919 Third Avenue is an office building in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
,
New York, USA, built in 1971, and is located at the intersection of
Third Avenue
Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square ...
and East
55th Street in
Midtown Manhattan. The building is tall with 47 floors, and is tied with four other buildings,
750 7th Avenue, the
New York Life Building,
Tower 49, and
The Epic in its position as the 118th
tallest building in New York. The building was designed by
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer John Merrill. The fir ...
.
History
During the mid-1960s, in what the New York Times called "one of the most unusual Manhattan
real estate transaction
A real estate transaction is the process whereby rights in a unit of property (or designated real estate) is transferred between two or more parties, e.g. in case of conveyance one party being the seller(s) and the other being the buyer(s). It can ...
s in recent years", developers of the new skyscraper decided to build around a Third Avenue establishment:
P. J. Clarke's bar and restaurant. The property owner at the time refused to sell to the developers.
In December 1970, the fifth floor suffered a fire partially destroying part of the floor, injuring 20, and killing three. The building was completed in 1970, and tenant work was still in progress at the time of the fire. Use of the elevators resulted in the three fire deaths when the car inadvertently stopped at the fire floor. Others were almost killed in the same way but were rescued by fire fighters.
The City of New York created the most restrictive law of its kind for high-rise buildings
[Local Law # 5 of 1973] more than just steel and concrete as safety measures, adequate fire protection and a process to safely evacuate a high-rise building were introduced as a means to protect property and provide life safety for the occupants. The Local Law # 5 of 1973, called for Fire Safety Directors to be on duty for each building over 100 feet in height or occupied with more than 100 people above or below the street or more than 500 people in total.
The building was occupied principally by carpet manufactures and carpet wholesalers and the fire started in occupancy of the type. The fire was confined for the most part to a specific area by the fire partitions required and the un-pierced horizontal separations. The fire did warp the exterior skin allowing a small amount of fire penetration to the floor above, but for the most part it was contained by the building structure. The fire, though contained, was very intense and did structural damage to the floor systems above. Total property damage to the building and its contents was estimated at $2.5 million.
In July 1996, two repairmen almost died when a gust of wind smashed their scaffold through a window.
Tenants
Notable occupants of 919 Third Avenue include
Debevoise & Plimpton
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (often shortened to Debevoise) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Harvard Law School alumnus Eli Whitney Debevoise and Oxford-trained William Stevenson, the firm was origi ...
,
Jenner & Block
Jenner & Block is an American law firm with offices in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The firm is active in corporate litigation, business transactions, the public sector, and other legal fields ...
,
Schulte Roth & Zabel,
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a 1 ...
and
Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded in New York City by Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. A third brother, Emanuel Watson Bloomingdale, was also involved in the business. It became a div ...
.
The building was also the home of the New York offices of law firm
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1948, the firm consistently ranks among the top U.S. law firms by revenue. The company is known for its wor ...
until 1999.
It is owned by
SL Green Realty Corp.
See also
*
List of tallest buildings in New York City
New York City, the most populous city in the United States, is home to over 7,000 completed high-rise buildings of at least , of which at least 95 are taller than . The tallest building in New York is One World Trade Center, which rises ...
References
External links
NYTIMES Sept. 9, 1967Skyscraper Page
{{Midtown East, Manhattan
Office buildings completed in 1971
Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Third Avenue
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill buildings