expansion (1960s–1970s) dubbed the "XYZ Buildings".[3] Their plans were first drawn in 1963 by the Rockefeller family's architect, Wallace Harrison, of the architectural firm Harrison & Abramovitz.[4] Their letters correspond to their height. 1251 Avenue of the Americas is the "X" Building as it is the tallest at 750 ft (229 m) and 54 stories, and was the first completed, in 1971. The "Y" is 1221 Avenue of the Americas, which was the second tower completed (1973) and is the second in height (674 ft and 51 stories). The "Z" Building, the shortest and the youngest, is 1211 Avenue of the Americas with 45 stories (592 ft).[5]
The building was previously the headquarters of McGraw-Hill Financial.[6] Other tenants include Sirius XM Satellite Radio, whose headquarters and broadcast facility are in the building, and the law firms Mayer Brown and White & Case.
The sunken courtyard contains a large metal triangle designed by Athelstan Spilhaus and fabricated by Tyler Elevator Products, arranged so the Sun aligns with its sides at solstices and equinoxes.[7] When built, the southwestern corner held a display of scale models of planets in the Solar System. A mosaic map of the Earth survives in the northwestern corner.
In 2009, the structure earned a LEED green-building certification.[8] A renovation of the plaza and retail space was announced in 2017,[9] and the $50 million project was underway by 2022.[10]
Sunken courtyard
World maps and sculpture Sun Triangle
1999 elevator incident
After entering an express elevator serving floors 39-50 at approximately 11:00 p.m. (EDT) Friday on October 15, 1999, Nicholas White, a Business Week employee whose office was in the building, became trapped in an elevator after a brief power dip caused it to stop between the 13th and 14th floors. White was not rescued until approximately 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 17, nearly 41 hours later, after security guards spotted him in the elevator surveillance cameras.[11][12] In 2008, The New Yorker uploaded a video, originally called "Trapped in an Elevator for 41 Hours",[13] which contained surveillance-camera footage of White being trapped in the elevator.[14][15]
In popular culture
The buildings are featured in the title sequence of Saturday Night Live, seen from below looking up in the street from a car. It was used for the exteriors and lobby of Elias-Clarke's headquarters in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada and the interior shots for television show Suits. It is also the headquarters of Sirius XM Radio, and many radio shows broadcast from the building including The Howard Stern Show. The plaza and sculpture are also featured as part of the New York City Level of the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.[16]
See also
References
- "Emporis building ID 114548". Emporis. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020.
- "THE McGRAW-HILL BUILDING II (1221 Sixth Ave.)". Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
- Nash, Eric (1999). Manhattan Skyscrapers. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 127. ISBN 9781568981819. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
Celanese Building.
- Krinsky, Carol H. (1978). Rockefeller Center. Oxford University Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-19-502404-3.
- "XYZ Buildings Exxon Building McGraw-Hill Building Celanese Building". Manhattan Skyscrapers. New York, NY: Princeton Archit.Press. 2005. pp. 127–130. doi:10.1007/1-56898-652-1_57. ISBN 978-1-56898-545-9.
- Martin, Timothy W. (July 8, 2015). "McGraw Hill Moves Downtown, Says Goodbye to Namesake Building". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
- Natural History Magazine Archived July 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Sun triangle
- "1221 Avenue of the Americas". USGBC. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
- Nonko, Emily (November 7, 2017). "One of Midtown's sunken public plazas will get a modern revamp". Curbed NY. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
- "Manhattan public plaza, retail gateway receiving $50M renovation". Construction Specifier. March 28, 2022. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
- Tierney, John (October 28, 1999). "The Big City; Aftermath Of 40 Hours In an Elevator". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
- Paumgarten, Nick (July 28, 2014). "Up and Then Down". The New Yorker. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
- "Bad Break: Trapped in an Elevator for 41 Hours". NPR. April 23, 2008. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
- "Video surfaces of man stuck in elevator for 41 hours - ABC7 New York - ABC7 New York". ABC7 New York. March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
- "Video surfaces of man stuck in elevator for 41 hours". New York Daily News. April 22, 2008. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
- "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2: NY City - All Park Goals, Gaps, and Challenges". Push Square. March 26, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
