Solow Building
- Architect
- Gordon Bunshaft
- Year
- 1974
- Style
- International Style
- City
- Manhattan, NY
The Solow Building at 9 West 57th Street is a 50-story, 689-foot skyscraper completed in 1974 and designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Developer Sheldon Solow named the tower after himself and owned and managed it until his death in 2020, when it passed to his son Stefan Soloviev. Sitting west of Fifth Avenue overlooking the Plaza Hotel and Central Park, it was widely criticized by architectural critics when it opened as a disruptive presence on the skyline.
the building
Curving glass facades. The north and south facades curve inward from ground level up to the 18th floor before the tower rises straight to the 50th story. Those curved walls are gray-tinted glass, while the east and west facades are clad in travertine.
Plaza and the red 9. A travertine plaza at street level holds a red sculpture of the digit "9" on the 57th Street side, marking the building's address. The ground floor houses a private art collection, and the basement contains the Brasserie.
the style
Bunshaft designed the tower in the International Style, pairing gray-tinted glass with travertine cladding. The curving lower facades were a distinctive move for the idiom, but critics at the time largely panned the result as jarring against the surrounding skyline.
More on International Stylethe architect
Gordon Bunshaft designed the building as a partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, completing it in 1974 for developer Sheldon Solow.
nearby
- Plaza Hotel
- Bergdorf Goodman
- 12 West 56th Street
- 712 Fifth Avenue Building
- General Motors Building
- Bonwit Teller Building