275 Madison Avenue (also known as the Johns-Manville Building, American Home Products Building, and 22 East 40th Street) is a 43-story office building in the
Murray Hill neighborhood of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It is along the southeast corner of
Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...
and
40th Street, near
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
. The building, constructed from 1930 to 1931, was designed by
Kenneth Franzheim in a mixture of the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
and
International styles.
275 Madison Avenue's three-story base is made of polished granite and contains large openings. On all the other floors, the
facade contains vertical
pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s of white brick, as well as dark
spandrels between windows, which were intended to give a vertical emphasis to the exterior. The 4th through 23rd floors contain several
setbacks to comply with the
1916 Zoning Resolution
The 1916 Zoning Resolution in New York City was the first citywide zoning code in the United States. The zoning resolution reflected both borough and local interests, and was proposed after the Equitable Building was erected in Lower Manhattan ...
. The building tapers to a rectangular cross-section on the 24th through 43rd floors. The interior of the base is designed with a main entrance lobby on 40th Street, as well as storefronts. Floor areas above the base range from .
275 Madison Avenue was developed by
Houston Properties, a firm headed by Texas entrepreneur
Jesse H. Jones
Jesse Holman Jones (April 5, 1874June 1, 1956) was an American Democratic politician and entrepreneur from Houston, Texas. Jones managed a Tennessee tobacco factory at age fourteen, and at nineteen, he was put in charge of his uncle's lumbery ...
. It was originally known as 22 East 40th Street. The skyscraper opened at the onset of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, and Houston Properties sold the skyscraper in 1933 to the
New York Trust Company. In the mid-20th century, 275 Madison Avenue had several owners and was also known for major tenants
Johns Manville
Johns Manville is an American company based in Denver, Colorado, that manufactures insulation, roofing materials and engineered products. For much of the 20th century, the then-titled Johns-Manville Corporation was the global leader in the ma ...
and
American Home Products
Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth in ...
. It has been owned by the RPW Group since 2016. The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
designated 275 Madison Avenue as an official landmark in 2009.
Site
275 Madison Avenue is in the
Murray Hill neighborhood of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, just outside of
Midtown. It is bounded by
Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...
to the west and 40th Street to the north.
The "L"-shaped land lot covers
with a
frontage
Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...
of on Madison Avenue and on 40th Street.
Nearby buildings include the
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), popularly known as the Mid-Manhattan Library, is a branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL) at the southeast corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New ...
and
10 East 40th Street
10 East 40th Street or the Mercantile Building is a skyscraper on 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, in the middle of the block between Fifth and Madison avenues, extending back to 39th Street. Designed by Ludlow and Peabody and ...
to the west,
461 Fifth Avenue
461 Fifth Avenue is a 28-story skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 40th Street. The building was constructed in 1988 by the Mitsui Fudosan development group and designed by Skidmore, Owi ...
and
18 East 41st Street
Eighteen or 18 may refer to:
* 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19
* one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018
Film, television and entertainment
* ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short s ...
to the northeast, the
Lefcourt Colonial Building
The Lefcourt Colonial Building is a 45-story office building located in Midtown Manhattan, in New York City, built by Abraham E. Lefcourt. The neo-Gothic building, located at 295 Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in ...
to the north, and
101 Park Avenue
101 Park Avenue is a tall skyscraper at 41st Street and Park Avenue in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was completed in 1979 to 1982 and has 49 floors. Eli Attia Architects designed the tower. The build ...
to the northeast.
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
is two blocks to the north.
In the mid-19th century, the surrounding section of Murray Hill was developed as an upscale residential district, with the estates of many prominent families. Among these estates were three houses at 273, 275, and 277 Madison Avenue, all built in 1862 on lots measuring wide. The three residences served as "the homes of many distinguished citizens of New York".
Also on the site were two stables built before 1910 at the addresses 24 and 26 East 40th Street.
By 1920, commercial concerns had relocated to the area,
which ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called "a great civic centre". The
New York Trust Company acquired the old mansion at 277 Madison Avenue in 1922, where it opened a banking branch,
and antique bookstore
Rosenbach Company occupied number 273 starting in 1920.
The Metropolitan Realty Company had planned a 14-story building at 24 and 26 East 40th Street in 1925, but it was not built.
Design
275 Madison Avenue was designed by
Kenneth Franzheim and built by the
Dwight P. Robinson Company for
Houston Properties.
It has also been known as 22 East 40th Street, the Johns-Manville Building, and the American Home Products Building.
The building was designed in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style with elements of the
International Style International style may refer to:
* International Style (architecture), the early 20th century modern movement in architecture
*International style (art), the International Gothic style in medieval art
*International Style (dancing), a term used in ...
.
It consists of 43 stories
and measures from ground level to the roof.
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' gave a slightly different figure of 42 stories and .
When completed in 1931, the building was one of the more distinct skyscrapers in the city.
''The Wall Street Journal'' called it a structure "of novel aspect".
The building was also depicted in photographer
Berenice Abbott
Berenice Alice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991) was an American photographer best known for her portraits of between-the-wars 20th century cultural figures, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and ...
's ''Changing New York'' pictorial series.
According to architectural critic Carter B. Horsley, 275 Madison Avenue and the nearby 295 Madison Avenue were "two of the city's better Art Deco towers", though Horsley regarded number 295 as the better of the two.
Form
![275 Madison Avenue Jun 2021 03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/275_Madison_Avenue_Jun_2021_03.jpg)
275 Madison Avenue is designed with a three-story base of black granite, above which is a 40-story tower clad with white brick and dark terracotta.
The building contains
setbacks on the 4th through 23rd stories to comply with the
1916 Zoning Resolution
The 1916 Zoning Resolution in New York City was the first citywide zoning code in the United States. The zoning resolution reflected both borough and local interests, and was proposed after the Equitable Building was erected in Lower Manhattan ...
.
The setbacks taper to a rectangular tower on the 24th through 43rd stories.
The setbacks were designed with over thirty terraces
ranging from . The larger terraces generally face east and west while the smaller terraces generally face north.
The 40th Street
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
has fourteen vertical
bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
at the 4th story, with the center six bays being recessed in a
light court between four bays on either side. The center bays form a stepped "peak" with setbacks at the 18th through 21st floors.
According to architectural writer
Robert A. M. Stern, the pyramidal setbacks resembled those on the nearby
Chanin Building.
The four bays to the west and east have setbacks at the 10th and 12th floors. The Madison Avenue elevation has six bays on the 4th through 12th stories, above which is a setback. There are also setbacks at the 14th, 17th, and 20th stories of the northern and western elevations. The eastern elevation rises from the lot line until the 23rd story, where it sets back to the eastern wall of the top twenty stories.
In addition, the top of the tower contains notched corners with small terraces in each corner.
The tower's roof was originally flat, but a two-story penthouse was added after the building's completion. The southwestern notch was removed at that time.
Facade
The black granite of the base was quarried in Pennsylvania.
The base is designed with black and silver ornamentation,
though many of the silver ornament is painted.
The base's color scheme was similar to that of the
Fuller Building on Madison Avenue and
57th Street, as well as the
Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded in New York City by Joseph B. Bloomingdale, Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. A third brother, Emanuel Watson Bloomingdale, was also involved in the bus ...
building on Lexington Avenue.
The tower's
fenestration
Fenestration may refer to:
* Fenestration (architecture), the design, construction, or presence of openings in a building
* Used in relation to fenestra in anatomy, medicine and biology
* Fenestration, holes in the rudder of a ship to reduce the w ...
, or arrangement of window openings, is different than that of the base. Generally, the tower stories contain vertical
pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s of white brick, which separate the bays of windows. Within each bay, the windows on different floors are separated by
spandrels made of
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
tiles.
The white glazed brick was made in Ohio, while the 1,060 metal window frames were made in West Virginia.
Base
The northern elevation on 40th Street contains eight
bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
, with the main entrance being recessed in the fifth bay from the west.
The main entrance has revolving and swinging metal doors, above which is a black metal transom bar with the words "275 Madison Avenue". Atop this bar is a transom window split into four rows of five panes. The panes are separated by vertical
mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
s, which are flared at the bottom and contain seashell-shaped lighting sconces between them. From top to bottom, the rows of openings contain plain windows,
sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...
s, rectangular metal
spandrels, and plain windows. The metal spandrels contain a black representation of a skyscraper with a silver "starburst" motif at the top.
On the left wall of the entryway is a metal door. Above the entryway and slightly in front of the building's outer wall, there is a translucent glass panel with the metal characters "275".
West (or right) of the main entrance, in the first through fourth bays from west, are large openings. The openings are each split into three parts: the ground level, ornamented "skyscraper" spandrels, and mezzanine. Each opening has five sets of mezzanine windows above spandrels, which are separated by vertical metal mullions. The ground-level portions of these openings contain a triple-width window flanked by smaller panes.
East (left) of the main entrance are three narrower bays. In both the sixth and eighth bays, the ground floor contains large window panes, and there are four sets of spandrel–windows. In the seventh bay, the ground floor has a metal door, topped by a vent and a window pane, as well as signage. The seventh bay has three spandrel–windows, with the center spandrel–window being wider than the outer ones.
The western elevation on Madison Avenue has four bays.
The second bay from north has a recessed entrance, which leads to the ground-story banking space inside and was the main entrance prior to 2004.
Above the entrance doorway are four windows; the space beneath these window panes is taken up by an octagonal clock and a sign. The first and third bays from north, respectively to the left and right of the Madison Avenue banking entrance, contain a large window pane at ground level and three spandrel–windows above. The fourth bay from north is seven spandrels wide, but there are ventilation grates instead of windows at the mezzanine. This bay has a double door of metal and glass, which leads to a storefront, as well as a shop window.
The third floor has a set of window openings on both 40th Street and Madison Avenue.
Along 40th Street, the third-floor window openings are asymmetrically arranged on either side of the main entrance, with twelve to the west (right) of the entrance and six to the east (left). All except one of these openings contain sash windows; the remaining opening has a
louver
A louver (American English) or louvre (British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". Mor ...
.
The openings are separated by silver geometric motifs.
Architectural writer
Christopher Gray
Christopher Stewart Gray (April 24, 1950 – March 10, 2017) was an American journalist and architectural historian,Schneider, Daniel B (August 27, 2000)"F.Y.I. Hell's Kitchen in the Raw" ''The New York Times''. March 4, 2010. noted for his week ...
wrote the motifs "could be kissing owls, or hooded figures, or the face cards in a deck from another planet".
This motif is repeated several times above the main entrance, which is flanked by two flagpoles.
On Madison Avenue, there are eight such openings, separated by geometric motifs. Two of these openings have two sash windows each, while the others have one sash window each.
Tower
![275 Madison Avenue Jun 2021 36](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/275_Madison_Avenue_Jun_2021_36.jpg)
The 4th through 43rd stories have pilasters of continuous white brick, alternating with bays of windows and spandrels. The windows were designed to be flush with the brick.
Franzheim avoided decorative elements such as
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
s,
entablature
An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...
s, and
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
s, as he wanted the building to be "shadow-less".
Instead, the tower was to rely exclusively on the contrast between white and black materials for decoration.
Terracotta spandrels, between the white pilasters, separate the windows on different stories;
they were meant to emphasize the building's height.
According to Stern, the spandrels were inspired by those on
Raymond Hood's nearby
Daily News Building.
The northern and western elevations of the 4th through 23rd stories are designed with white pilasters and dark spandrels, with a few exceptions. At some of the setbacks on the northern and western elevations, the black spandrels are decorated with white-brick geometric shapes. Some of the setbacks also have ornamented white-brick
lintel
A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...
s just beneath them. The eastern elevation below the 23rd story has windows within an otherwise flat white-brick wall. The southern elevation below the 23rd story only has windows at the setbacks.
Above the 23rd story, the tower rises as a rectangular shaft, with six bays on the northern elevation and five bays each on the western and eastern elevations.
This gives the tower an almost square shape.
The two southernmost bays on the western elevation have black panels. The south elevation has eight bays, of which only the three easternmost bays have windows. has black vertical stripes in the first, third, fourth, and fifth bays from west and a pipe in the second bay from the west; only the three easternmost bays have windows. The top of the shaft has a few geometric decorations, similar to those used on the lower section of the tower. The rooftop
parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
originally had black-and-white
chevron
Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
* Chevron (anatomy), a bone
* ''Eulithis testata'', a moth
* Chevron (geology), a fold in rock lay ...
-shaped motifs as well as projecting white brick at the tops of the pilasters. At the roof is a two-story penthouse, which has ribbon windows, steel walls, and
chamfer
A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces.
Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...
ed corners. A metal pipe railing and two tiers of rooftop terraces are at the top of the penthouse.
Features
The entrance lobbies had floor surfaces made of Belgian black marble and walls of French black marble.
The marble lobby space has nickel trim in the Art Deco style.
Walker & Gillette
Walker & Gillette was an architectural firm based in New York City, the partnership of Alexander Stewart Walker (1876–1952) and Leon Narcisse Gillette (1878–1945), active from 1906 through 1945.
Biographies
Walker was a native of Jersey ...
designed a bank branch for the New York Trust Company in the first floor, mezzanine, and basement.
The branch had bronze tellers' cages, marble-clad main floor, and a Venetian-terrazzo floor in the basement's safe-deposit vaults.
The main banking walls were made of English oak and embedded nickel bronze, as well as Byzantine and Belgian black marble. The vault walls were made of an layer of reinforced concrete and a layer of plate steel. , the former banking space was being marketed as a conventional retail space, with in the basement, on the first floor, and on the mezzanine. These stories all had ceiling heights of .
The elevators were split into two banks: local elevators, which traveled from the ground story to the 22nd floor, and express elevators, which traveled from the 22nd to 42nd floors. The elevators were originally designed to run at a top speed of . According to Franzheim, it would only take a 42nd-story tenant fifty seconds to travel to the ground story "under normal traffic conditions". The building's elevators had exotic woods from numerous countries.
The upper stories had floor areas of between .
The building had a total rentable area of either ,
,
or .
The
gross floor area was .
The walls of the upper-story corridors were clad with French black marble, while the floors had Belgian black marble interspersed with chips of Italian white marble. Upper-story offices were also wainscoted in French black marble. Walls and partitions were made of tiles and terracotta from across the United States, which were combined with clay from New Jersey.
Interior walls were designed so they were, on average, only from the windows.
A three-story suite at the top of the building had a private elevator and staircases, as well as executive offices and a greenhouse area.
History
275 Madison Avenue was developed by
Jesse H. Jones
Jesse Holman Jones (April 5, 1874June 1, 1956) was an American Democratic politician and entrepreneur from Houston, Texas. Jones managed a Tennessee tobacco factory at age fourteen, and at nineteen, he was put in charge of his uncle's lumbery ...
, who had been a major real estate developer in the early 20th century, particularly in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
, Texas. Jones expressed interest in developing buildings in New York City and, in 1923, he founded Houston Properties, headed by Alfred B. Jones of New Jersey.
Kenneth Franzheim was involved in designing several of Houston Properties' developments; he was part of a relatively small "business family" from which Jesse Jones tended to hire.
Development
![275 Madison Avenue Jun 2021 12](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/275_Madison_Avenue_Jun_2021_12.jpg)
In July 1929, the New York Trust Company acquired the property at 275 Madison Avenue, abutting its branch office at number 277. The next month, Philip H. Rosenbach of the Rosenbach Company sold number 273 to the 273 Madison Avenue Corporation. In April 1930, Jesse Jones approached both the New York Trust Company and the owner of 273 Madison Avenue with the intent of acquiring a site large enough for "a tall office building".
Frederick Brown had been under contract to purchase number 273, and Jesse Jones intended to lease the site from Brown.
Jesse Jones had acquired number 273, as well as two stables on 24 and 26 East 40th Streets, by the following month.
He then created the 277 Madison Avenue Corporation.
This was part of Jones's frequent practice of creating different companies to operate his building so issues with one property would not affect the others.
In preparation for the skyscraper's construction, New York Trust received authorization in May 1930 to open a temporary branch across the street at 274 Madison Avenue. The bank also leased some space in the proposed skyscraper. Plans for the skyscraper, then called 22 East 40th Street, were filed at the end of June 1930. The structure was slated to cost $1.25 million. The Title Guarantee and Trust Company gave the 277 Madison Avenue Corporation a seven-year, $440,000 mortgage, and the project also received a $3.2 million loan. The old residences were demolished starting on June 21, 1930, and excavations began at the end of the following month, July 31. The steelwork was constructed starting on September 4, followed by the brick four weeks later on October 3. The building had
topped out
In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...
by December 1930.
''The New York Times'' published several articles about 22 East 40th Street while it was under construction.
Jesse Jones had taken out a
Reconstruction Finance Corporation The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was a government corporation administered by the United States Federal Government between 1932 and 1957 that provided financial support to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgag ...
loan to fund the building's construction.
1930s and 1940s
In early 1931, New York Trust temporarily moved out of its existing offices to allow the completion of the skyscraper.
The New York Trust bank branch at 22 East 40th Street opened in July 1931.
The renting agents,
Cross & Brown, ran advertisements proclaiming that the building was being developed in "Uptown Wall Street" and promising "superior floor arrangements".
Among the earliest office tenants were the
Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce
Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies ...
, the
American Bankers Association, the
American Safety Razor Company
American Safety Razor Company is a personal care brand founded in the early 20th century (1906) by a merging of the Gem Cutlery Company & Ever-Ready and has been a principal competitor to Gillette for a century and more. It is unrelated to the G ...
, the
Radio Manufacturers Association
The Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA; until 1997 Electronic Industries Association) was an American standards and trade organization composed as an alliance of trade associations for electronics manufacturers in the United States. They devel ...
, accounting firm
Haskins & Sells
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...
, paper distributor
Gottesman & Co., and Swedish royal family relative
Folke Bernadotte. Franzheim's office and engineering companies Fish & Loenenger and Krey & Hunt took the top three floors.
The early tenants also included law firms, a publicist, a real estate broker, and publishers,
as well as attorneys and a firm of sales management engineers.
Houston Properties ran into financial difficulties soon after it completed the building.
This came with a general downturn in real estate development in the area caused by the Depression. In July 1932, the 275 Madison Avenue Corporation filed a lawsuit against the 277 Madison Avenue Corporation to foreclose on a $5.5 million
second mortgage on 22 East 40th Street. The 275 Madison Avenue Corporation was operated by New York Trust,
which took over operation in 1933.
After the
Johns Manville
Johns Manville is an American company based in Denver, Colorado, that manufactures insulation, roofing materials and engineered products. For much of the 20th century, the then-titled Johns-Manville Corporation was the global leader in the ma ...
Corporation leased six floors at 22 East 40th Street for its general headquarters in January 1933, the building also became known for the company. Some
receivers were named for the building, but their appointments were vacated that December in the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
. The ruling was made on the basis that the plaintiff who had no more than a 2-percent stake in the building.
The building continued to face financial difficulties. When the
Marine Midland Bank extended a $3.2 million mortgage on the building in 1934, the tax, water, and
amortization
Amortization or amortisation may refer to:
* The process by which loan principal decreases over the life of an amortizing loan
* Amortization (accounting), the expensing of acquisition cost minus the residual value of intangible assets in a system ...
fees were in
arrears due to missed payments. By the late 1930s, the building was increasingly being referred to as 275 Madison Avenue, though some news media still referred to the building by its 40th Street address.
275 Madison Avenue was sold in March 1943 to a group of businessmen, and Brown Wheelock Harris Stevens Inc. took over the leasing.
American Home Products
Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth in ...
simultaneously leased most of the building's top 23 stories as headquarters offices for the main company and nine subsidiaries.
The building's valuation was assessed as $3.05 million at the time.
American Home Products had reportedly only been interested in buying 275 Madison Avenue if it were able to occupy 13 floors by May 1, 1943.
1950s to 1970s
![275 Madison Avenue Jun 2021 21](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/275_Madison_Avenue_Jun_2021_21.jpg)
American Home Products sold the building in November 1951 to
Tishman Realty & Construction
Tishman Realty & Construction Co., Inc. is an American corporation founded in 1898 that owns and develops real estate. The company is known for being the contractor that built the original World Trade Center in New York City. Tishman Constructio ...
, which leased back to American Home Products.
The deal reportedly involved more than $5 million, all in cash. At the time, American Home Products occupied 17 full stories and portions of seven others, and New York Trust, Johns-Mansville,
Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...
,
Babcock & Wilcox, and
Provident Mutual Insurance Company also occupied the building.
The sale was finalized in January 1952, and Tishman secured a first mortgage of $3.2 million from the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
. Tishman sold the building in 1953 to the
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company
The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, also known as MassMutual, is a Springfield, Massachusetts-based life insurance company.
MassMutual provides financial products such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term car ...
, though Tishman took back a long-term lease. Johns-Manville occupied on 12 stories, and American Home Products occupied on 24 stories. The next year, Tishman installed an air-conditioning system in Johns-Manville's offices while 800 employees continued to work in the space.
Lawrence Wien and
Harry Helmsley
Harry Brakmann Helmsley (March 4, 1909 – January 4, 1997) was an American real estate billionaire whose company, Helmsley-Spear, became one of the country's biggest property holders, owning the Empire State Building and many of New York's most ...
took a long-term lease on the building in 1955.
The Equity Corporation began operating 275 Madison Avenue in 1959,
the same year that American Home Products leased space for a new headquarters at 685 Third Avenue. American Home Products moved out of the building in 1961, leaving available for lease, about 45 percent of the entire building.
The stories being vacated were relatively small, ranging from , so the space was marketed to smaller tenants as cheap offices near Grand Central.
Within two years, American Home Products' space was taken by companies in numerous industries.
The new lessees included an import/export company, a realty company. an accounting firm, and the
Equity Funding Equity Funding Corporation of America was a Los Angeles-based U.S. financial conglomerate that marketed a package of mutual funds and life insurance to private individuals in the 1960s and 70s. It collapsed in scandal in 1973 after former employee ...
Corporation. In 1962, Madison Park Associates acquired the leasehold from the 22 East 40th Street Equity Corporation; both companies were headed by Stanley and Max Stahl. At the time, the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company owned the structure.
Also in the 1960s, Goldman-DiLorenzo bought the land.
Johns-Manville, the building's major tenant, announced in 1971 that it would move its corporate headquarters to a suburb of
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, Colorado. Goldman-DiLorenzo acquired the lease on the building itself in 1973. Goldman-DiLorenzo acquired a $2.8 million mortgage on the property's leasehold, increasing its
leverage
Leverage or leveraged may refer to:
*Leverage (mechanics), mechanical advantage achieved by using a lever
* ''Leverage'' (album), a 2012 album by Lyriel
*Leverage (dance), a type of dance connection
*Leverage (finance), using given resources to ...
. This led to large losses when office spaces in comparable buildings began to rise, and the first mortgage holder,
CNA Financial
CNA Financial Corporation is a financial corporation based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its principal subsidiary, Continental Casualty Company (CCC), was founded in 1897. CNA, the current parent company, was incorporated in 1967.
CNA is t ...
, had begun foreclosure proceedings by 1976. The second mortgage was paid down to $1.8 million, and the second-mortgage holder
Gibraltar Financial absorbed much of the losses. The Williams Real Estate Company took over management, at which point the building was 15 percent vacant.
1980s to present
Coronet Properties sold the building for $22 million to New Madison-275 Associates, headed by
Alain DeBerc, in 1980.
The buyer was acting on behalf of foreign
syndication firm Gestam Inc., which leased space to ten tenants within months of the purchase. The owner planned to renovate 275 Madison Avenue.
At the time, the building's only entrance was on 40th Street, a situation that had existed since the building was constructed. The owners decided to create an expanded lobby and a new entrance within part of the Madison Avenue storefront after the expiration of a lease there.
Oppenheimer Brady and Vogelstein designed a $2 million renovation that also included mechanical upgrades and restoration of design features. The new lobby had mirrored wall panels accented with stainless steel, as well as Art Deco chandeliers.
Rose marble was imported from the same quarry in France that had provided marble for the original lobby.
The former banking space on Madison Avenue was renovated in 1995, and decorative elements on the facade were also restored. By then, the building's tenants included firms in law, accounting, publishing, cosmetics, public relations, and computer publishing.
In 1996, the owners of 275 Madison Avenue and the nearby
370 Lexington Avenue received a combined $27.5 million in loans from the
Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York
The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York (also known as Mutual of New York or MONY) was the oldest continuous writer of insurance policies in the United States. Incorporated in 1842, it was headquartered at 1740 Broadway, before becoming a wh ...
. Two years later, in 1998,
Aby Rosen Aby or ABY may refer to:
Places
* Aby, Ivory Coast
* Aby Lagoon, a lagoon in Ivory Coast
* Abyy or Aby, Sakha Republic, Russia
** Aby Lowland
* Aby, Lincolnshire, a village in England, UK
* Åby, Norrköping Municipality, Sweden
* Åby, Växjö Mu ...
and Michael Fuchs of
RFR Realty bought the lease on 275 Madison Avenue for $42 million. The company had an option to buy the underlying land for $19 million but did not execute the option at that time. The base of the building was modified in 2004, when the main entrance was relocated from Madison Avenue to 40th Street.
The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
designated the building as a city landmark on January 13, 2009.
RFR Realty placed the building for sale in April 2016. The RPW Group, headed by Robert Weisz, offered over $270 million for the building less than two months after the sale was announced. That August,
the Blackstone Group
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate bu ...
and
SL Green Realty gave RPW a $240 million loan to finance the purchase. Two years later, RPW refinanced the building with a $210 million loan from
Ullico
Ullico Inc. is a privately held insurance and financial services holding company in the United States. Formerly known as Union Labor Life Insurance Company, it was founded in 1927 by the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and its then president, ...
.
Saadia Group, parent company of
Lord & Taylor, leased some space in early 2021.
See also
*
Art Deco architecture of New York City
*
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
{{Midtown South, Manhattan
1931 establishments in New York City
Art Deco architecture in Manhattan
Madison Avenue
Murray Hill, Manhattan
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
Office buildings completed in 1931
Office buildings in Manhattan