660 Fifth Avenue (formerly 666 Fifth Avenue and the Tishman Building) is a 41-story office building on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. The office tower was designed by Carson & Lundin and built for its developer, Tishman Realty and Construction, from 1955 to 1957.
When it was completed, the building featured a prominent red neon display of the number 666 at the top which could be seen from various locations in the city. It had a facade of embossed aluminum panels which were originally lit by the "Tower of Light" designed by Abe Feder. The interior had a T-shaped atrium open to the public, with retail space, a lobby extending from Fifth Avenue, and a waterfall sculpture by Isamu Noguchi. The upper floors had a variety of office tenants, including those in the law, finance, and publishing industries. In the early 2020s, the lobby and office spaces were rebuilt and the facade was replaced with one containing glass panels.
Tishman sold the building when the corporation dissolved in 1976. The building was sold to Sumitomo Realty & Development in the late 1990s, and Tishman Speyer bought it in 2000. Tishman sold the skyscraper yet again to Kushner Properties in 2007. Kushner Properties struggled with financing throughout the late 2000s and mid-2010s, even contemplating replacing it with a taller tower. Brookfield Properties leased the whole building in August 2018 and subsequently hired Kohn Pedersen Fox to extensively renovate the building through 2022. As part of the renovation, the building was renumbered to 660 Fifth Avenue.
Site 660 Fifth Avenue is in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States. It faces Fifth Avenue to the east, 52nd Street to the south, and 53rd Street to the north. The land lot is mostly rectangular and covers , with a frontage of on Fifth Avenue and a depth of . The 53rd Street frontage measures while the 52nd Street frontage measures . The building is on the same block as the CBS Building, 31 West 52nd Street, the 21 Club, and 53rd Street Library to the west. Other nearby buildings include the Museum of Modern Art and Saint Thomas Church to the north; Paley Park to the northeast; 12 East 53rd Street to the east; the Olympic Tower and 647 and 651 Fifth Avenue to the southeast; and 650 Fifth Avenue and 75 Rockefeller Plaza to the south. The building is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10103; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes .
Upscale residences were constructed around Fifth Avenue following the American Civil War. The lot at 660 Fifth Avenue had previously held the William K. Vanderbilt House, an 1882 châteauesque mansion designed by Richard Morris Hunt for William Kissam Vanderbilt. The mansion had been demolished in 1926 and replaced with a 12-story office building by developer Benjamin Winter. Stanford White designed a mansion for William Kissam Vanderbilt II's family at number 666, which was completed in 1908. The current office building at 660 Fifth Avenue replaced nine structures, including William K. Vanderbilt II's mansion and Winter's office building. The other structures included some brownstones and a pair of six-story commercial buildings. The site was also occupied by a parking lot just prior to the current building's development.
Architecture 660 Fifth Avenue, originally the Tishman Building at 666 Fifth Avenue, was designed by Carson and Lundin and built by its developer, Tishman Realty & Construction. It is one of the remaining office skyscrapers that the firm designed in the mid-20th century in Manhattan. The building is tall and was designed with 39 stories. Other contractors involved in the building's construction were structural engineer Victor Mayper, mechanical engineers Cosentini Associates, and electrical consultants Eitingon & Schlossberg.
Facade
Original facade The Tishman Building originally had an aluminum curtain wall covering . Described in The New York Times as the world's largest aluminum curtain wall, it consisted of nearly 3,000 spandrel panels, which were installed between windows on different stories. Each panel measured about and weighed . The Reynolds Metals Company prefabricated the pieces of the facade at their plant in Louisville, Kentucky. The panels were anodized and contained small embossed rhombuses to create the impression of a textured surface. These panels were mounted on the facade from the inside and then bolted to pieces of steel that had been welded to the superstructure. The effect was meant to resemble medieval armor. Before the original aluminum curtain wall was removed, Brookfield Properties' construction director said that occupants could feel wind coming through the panels because they were so porous. Part of the ground-story facade along Fifth Avenue was replaced in 1999 with a glass wall to make the retail space more visible.
The vertical aluminum mullions contained embedded pieces of porcelain enamel and white structural glass. The enamel or white glass strips were wide and were flanked by strips of aluminum, giving the mullions a total width of . The window widths varied from . The window panes between the mullions contained a gray tint for glare reduction. Each window contained two fixed sidelights flanking a movable center pane. The center panes were designed to pivot so window cleaners could clean the panes from the inside.
When the building opened, it had a lighting system designed by Abe Feder. Described by the Real Estate Record and Guide as a "Tower of Light", the system consisted of 72 reflector lamps mounted on the building's setbacks. The light fixtures turned 666 Fifth Avenue into what architect Robert A. M. Stern characterized as "a landmark that received wide comment". The system was capable of 9.7 million candlepower. It was so bright that, from September to November 1959, the system was completely darkened to prevent interference with bird migration.
A prominent 666 address was emblazoned on the top of the building when it opened. In 2002, the 666 address on the side of the building was replaced with a Citigroup logo after Citigroup became the building's largest tenant. Although similar signage normally would not be allowed in Manhattan, the signage was permitted under a grandfather clause since the original 666 signage was erected before the ban was enacted. While some groups such as the Municipal Art Society took no issue with the signage change, preservationists including Stern condemned it as flaunting and ahistorical. The three "6" digits from the original sign were placed in storage in case they were ever needed.
Renovated facade Between 2020 and 2022, the facade of 660 Fifth Avenue was replaced as part of a renovation designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. The new facade consists of windows extending the full height of each story, measuring tall and wide. These panels do not contain any mullions, and each panel is cut from a single pane of glass. The glass panels contain insulation, as opposed to the original facade, which was not insulated. The new facade triples the amount of window space at 660 Fifth Avenue. According to owner Brookfield Properties, these would be the "largest unitized windows in North America". The renovation also includes terraces on the three sides facing the surrounding roads. These terraces are on the 8th, 10th, 11th, and 15th stories.
Interior As designed, the Tishman Building had of space, of which was available for rent. The base consists of the 14 lowest floors, which each originally had an area of . The tower floors constitute the 24 highest floors, which each had an area of . As part of the early-2020s renovation, some of the interior spaces of the upper floors were being removed to create some double-height spaces.
Mechanical features The steel superstructure, weighing , was constructed using bolts rather than rivets, as a bolting operation would require only half as many workers as a riveting operation did. Also included in the construction was of concrete. 660 Fifth Avenue was initially retrofitted with a electric refrigeration plant in the sub-cellar, providing cool air to the ground-level stores, and a steam-turbine refrigeration plant on the roof, serving all other floors. The refrigeration plants were described by The New York Times as having a similar cooling capacity to sixty thousand ice blocks weighing each. In addition, there was a 70-space parking lot in the basement, accessible by an elevator on 53rd Street. A new air-supply system was installed in the early 2020s.
When the building was constructed in the 1950s, it had 20 passenger elevators and two freight elevators manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The passenger elevators were arranged in three banks and the freight elevators had their own bank. The elevators were controlled electronically, a relatively new technology at the time of construction, and the cabs had light sensors that signaled the doors to close as the last passenger entered or left a cab. The building also had of electrical wiring when it was completed. Illumination was provided by 10,000 movable lamps.
Atrium and lobby Originally, 660 Fifth Avenue had a T-shaped atrium that opened directly to 52nd Street, 53rd Street, and Fifth Avenue, with glass storefronts inside. The atrium contained a north–south passageway between 52nd and 53rd Streets, which was west of the Fifth Avenue facade and measured wide. In addition, two west–east passageways connected that hallway with Fifth Avenue. The storefronts surrounded the atrium and an additional storefront was between the parallel Fifth Avenue passageways (see ). The atrium, as well as the surrounding sidewalks, were paved with blocks colored in a buff hue. The space was lit by incandescent lamps embedded in the ceiling. During a 1999 renovation, the atrium was enclosed when revolving doors were installed at its entrances. The Fifth Avenue passageways were eliminated in 2000 and became a storefront.
660 Fifth Avenue's original lobby was west of the section of the atrium extending from Fifth Avenue. It measured deep and varied in width from on the eastern wall to on the western walls. It was initially clad with red marble walls and had a floor covering with red, white, and black tiles. Wood paneling was installed in 1998, concealing or replacing the red marble wall surfaces, and the floor surface was replaced with a monochrome granite pattern. When the main entrance was relocated to 53rd Street in 2000, a reception lobby was placed at the 53rd Street entrance. The ceiling was originally decorated with a set of horizontal "fins" finished in baked enamel. The four banks of elevators were at the center of the lobby, oriented in a north–south axis. The elevator lobbies contained white-marble cladding and metal elevator doors. The elevator lobbies were lit by fluorescent cathode tubes above translucent ceiling panels. As part of the 2020s renovation, the lobby was redecorated in white marble with wood paneling, and a destination dispatch system was installed for the elevators.