500 Park Tower
500 Park Tower is a dramatic addition to the dense urban fabric of midtown Manhattan and an elegant backdrop for the Pepsi-Cola Building – a landmark of mid-century modernism.
Offsetting the tower components is a very clever manipulation of mass; it is achieved by cantilevering a section twenty-five feet over the west end of 500 Park – a device that combines shoehorning and piggybacking with rather staggering ingenuity.
Sited on a restricted lot, the tower is cantilevered over Gordon Bunshaft’s iconic building to maximize area. The façade references the older building, and the placement of the building's cantilever suggests the inextricability of new and old.
Careful consideration was paid to preserving the integrity of the existing building’s profile and minimizing the disjunction between its scale and that of the new building. Massing, materials and details deftly decrease the bulk of the tower.
The articulation of the tower also mediates between established commercial and residential zones in midtown Manhattan. The first eleven floors of the forty-story building are dedicated to office space, while the fifty-six residential units sit above.
Even a quarter of a century later, 500 Park remains an exceptional example of how the juxtaposition of new construction with an existing building can create an elegant ensemble and, rather than diminishing the excellence of either, can heighten consciousness of both and bridge temporal periods.
Details
- Year
- 1984
- Location
- New York, NY
- Size
- 244,790 GSF
- Program
- Eleven Floors of Offices, Twenty-nine Floors of Condominiums
Team
- Ennead Design Team
- James S. Polshek, 1930-2022, Paul Byard, Marla Appelbaum, Dan Bernstein, James Garrison, Richard Olcott
- Associate Architect
- SLCE Architects, LLP
Awards
- 1987
- Tucker Architectural Award, Building Stone Institute
- 1986
- AIA National Honor Award for Architecture
- 1985
- Distinguished Architecture Award, AIA/New York Chapter
- Certificate of Merit for Excellence in Design, AIA/New York State
- 1983
- Award of Merit, The Concrete Industry Board, Inc. of New York
Press
- 1989
- Davis, Douglas. "Slaying the Neo-Modern Dragon" (Art in America, 1/1989)
- 1986
- "Post-Modern Architecture" (The Wall Street Journal, 5/14/1986)
- Robinson, Cervin. "Contextual Tower Rises Above a 50's Classic" (Architecture, 7/1986)
- 1984
- Goldberger, Paul. "Defining Luxury in New York's New Apartments" (The New York Times, 8/16/1984)
- Wiseman, Carter. "Good Neighbor Policy" (New York Construction News, 9/1984)
- 1983
- Goldberger, Paul. "A New Meaning for Luxury" (Home Design, 4/17/1983)
- Wiseman, Carter. "Setting New Standards for Sensitive Innovation on Park Avenue" (New York Magazine, 9/19/1983)
- 1981
- Huxtable, Ada Louise. "500 Park—A Skillful Solution" (The New York Times, 5/3/1981)
- Wiseman, Carter. "Power to the People" (New York Magazine, 10/5/1981)