100 Park Avenue

Much of New York City’s history can be read through its skyscrapers, and 100 Park Avenue fits squarely within that tradition. 100 Park Avenue’s aesthetics look mellow compared to today’s glass curtain walls and twisting spires, but its facade of white brick, vertical stripes of glass and aluminum spandrels stands out as a clean, classical statement; the glass, stone and marble of 100 Park Avenue’s two-story lobby complete the effect. In short, 100 Park Avenue is a capital-B Building with 825,815 square feet of class-A office space.

The surprising part about 100 Park Avenue, though, is that despite its confident place in New York’s architectural history, it also boasts an array of building systems and amenities that place it squarely in the future. This capital-B Building is capital-G Green, and a 2007 renovation has made 100 Park Avenue into one of the more striking sustainable buildings in the Grand Central Station area. 100 Park Avenue’s renovation did more than refurbish the facade — although it did that, too.

The 18-month, $72 million revamp earned 100 Park Avenue the Building Owners and Managers Association Best Renovated Building of the Year Award, and left the structure with state of the art infrastructure ranging from an upgraded HVAC system and new elevator cabs to new low-e glass windows and revamped marble floors in the lobby. As part of the renovation, 100 Park Avenue applied for LEED Silver for Existing Buildings certification.

As always with 100 Park Avenue, form and function intertwined and complimented one another, and once again, 100 Park Avenue took a privileged place in the vertical historical map that is Midtown.