Manhattan Building Guide

New York is famous for tall architecture - skyscrapers - but also cultural buildings such as the Guggenheim and MoMA. Of all the cities in the United States of America New York has more quality architecture and many of its buildings feature in the key histories of World Architecture. Famous architects that achieved major architecture works here include Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe. Manhattan is based on a grid, with many interesting buildings by famous architects.

Enjoy your visit!


New York Architecture - Photo © Tim Collins

New York buildings are listed using a standard format:

- Building Title
- Key date of building completion; key dates of subsequent work
- Architect or Architects
- A short description of the architecture & personal evaluation


Brooklyn Bridge Photo © Tim Collins

New York Building - Key News:
Norman Foster - Seagram Building
Foster & Partners to design 62 storey 216m high New York skyscraper beside Mies van der Rohe's classic Seagram Building on Lexington Avenue.

Ground Zero - Snohetta Building
Proposed Ground Zero Drawing Center relocated with designs by Weisz + Yoes Architecture

New Museum of Contemporary Art - Extension, SoHo, Manhattan
2006
SANAA architects, Tokyo – Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa

New York Architecture - News


Ten Key New York buildings (chronological):

1. Statue of Liberty, Liberty Island, New York
1886
Frederic Bartholdi

2. Flatiron Building
1902
Daniel Burnham, Architect

3. Grand Central Station
1913
McKim, Mead & White, Architects

4. Chrysler Building
1930
William Van Alen, Architect

5. Empire State Building
1931
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, Architects

6. Rockefeller Center
1940
Raymond Hood, Architect

7. Guggenheim Museum
1959
Frank Lloyd Wright Architects

8. Seagram Building
1958
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architect
Another building by Mies van der Rohe is the Barcelona Pavilion

9. TWA Building, New York Airport
1962
Eero Saarinen, Architect

10. Whitney Museum
1966
Marcel Breuer, Architect

Key Manhattan building no longer standing:

Site of World Trade Center
New York (destroyed 2001)
1966-73
Minoru Yamasaki, Emery Roth & Sons
One World Trade Center was 417m high, Two World Trade Center was 415m high



New York Buildings - full list of key architecture


Hearst Tower image from Foster & Partners

Ten Key New York buildings (alphabetical):

Statue of Liberty
Flatiron Building
Grand Central Station
Chrysler Building
Empire State Building
Rockefeller Center
Guggenheim Museum
Seagram Building
TWA Building - New York Airport (JFK)
Whitney Museum

1. Statue of Liberty
Liberty Island, New York
1884-86
Frederic Bartholdi

Statue of Liberty New York

2. Flatiron Building
23rd Street, Broadway; 5th Avenue, New York
1902
Daniel Burnham, Architect

scanned image from 1989 by isabelle lomholt
The original New York skyscraper
New York building

3. Grand Central Station
Vanderbilt Avenue (+ Lexington Avenue / 43rd Street / Park Avenue), New York
1903-13
Reed and Stem; Warren and Wetmore

Grand Central Station Photo © Tim Collins
New York architecture
Also called Grand Central Terminal, built for the New York and Harlem Railroad company. Famous building backdrop from numerous American films

4. Chrysler Building
405 Lexington Avenue
1930
William Van Alen, Architect
New York Building
This enigmatic New York building is 318m high, an Art Deco skyscraper that is a world-famous symbol for New York. Tallest building globally on completion, taking over from the Eiffel Tower. It obviously was also the tallest building in New York until the Empire State Building was completed the following year. Refurbished 1995

5. Empire State Building
350 Fifth Avenue, New York
1931
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, Architects

New York skyscraper photo: Andrew McRae, 2007
New York Building
381m high skyscraper, Art Deco architecture - especially the tower interior, famous New York landmark

6. Rockefeller Center
5th - 7th Avenue; 47th - 51st Street, Midtown, New York
1932-40
Raymond Hood, Architect

Rockefeller Center - photo: Andrew McRae, 2007
New York buildings
The home of the beautiful ice rink, the Radio City Music Hall and supreme luxury of the Rainbow Rooms: you can dance away at the top of one of the highest skyscrapers in the city

7. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue, East Harlem, New York
1956-59
Frank Lloyd Wright Architects
New York architecture
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is Frank Lloyd Wright's New York masterpiece with its famous internal spiral ramp - containing art - around the atrium

8. Seagram Building
375 Park Avenue, New York
1954-58
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architect; Philip Johnson
New York building
Philip Johnson became an associate for Mies van der Rohe on the Seagram Building in 1955: he worked on interiors such as the Four Seasons Restaurant.

9. TWA Building - New York Airport (JFK)
Terminal 5, John F Kennedy International Airport, Jamaica, New York
1956-62
Eero Saarinen, Architect

10. Whitney Museum
945 Madison Avenue, Upper East Side
1966
Marcel Breuer, Architect
This building contains a contemporary art collection of around 12,000 paintings.
Marcel Breuer also worked on the Paris UNESCO Building - Paris Buildings
New York building


Key Public Spaces in the city - New York Squares & Parks:

Central Park
between 59th & 110th Street; Fifth & Eight Avenue
1872
-
Huge rectilinear park in upper central Manhattan, green lungs for New York. Building off Central Park include the Guggenheim Museum. It contains a zoo and the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Central Park New York

Times Square
between 40th & 53rd Street; 6th & 9th Avenue
-
-

Times Square Photo © Tim Collins
Neon centre to New York, similar to London's Picadilly in conception. Home to the New Year's Eve ball lowering on No.1 Times Square building. Broadway and many theatres are located nearby: New York buildings

Madison Square
Flatiron, New York
1847
-
Madison Square Park
Key New York architecture nearby include the Flatiron building, New York Life Insurance Company building and the Metlife Tower.


New York Skyscrapers

Key buildings included in this Guide to New York Architecture (alphabetical order):

Brooklyn Bridge
Freedom Tower (Ground Zero - World Trade Centre site)
Lever Building (Lever House)
Metropolitan Opera House
Museum of Modern Art - MoMA
Woolworth Building
UN Plaza
United Nations Headquarters (UNO Buildings)


Brooklyn Bridge
East River, Brooklyn / New York
1869-83
John A. Roebling, designer / civil engineer

Brooklyn Bridge Photo © Tim Collins

Classic piece of New York engineering that has become one of the must-see structures for visitors to the city.

Freedom Tower - Site of World Trade Center
Ground Zero, Lower Manhattan
2004-
Daniel Libeskind Architects + David Childs of SOM Architects
Controversial towers to replace the New York World Trade Centre skyscrapers lost in 2001. The main Freedom Tower skyscraper by Libeskind was to be a significant number of feet high - 1,776 feet - to mark a key American date in history - United States Year of Independence; the building was largely handed over to architect David Childs. Designed to be the tallest tower in the world for the site leaseholder - real estate developer Larry Silverstein. The angular design is typical for Libeskind but here echoes the Statue of Liberty. A Snohetta building was due to appear but the situation is in a state of flux, more online soon. New York architecture : Freedom Tower

Another New York building by Daniel Libeskind is his condominium tower in Union City, New Jersey.

Gehry Partners LLP and Snøhetta were selected as architects for the World Trade Center cultural complex by Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in Dec 2004: lower down this page

Lever Building (Lever House)
390 Park Avenue, New York
1950-52
Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) Architects
A beautiful piece of New York architecture facing Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building and trying to give it a run for its money. Having had a good look at both I think Mies wins but nevertheless this was a classic in its day, podium and tower:
New York Building by Skidmore Owings Merrill

Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
1966
Wallace K. Harrison, Architect
New York Opera House

Museum of Modern Art - MoMA
11 W. 53rd St, Midtown, New York
2004
redevelopment: Yoshio Taniguchi; Executive architect: KPF Architecture

MoMA New York photo: Andrew McRae, 2007
Recently completely redeveloped with designs by Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi backed up by American architects KPF, completed 2005. The resulting building has been criticised - more detail on this and key aspects of MoMA soon.
New York architecture

UN Plaza
East 44th St / 1st Avenue
1969-75
Roche-Dinkeloo Architects
Crystalline glassy building with facets in plan and section but generally a clean-styled building. The UN Plaza apartments tower was added in 1983. Renamed in 1999 Millennium Hotel New York, UN Plaza.

United Nations Headquarters (UNO Buildings)
1st Avenue, New York
1947-53
Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Sir Howard Robertson
with Harrison & Abramovitz Architects
This is the only Le Corbusier building in New York; it starred in the Fountainhead film. The main building is a massive slab block - Secretariat, 39-floor office tower - that rises up by the East River, located near the UN Plaza: New York Building

Woolworth Building
233 Broadway, New York
1910-13
Cass Gilbert, Architect
241m high, one of the first New York skyscrapers. Designed in a formal, symmetrical Gothic Revival style and originally nicknamed the Cathedral of Commerce. The Woolworth building was the tallest in the world from 1913 - 1930. Refurbished 1977-81.


Other New York buildings in this Architecture Guide (alphabetical order):

9 West 57th Street
500 Fifth Avenue Building
1001 Fifth Avenue Façade
AT&T Building
Carnegie Hall Tower
City Spire Center
Corning Glass Works Building (Corning Glass Center)
D. E. Shaw & Co. Office Building
Ford Foundation
Hearst Building
Higgins Hall School of Architecture - Pratt Institute addition
JP Morgan Chase New York
Javits Convention Center
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Lefcourt National Building
Lipstick Building
LVMH Building
Manhattan Condominium
New York State Theater
New York State Pavilion
One Chase Manhattan Plaza (Chase Manhattan Bank)
One Liberty Plaza
Prada Store New York
RCA Building
Reynolds Building
Rockefeller Guest House
Storefront for Art and Architecture
Time Warner Center
World Financial Center


New York Architecture - Photo © Tim Collins


9 West 57th Street
-
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Architects

New York photo: Andrew McRae, 2007
New York skyscraper

500 Fifth Avenue Building
500 Fifth Avenue
1931
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates
212m high, rectilinear stepped Manhattan tower. Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates
of course were the designers of probably the most famous New York skyscraper, the Empire State building.

1001 Fifth Avenue Façade
1001 Fifth Avenue
1978–80
Philip Johnson, Architect with John Burgee

AT&T Building
Madison Avenue
1980–83
Philip Johnson, Architect with John Burgee

scanned image from 1989 by isabelle lomholt
Very famous Postmodern building with its so-called 'Chippendale Chair' top
New York building

Carnegie Hall Tower
-
1986–90
Cesar Pelli, Architect

City Spire Center
West 55th Street, Midtown, Manhattan,
Murphy/Jahn Architects
248m high skyscraper
Other buildings by Murphy/Jahn Architects include MesseTurm, 1990 - tallest building Europe at 257m high until 1997 - and the Trump Tower, completed 2005, 180m high in Stuttgart.

Corning Glass Works Building (Corning Glass Center)
717 Fifth Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York
1956-58
Wallace K. Harrison, Architect of Harrison, Abramovitz & Abbe Architects
This building is 109m high; the lobby contains a mural by Josef Albers.
1993-94
Renovated by Gwathmey Siegel, Architect

D. E. Shaw & Co. Office Building
-
1992
Steven Holl Architects

Diane von Furstenberg HQ
Meatpacking District
2007
WORK Architecture Company

Photo Elizabeth Felicella
Manhattan Studios

Ford Foundation
New York
1967
Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo Architects

Hearst Building
Eighth Avenue; 56th - 57th Street
building under construction 2006
Foster & Partners

New York photo: Andrew McRae, 2007
Sir Norman Foster's first New York building; Norman entered the World Trade Centre Site architecture competition won by Daniel Libeskind.
The Hearst Building sits on a building base from 1927-28 by Joseph Urban
New York Building

Higgins Hall School of Architecture
Brooklyn
1997
Steven Holl Architects

JP Morgan Chase New York
270 Park Avenue, New York
1957-60
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Architects
This Manhattan skyscraper is 215m high.
JP Morgan Chase buildings in Edinburgh and Glasgow: JP Morgan Chase building

Javits Convention Center
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 West 34th Street, New York
1979-86
I M Pei & Partners, Architects
New York architecture : Javits Convention Center

A refurbishment and major extension to the Jacob Javits Convention Center by Richard Rogers Architects unveiled Jan 2006.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York
1988
Rafael Vinoly Architects

Lefcourt National Building
Fifth Avenue, Midtown
1929
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates
153m high, rather plain rectilinear stepped Manhattan tower built for Samuel
Lefcourt. Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates of course were the designers of
probably the most famous New York skyscraper, the Empire State building.

Lipstick Building
New York
1986
Philip Johnson, Architect

LVMH Building
East 57th Street ; Fifth & Madison Avenue
-
Christian de Portzamparc, Architect
The only New York building by Portzamparc - office building for Moët Hennessy-Luis Vuitton. Also by Christian de Portzamparc - City of Music Paris: see our Paris Architecture page

Louis Vuitton store
1 East 57th Street, corner with Fifth Avenue
2004
Jun Aoki, Architect

New York photo: Andrew McRae, 2007
New York store

Manhattan Condominium
1986
Rafael Vinoly Architects

New York State Pavilion, New York
1964
Philip Johnson, Architect

New York State Theater
-
-
Philip Johnson, Architect
Also by Philip Johnson are the Lincoln Center plaza + fountain, 1965. Philip Johnson worked with Mies van der Rohe on the Seagram Building

One Chase Manhattan Plaza (Chase Manhattan Bank)
-
1960
Gordon Bunschaft / Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM)
Another building by SOM Architects: Arts Hotel, Barcelona

One Liberty Plaza, Financial District, Manhattan
1972/73
Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM)

226 m high
New York skyscraper

Prada Store New York
50 W57th Street New York
2001
Rem Koolhaas, Architect / OMA

Prada New York photo: Armin Linke, from OMA 270307
New York architecture

RCA Building
New York
1934
Raymond Hood Architect
Formerly the GE building - General Electric

Rockefeller Guest House
242 East 52nd Street
1949–50
Philip Johnson, Architect

Storefront for Art and Architecture
-
1992-93/96
Steven Holl, Architects designed with Vito Acconci

Time Warner Center
New York
2004
Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM)

New York photo: Andrew McRae, 2007
New York skyscrapers

World Financial Center
Lower Manhattan
1986
Cesar Pelli & Associates

Including the Winter Garden

World Trade Centre - New Museum Complex
Ground Zero
2006?
Snohetta, Architects / Gehry Partners LLP
International Freedom Centre + Drawing Centre. Also named the WTC Cultural
Center. Snøhetta Architects became well known with their Alexandria library in
Egypt which won a major architecture competition.
Gehry Partners LLP and Snøhetta were selected as architects for the World Trade Center cultural complex by Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in Dec 2004.
Proposed Ground Zero Drawing Center relocated with designs by Weisz + Yoes Architecture.
Snohetta have an architects office in New York based at 50 Broad St

New York Architects


Battery Park, Manhattan - Photo © Tim Collins

Useful Links re Manhattan Buildings:
Skyscraper Museum
39 Battery Place, Battery Park, New York:
New York Skyscrapers - Website: www.skyscraper.org

Architectural League of New York Urban Planning
457 Madison Avenue, Midtown, New York:
Architecture Exhibitions, admission free
Contact: 212-753-1722
Architecture League of New York - Website: www.archleague.org

New York Photos

News re New York building competitions:
Fresh Kills, Staten Island, New York
An international architecture competition was held in 2001-02 for the
regeneration of this site.

New York State Buildings
New York Architecture outside Manhattan - USA Building, scroll to New York state



Paris Architecture

World Architecture : e-architect - a guide to key buildings across the globe

New York Architecture - RIBA International Awards 2006

173-176 Perry St, New York, USA - Richard Meier & Partners

New York Building : Photographs

For information on New York timeshares for sale or to find out more about New York timeshares check us out. New York is a beautiful city where you will always find something for everyone!

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New York Architecture : page - adrian welch / isabelle lomholt