Solow Building
Encyclopedia
57th Street (Manhattan)
57th Street is one of New York City's major east-west thoroughfares, which runs east-west in the Midtown section of the borough of Manhattan, from the New York City Department of Sanitation's dock on the Hudson River at the West Side Highway to a small park overlooking the East River built on a...
, is a Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP is an American architectural and engineering firm that was formed in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings; in 1939 they were joined by John O. Merrill. They opened their first branch in New York City, New York in 1937. SOM is one of the largest...
's Gordon Bunshaft
Gordon Bunshaft
Gordon Bunshaft was an architect educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1988, Gordon Bunshaft nominated himself for the Pritzker Prize and eventually won it.-Career:...
and built in 1974. It is located just west of Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue (Manhattan)
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The section of Fifth Avenue that crosses Midtown Manhattan, especially that between 49th Street and 60th Street, is lined with prestigious shops and is consistently ranked among...
, sandwiched between the 57th and 58th Street, next to such prominent buildings as the Bergdorf Goodman
Bergdorf Goodman
Bergdorf Goodman is a luxury goods department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son Andrew Goodman....
department store and the Plaza Hotel
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel in New York City is a landmark 20-story luxury hotel with a height of and length of that occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name, and extends along Central Park South in Manhattan. Fifth Avenue extends along the east side of Grand Army Plaza...
. Consisting of 50 stories and 689 ft. (210 m), the building's only competitor by height in the neighborhood is the GM Building
General Motors Building (New York)
The General Motors Building is a 50-story, 705-foot office tower in Manhattan, New York City, facing Fifth Avenue at 59th Street . The building is one of the few structures in Manhattan that occupies a full city block...
, located one block north and east. Floors above the 23rd floor offer a virtually unobstructed view of northern Manhattan and a complete view of Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
.
One of the notable aesthetic attributes of the building is the concave vertical slope of its north and south facades, on 57th and 58th Street. This is similar to another of Bunshaft's creations, the W. R. Grace Building, which is no coincidence, as he had used the initial, rejected façade design for the Solow Building in his design for the Grace Building.
Tenants
The Solow Building features some of the most expensive rents in Manhattan. The Solow Building Company occupies a permanent lease of the top floor of the skyscraper. The largest tenant is Bank of America Securities, which occupies several stories and the trading floor area on floors 2 and 3. At least some of this space is expected to become available after the opening of Bank of America TowerBank of America Tower, New York City
Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park is a skyscraper in the Midtown district of Manhattan in New York City, in the United States. It is located on Sixth Avenue, between 42nd and 43rd Street, opposite Bryant Park....
in 2008.
Other well-known tenants include the U.S. Headquarters of the French Corporate and Investment Bank Natixis
Natixis
Natixis is a French corporate and investment bank created in November 2006 from the merger of the asset management and investment banking operations of Natexis Banque Populaire and IXIS ....
and private equity
Private equity
Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
KKR & Co. L.P. is an American-based global private equity firm, specializing in leveraged buyouts, based in New York. The firm sponsors and manages private equity investment funds. Since its inception, the firm has completed over $400 billion of private equity transactions and was a pioneer in...
(42nd fl.), Apollo Management
Apollo Management
Apollo Global Management, LLC is a private equity investment firm, founded in 1990 by former Drexel Burnham Lambert banker Leon Black. The firm specializes in leveraged buyout transactions and purchases of distressed securities involving corporate restructuring, special situations and industry...
(43rd fl.), Silver Lake Partners
Silver Lake Partners
Silver Lake is a US-based private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in technology, technology-enabled and related industries...
(32nd fl.) and Highland Capital Management
Highland Capital Management
Highland Capital Management is an Alternative investment management firm that manages hedge funds, structured investment and distressed investment funds. The firm invests in global public equity, fixed income and hedging markets with a focus on leveraged loans, high yield bonds, and structured...
(38th fl.).
Several law firms and hedge funds occupy a majority of the remainder the space, including Och-Ziff Capital Management
Och-Ziff Capital Management
Och-Ziff Capital Management Group is an American hedge fund manager and global alternative asset management firm. In early 2011, the firm had more than $28 billion in assets under management....
(39th fl.) and Highbridge Capital Management (27th fl.). The corporate offices of Chanel
Chanel
Chanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...
(44th fl.), MBNA
MBNA
MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company and parent company of wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2006...
(50th fl.) and Cendant
Cendant
Cendant Corporation was a New York-based provider of business and consumer services, primarily within the real estate and travel industries. In 2005 and 2006, Cendant broke up and spun off or sold its constituent businesses...
(Cendant changed its name to Avis Budget Group
Avis Budget Group
Avis Budget Group, Inc. operates Avis Rent A Car System, LLC , Budget Rent A Car System, Inc. and Budget Truck Rental, LLC...
in 2006) (37th fl.) are also located in the building.
Amenities
The building features an underground parking garage, currently available retail space on the north side bordering 58th Street, an underground space occupied by the Brasserie 8½ restaurant, a 2 floor trading floor on floors 2-3, a newsstand in the lobby, and 24 high-speed elevators subdivided into sets of floors.Name Issues
In 1971, Avon ProductsAvon Products
Avon Products, Inc. is a US cosmetics, perfume and toy seller with markets in over 140 countries across the world and sales of $9.9 billion worldwide as of 2007.-Business Model:...
, Inc. rented 21 floors, quickly expanding to occupy 25 floors, and the building was soon being referred to as "the Avon building" (a moniker that persists and can still cause confusion nearly 40 years later). In 1975, the building's owner, Sheldon Solow
Sheldon Solow
-Biography:He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended New York University but dropped out. In 1972, he invested in what became the Solow Building, which houses KKR and Apollo Global Management....
, sued Avon for misappropriating the building's trademark without compensation. Although Avon moved out of the building in 1997, in May 2005 the lawsuit finally went to trial and was subsequently dismissed two months later.
In popular culture
- The large red sculpture of the digit 9 in front of the building was included in the project as a response to the complaints that the building's sloping reflecting walls revealed unappealing sides of the neighboring historic buildings that were previously obscured. The brightly colored sculpture was to distract the eyes of passersby from noticing these walls. This famous New York sculpture was designed by graphic artist Ivan Chermayeff.
- The restaurant Brasserie 8½ was featured on the show Sex and the CitySex and the CitySex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
. - Chandler BingChandler BingChandler Muriel Bing is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends, portrayed by Matthew Perry.-Background:Chandler Muriel Bing was born on April 8, 1968, the son of an erotic novelist mother and a cross-dressing Las Vegas star and is of Scottish ancestry. Chandler was Ross...
a character from the sitcom FriendsFriendsFriends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
worked in this building during the series. - Namesake of the Nine WestNine WestNine West is a fashion wholesale and retail company best known for quickly translating runway trends into styles attainable by mass consumers. Initially founded as a fashion footwear brand, Nine West has since expanded into handbags, sunglasses, legwear, outerwear, jewelry, belts, watches, cold...
shoe store chain. - In Superman, a jewel thief is apprehended by Superman while scaling the side of the building while wearing suction cups on his hands and knees.
- Featured in the film ZoolanderZoolanderZoolander is a 2001 American satirical comedy film directed by and starring Ben Stiller. The film contains elements from a pair of short films directed by Russell Bates and written by Drake Sather and Stiller for the VH1 Fashion Awards television specials in 1996 and 1997. The short films and the...
with a giant computer generated M, which served as Mugatu's fashion headquarters. - In the film CloverfieldCloverfieldCloverfield is a 2008 American disaster-monster film directed by Matt Reeves, produced by J. J. Abrams and written by Drew Goddard.The film follows six young New Yorkers attending a going-away party on the night that a gigantic monster attacks the city...
, the monster's hand slides down the facade of the building when knocked down momentarily by a carpet bombing run. - In the film Lost in AmericaLost in AmericaLost in America is a 1985 comedy film directed by Albert Brooks that was co-written by Brooks with Monica McGowan Johnson. Brooks stars alongside Julie Hagerty.-Plot:...
, the final scene where Albert Brooks' character David Howard meets advertising executive Brad ("This little town car...Will drive you away...") occurs in front of this building. - Was featured in the film Bride WarsBride WarsBride Wars is a 2009 American romantic comedy film directed by Gary Winick and written by Greg DePaul, June Diane Raphael and Casey Wilson....
behind the "Plaza HotelPlaza HotelThe Plaza Hotel in New York City is a landmark 20-story luxury hotel with a height of and length of that occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name, and extends along Central Park South in Manhattan. Fifth Avenue extends along the east side of Grand Army Plaza...
".