Park Avenue Plaza is an office building at 55 East 52nd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The tall, 44-story building was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) for development company Fisher Brothers and was completed in 1981. Despite its name, the building is not actually on Park Avenue, although it abuts the Racquet and Tennis Club building along the avenue. Rather, the building is in the middle of a city block, with entrances on 52nd and 53rd Streets.
The building has a 15-sided massing, with wide diagonal facades to its northeast and southeast, as well as a deep notch on its east. Park Avenue Plaza's facade is made of blue-green reflective panels of glass. The building has one basement, shallower than in other nearby skyscrapers. The building's lowest ten stories include a lobby, atrium, and mechanical equipment, enabling all the office stories to have windows facing Park Avenue. At the base of the building is an enclosed atrium measuring about tall and connecting the two entrances to the building's elevators. Each office story has about of rentable area; the entire building covers over a million square feet. The building's design prompted mixed reviews upon its completion.
Fisher Brothers acquired the site in the 1970s and proposed constructing a ground-level atrium in exchange for additional space. Construction commenced in March 1979 following negotiations with the Racquet and Tennis Club, which had threatened to build a hotel above its own building. The building was conceived as a speculative development and 90% of the space had been leased before construction was completed. Fisher Brothers has operated Park Avenue Plaza since the building opened in 1981. First Boston, a major tenant, owned a minority stake in the building until 1987. The Boston-based Rockpoint Group bought a 49% stake in 2010, selling it in 2011 to SOHO China. In 2026, Vornado Realty Trust bought SOHO China's 49% stake.
Site Park Avenue Plaza is at 55 East 52nd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is in the middle of the block bounded by 52nd Street to the south, Madison Avenue to the west, 53rd Street to the north, and Park Avenue to the east. Despite its name, Park Avenue Plaza is not actually situated on Park Avenue, nor does it have a plaza. The tower abuts the Racquet and Tennis Club Building, which actually is on Park Avenue, to the east. The tower's name had been conceived as a way to add prestige to the midblock site. Park Avenue Plaza is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10055; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes .
Nearby buildings include CBS Studio Building and Omni Berkshire Place to the west; 488 Madison Avenue to the southwest; 345 Park Avenue to the southeast; the Seagram Building to the east; 399 Park Avenue to the northeast; and Lever House to the north. In addition, an entrance to the New York City Subway's Fifth Avenue/53rd Street station (served by the ), is directly across 53rd Street.
Architecture Park Avenue Plaza was designed by Raul de Armas of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). It was built for the development company Fisher Brothers. The structure measures tall. To erect a larger building than would have normally been allowed on the site, Fisher Brothers acquired air rights from the Racquet and Tennis Club Building and from the CBS Studio Building.
Form and facade
The building has a 15-sided massing, with wide diagonal chamfers to its northeast and southeast. The building's wide northeastern and southeastern elevations converge at the middle of the block. The narrow eastern elevation contains a central groove facing Park Avenue. According to architectural critic Paul Goldberger, the presence of the groove makes the eastern elevation "appear smaller still". The groove is aligned with the three arches at the center of the Racquet and Tennis Club Building's facade. There are similar grooves on other elevations of the facade, which were intended to reduce the building's perceived scale. Early plans for the building had called for setbacks at two places, matching the heights of neighboring buildings, but SOM's final plans called for a tower without any setbacks.
The base of the tower is the same height as the Racquet and Tennis Club Building's cornice line. The main entrances are through revolving doors on 52nd and 53rd Streets. The facade is made of blue-green reflective panels of glass, alternating with silver mullions. SOM had chosen that color because they had wanted the facade to blend in with those of neighboring buildings, although the color contrasted with the tan-brick facade of the Racquet and Tennis Club Building. At the time of Park Avenue Plaza's completion, Lever House (also designed by SOM) was the only other nearby building with a blue-green glass facade. The facade contained a lightly glazed finish, which reflected heat during the summer.
Features The building has one basement, shallower than in other nearby skyscrapers, since basement offices were generally not attractive to commercial tenants. This reduced the costs of constructing the foundation. The building's lowest ten stories include a lobby, atrium, and mechanical equipment. The mechanical floors cover . By placing the mechanical stories near the bottom of the building, this allowed all of the office stories to have windows facing Park Avenue. There is an elevator core at the center of the building with shafts for 21 elevators.
The office stories rise above a set of crossbeams on the ninth floor. The columns on these stories are attached to the crossbeams. Each office story contains 12 corners and covers about or of area. As an energy-efficiency measure, each story had individual climate controls, rather than a master control for the entire building. The top ten floors are connected by an open stairway, and the top story has a ceiling height of . In the late 1990s, insurance company Swiss Re redesigned the top six floors of the building, cutting off the open stairway below the 39th floor.
Atrium At the base of the building is an enclosed atrium measuring about tall and connecting 52nd and 53rd Streets. The space was built in exchange for a zoning bonus; its presence contrasted with neighboring buildings that featured a large open plaza.Francis Morrone, Architectural Guidebook to New York City (2009), p. 167. Fisher Brothers intended for the atrium to resemble a shopping arcade, namely Burlington Arcade in London. The middle of the atrium contains stainless-steel columns. There are eight columns with round corner, each measuring wide by thick. The atrium contains two glass walls, which measure a combined and contain illuminated glass-crystal tubes. There is also a glass reception desk measuring long.
The atrium contains a large painting by Frank Stella, a pair of brass sculptures with "organic" motifs by William Crovelli, and a waterfall on the eastern wall. The space contains tables and chairs and was originally planted with small ficus trees. To accommodate the plantings, the atrium had bright lighting with an intensity of about 200 foot-candles. A set of escalators lead up to a mezzanine-level elevator lobby. At the time of its opening, the atrium also had one of Midtown Manhattan's few public restrooms. The atrium contains a public shopping arcade, which was not required as part of the zoning bonus. The storefronts cover and originally contained bow windows as well as brass and granite decorations. The space also has green marble walls with dark green glass.
History
Development
Planning
For several years in the 1970s, Fisher Brothers had been negotiating with the Racquet and Tennis Club to buy the unused air rights above the latter's clubhouse. The firm had already acquired a site behind the clubhouse on 52nd and 53rd Streets, and it had hired SOM to design a 15-sided office building facing Park Avenue. The project was one of several large office buildings proposed in New York City after the mid-1970s recession. The developers planned to name the building "Park Avenue Plaza", though the Manhattan borough president's office had to approve this name. Fisher Brothers wanted to build an entrance to its office building through the clubhouse, but the firm and the club were unable to agree on this aspect of the design. Instead, the developers' lawyer Samuel H. Liddenbaum requested a Park Avenue address from the borough president's office, and he proposed that the building include an enclosed atrium or galleria.
Negotiations between Fisher Brothers and the Racquet and Tennis Club were halted after the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) announced in 1978 that Fisher Brothers could not only have an address on Park Avenue, but also up to of additional office space, if the developers built a galleria. The "galleria bonus" would increase the amount of rentable floor area in the new building by 20 percent, raising the floor area ratio from 15 to 18. Fisher Brothers agreed to maintain public restrooms and add a cafe to the galleria. The developers also proposed allocating $100,000 toward the renovation of the Fifth Avenue/53rd Street station. The New York City Planning Commission (CPC) voted 4–2 to approve the galleria bonus in May 1978. Two commissioners had voted against the measure on the grounds that the galleria would provide little "public benefit".
By early 1978, the new building was planned to cost $82 million. That March, the Racquet and Tennis Club informally proposed the construction of a 38-story hotel above its clubhouse, to be designed by Jonathan Morse, a club member. This would have blocked most eastward views from Fisher Brothers' building. In August, the club submitted formal plans for a 35-story luxury hotel. As a result, in November 1978, Fisher Brothers opted not to accept the galleria bonus from the city, and it resumed negotiations with the Racquet and Tennis Club. The firm paid the club $5 million to not build the hotel, instead acquiring the clubhouse's air rights. This provided funding for the club's protection while also allowing Fisher Brothers to obtain the same amount of floor space that it would have received through the zoning bonus. The CPC gave Fisher Brothers permission to reduce the atrium's height in exchange for two additional office floors, the construction of which would pay for the air rights. Morse refused to say if the club had actually planned to act on the hotel proposal. Christopher Gray described the move as "perhaps the biggest game of real estate 'chicken' ever played in New York". The city also approved the proposed "Park Avenue Plaza" name.
Construction In December 1978, the city government's Industrial and Commercial Incentive Board granted Fisher Brothers a $6.6 million tax abatement to be payable over ten years. The abatement was approved even though commission staff had privately recommended against it. The building was conceived as a speculative development without any anchor tenant in mind. A groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held in March 1979. At the time, of office space had already been leased by insurance company Alexander & Alexander, financial-services firm First Boston, and management consultant McKinsey & Company. Alexander & Alexander ultimately canceled its lease, although First Boston took 16 floors and McKinsey took five floors. Fisher Brothers initially charged rents of , and the first tenants signed leases at these relatively low rates. Fisher Brothers then acquired the adjacent CBS Studio Building to protect westward views from the new tower.