330 West 42nd Street
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330 West 42nd Street, also the McGraw-Hill Building and formerly the GHI Building, is a skyscraper in the
Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the ea ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Designed by
Raymond Hood Raymond Mathewson Hood (March 29, 1881 – August 14, 1934) was an American architect who worked in the Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles. He is best known for his designs of the Tribune Tower, American Radiator Building, and Rockefeller Center. Th ...
and J. André Fouilhoux in a mixture of the International Style,
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...
, and
Art Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...
styles, the building was constructed from 1930 to 1931 and originally served as the headquarters of
McGraw-Hill Companies S&P Global Inc. (prior to April 2016 McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013 The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are fina ...
. The building contains 33 stories. The building's
massing Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building. Massing in architectural theory Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
, or shape, consists of numerous setbacks on the 41st and 42nd Street sides, which were included to comply with the
1916 Zoning Resolution The 1916 Zoning Resolution in New York City was the first citywide zoning code in the United States. The zoning resolution reflected both borough and local interests, and was proposed after the Equitable Building was erected in Lower Manhattan ...
. The facade is made of blue-green
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...
ceramic tile panels, alternating with green-metal-framed windows, with a strongly horizontal orientation. The facade was intended to blend in with the sky regardless of the atmospheric condition. The entrance and original lobby were decorated with light blue and dark green panels. Most of the upper stories were similar in floor plan, except for their widths, which varied due to the setbacks on the facade. At the time of its completion, 330 West 42nd Street was controversial for the use of horizontal emphasis on its facade, which its contemporaries lacked. In subsequent decades, architectural critics recognized the building as an early example of the International Style.
McGraw-Hill Companies S&P Global Inc. (prior to April 2016 McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013 The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are fina ...
bought the land in early 1930 to replace a smaller headquarters; the company originally took three-quarters of the space, renting out the other stories. As 42nd Street declined, the building was more of a liability. McGraw-Hill moved in 1972 to 1221 Avenue of the Americas. The building subsequently served as the headquarters of Group Health Insurance (GHI). Since then, ownership of 330 West 42nd Street has changed several times. In 2021, the building's owner Resolution Real Estate completely renovated the building, including the lobby, to designs by Moed de Armas and Shannon. 330 West 42nd Street was designated a city landmark by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC) and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
(NRHP) as a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...
.


Site

330 West 42nd Street is on the south side of 42nd Street, between Eighth and
Ninth In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second. Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...
Avenues, in the
Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the ea ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The land lot has an area of and a frontage of on 42nd Street, extending deep. It is on the same city block as The Orion to the west and part of the
Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving about 8,000 bus ...
to the east; the building is also across from Holy Cross Church in the north and the remainder of the bus terminal to the south. The
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...
's 42nd Street/Port Authority Bus Terminal station () and
Eleven Times Square Eleven Times Square is an office and retail tower located at 640 Eighth Avenue, at the intersection with West 42nd Street, in the Times Square and West Midtown neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City. The 40-story, tower rises , making i ...
are on Eighth Avenue, less than one block east. In the late 1920s, the surrounding area had low-rise residences. The building's site was occupied by five tenements of four to five stories on 42nd Street and six tenements of four stories on 41st Street. On the same city block, John A. Larkin acquired several lots totaling in 1926. On the site, Larkin proposed the Larkin Tower or (Larkin Building), a 110-story, office skyscraper clad mainly in
stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
and
steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...
, which would have been the world's tallest building. The floor area of the Larkin Tower's upper stories would have been so small as to be economically infeasible, and critics also disapproved of what was then an extreme height, leading to its cancellation in 1930. Part of the site then became the present 330 West 42nd Street. Many of the surrounding tenements had been converted to office buildings by the 1930s.


Architecture

330 West 42nd Street was designed by
Raymond Hood Raymond Mathewson Hood (March 29, 1881 – August 14, 1934) was an American architect who worked in the Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles. He is best known for his designs of the Tribune Tower, American Radiator Building, and Rockefeller Center. Th ...
and J. André Fouilhoux, of the firm Hood, Godley, and Fouilhoux, in a mixture of the International Style,
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...
, and
Art Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...
styles. It was completed in 1931 as the headquarters of publisher
McGraw-Hill Companies S&P Global Inc. (prior to April 2016 McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013 The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are fina ...
. The skyscraper measures tall, with 33 stories. The design of 330 West 42nd Street was evocative of those of New York City's earlier factory buildings. As ''
Architectural Forum ''Architectural Forum'' was an American magazine that covered the homebuilding industry and architecture. Started in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1892 as ''The Brickbuilder'', it absorbed the magazine ''Architect's World'' in October 1938. Ownership ...
'' magazine said, "The requirements peculiar to a publishing business have formed the basis for the entire structure—in plan, section and elevation." In an issue of the ''McGraw-Hill News'' in 1931, Hood had written, "Economy and good working conditions were the three factors uppermost in mind" during the building's planning.


Form

330 West 42nd Street is designed as a 35-story building with setbacks to comply with the
1916 Zoning Resolution The 1916 Zoning Resolution in New York City was the first citywide zoning code in the United States. The zoning resolution reflected both borough and local interests, and was proposed after the Equitable Building was erected in Lower Manhattan ...
. The
massing Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building. Massing in architectural theory Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
of the building contains setbacks at the 11th and 16th floors on both 41st and 42nd Streets, as well as at the 7th floor on 41st Street. Each of these setbacks is only one
bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a nar ...
deep. At the 32nd and 34th floors, the building contains additional setbacks.; Because the setbacks are only placed on the northern and southern elevations of the facade, the setbacks are only visible from the west and east. The northern and southern elevations appear to be a slab when viewed head-on.; Both elevations are seven bays wide on all stories. Under the 1916 zoning code, setbacks were not required on the facades that abutted other land lots. The lack of setbacks on the western and eastern elevations made the building stand out as an industrial structure, even in the low-rise Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Architectural writer Eric P. Nash likened the massing to that of an
ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...
.


Facade

The building was largely designed with a plain facade, except for the original ground level and the upper stories. Unlike in Art Deco structures of the past, 330 West 42nd Street relied on color as a primary means of ornament.; At the time of the building's construction, Hood had predicted that the future skyline of New York City would "consist of gaily colored buildings", though this did not come true until
postmodern architecture Postmodern architecture is a style or movement which emerged in the 1960s as a reaction against the austerity, formality, and lack of variety of modern architecture, particularly in the international style advocated by Philip Johnson and Henr ...
became popular later in the 20th century.


Base

At ground level on 42nd Street, the building contains what were originally a pair of three-bay-wide glass storefronts, which were initially used as McGraw-Hill's bookstore and a bank. These curve inward to become the walls of the central entrance doorway with five doors, recessed within the facade. The curved walls between the storefront and the recessed entrance contain gold- and silver-colored metal bands, alternating with dark-green and light-blue panels. The company newspaper ''McGraw-Hill News'' characterized the bands as "lacquered like the body of a motor car". Above the ground level is a set of light-blue panels with silver-colored metal bands. This entrance originally had Art Deco-style letters with the words . Within the doorway were steel doors topped by a glass transom. The ground level on 41st Street originally had garage doors. In 2021, some of these garage doors were proposed for replacement with glass walls.


Shaft

The exterior walls of the building are blue-green
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...
ceramic panels alternating with
sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...
s. Hood chose to use steel and terracotta rather than stone because, in his view, stone and brick tended to darken relatively quickly after a structure's completion. The terracotta was manufactured by Federal Seaboard Terra Cotta Corporation. The terracotta panels between each story are laid in six glazed
courses Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
or layers, which gradually become lighter on higher stories. These panels were designed to give the appearance they were shimmering, giving the facade a slightly different tint during different times of day. The terracotta panels were built to the minimum thickness required by city building codes. At the time of 330 West 42nd Street's construction, terracotta was not commonly used in International Style structures, which frequently contained glass, steel, and concrete instead. In designing the building, Hood had considered several different colors for the terracotta panels, including "Chinese red", orange, yellow, and gray. Ultimately, blue-green was selected for its "atmospheric quality", which was suitable regardless of the color of the sky on any given day. Hood referred to the color as blue, while McGraw-Hill referred to the color as green. McGraw-Hill executive James H. McGraw Jr., who had selected the color himself, was elsewhere for much of the building's construction in 1931, but was supposedly "appalled" at the color of the building when he returned. The building was nicknamed the "Green Building", the "Green Kremlin", the "green giant", and the "green monster" due to its color. Eric Nash likened the color to the
Ishtar Gate The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon (in the area of present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq). It was constructed circa 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was pa ...
of
Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...
. The blue-green color contrasted with the red and white of the
Daily News Building The Daily News Building, also known as The News Building, is a skyscraper at 220 East 42nd Street in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The original building was designed by architects Raymond Hood and John Me ...
and the black and gold of the
American Radiator Building The American Radiator Building (also known as the American Standard Building) is an early skyscraper at 40 West 40th Street, just south of Bryant Park, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was designed by Raymond Hood an ...
, both of which Hood had also designed. There are more than four thousand windows, each of which contains a frame painted apple green. The windows are grouped into sets of three or four, separated horizontally by dark metal
spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
panels, and were built to the maximum height allowed under city construction codes of the time. Due to restrictions on the amount of glass a facade was allowed to have, the windows were divided horizontally by metal bars. The vertical mullions between windows, as well as the tops of each window sash, were painted in vermillion. These painted bands were intended to give the impression that each group of windows was a single window opening. The windows and terracotta panels were juxtaposed to emphasize the horizontal dimensions, a characteristic of the International Style. This was a great contrast to Art Deco facades, which were more vertically oriented. The only deviation from the facade's horizontal emphasis is on the eastern facade, which contains a pair of blue-green vertical strips at its center. After the structure's completion in 1931, Hood and McGraw-Hill had compared the facade to an automobile, a common Art Deco symbol. In particular, Hood thought the facade had a "shimmery, satin finish" similar to that of an automobile.


Top stories

The 32nd and 33rd floors consist of projecting sets of piers, between which are pairs of windows. These two stories originally contained the McGraw-Hill executive offices and were designed to emphasize the importance of McGraw-Hill's corporate leadership. A vermillion strip ran underneath the projecting course that surrounded the penthouse. The western and eastern facades are clad with horizontal "ribs" at the 34th and 35th stories. Architectural historian Anthony W. Robins likened the ribbed crown to the "
German Expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...
of
Erich Mendelsohn Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953) was a German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic Functionalism (architecture), functionalism in his projects for department ...
". A set of Art Deco-style letters with the words is mounted in front of the 34th story windows. These letters, custom made of terracotta blocks, stood against the blue and green terracotta panels of the facade, concealing the mechanical equipment atop 330 West 42nd Street. They were painted white with orange stripes, but that color was removed when McGraw-Hill sold the building.; At some point in the late 20th century, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC) approved a motion to change the letters to "GHI", representing former owner Group Health Insurance, although it was changed back by the 1990s.


Features

The McGraw-Hill Building contains of interior space. As designed, McGraw-Hill used about three-quarters of the total internal space. McGraw-Hill required about for office space, while another were rented out as office space at a rate of .


Lobby

The original lobby covered about and led from the 42nd Street entrance to two elevator banks. The lobby's design was a continuation of the exterior, a common trend for Art Deco designs. It originally consisted of a passageway from the 42nd Street entrance, whose walls were decorated with similar dark-green and light-blue bands as the entrance way. There were doorways that led to the bookstore on the left (east) wall and to the bank on the right (west) wall. The elevator lobby contained solid green enamel walls. The elevator doors were made of metal and decorated with bronze stripes, while floor-indicator markers hung above the doorways. Elevator staff wore green uniforms to correspond with the green baked-enamel interiors of each elevator cab. The original lobby was demolished in 2021. The modern lobby contains an atrium measuring high. There was a reception area to the left and a large seating area to the right. Gerard Nocera, a managing partner for the asset manager that controlled the building, said at the time: "It's going to be a lobby tenants will gravitate toward and will want to hang out in."


Upper floors

Industrial uses were placed on the second through tenth floors, which were larger and relatively poorly lit, while offices were placed on the smaller, better-lit upper floors. The industrial stories were largely designed for functional purposes, with elevator banks at the center of each floor. The ceilings of these industrial stories were generally between tall and the floor slabs were intended to support heavy loads. The printing plant was placed below the sixth-floor setback while the book production was housed in the loft space above the setback. The bindery was on the fifth floor, the press room on the sixth floor, and the composing room on the seventh floor. These stories were converted to standard office space by 1933. The upper stories were designed in a relatively simple style characterized as "Raymond Hood Colonial". The ninth through 15th floors had been exclusively intended for rental use, while McGraw-Hill generally occupied the 16th to 33rd floors. On the office floors, the natural light illuminated each story to a depth of . Few partitions were erected on these stories, creating an
open plan Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan that makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices. The term can also refer to landscaping of h ...
with various open spaces for McGraw-Hill's subsidiaries. Except for the 32nd and 33rd stories, there were generally no private offices, as an employee who desired such privacy could work from home instead. The penthouse at the 32nd and 33rd stories originally contained the corporate suites of McGraw-Hill Publishers. The McGraw-Hill corporate offices were relatively conservative in design, being designed in the Georgian and Colonial Revival styles. These stories also contained a cafeteria for McGraw-Hill executives and a 250-seat auditorium. Following a 2021 renovation, the upper floors are still arranged in an open plan. The ceilings had been modified so the structural-steel beams were exposed. In addition, the windows were replaced with units that could open and close, and some of the suites have terraces. Furthermore, there are several tenant lounges, conference areas, event spaces, and fitness center. The setbacks have nine landscaped terraces that collectively cover . As a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, the
heating, ventilation, and air conditioning Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality ...
system was also completely replaced and air filters were installed.


History


Development

The McGraw-Hill Publishing Company was formed in 1917 when James H. McGraw and
John A. Hill John Alexander Hill (February 22, 1858 – January 24, 1916) was a co-founder of the McGraw-Hill Book Company, the predecessor corporation of today's McGraw Hill Financial and McGraw-Hill Education. He was born in Sandgate, Vermont on Feb. 2 ...
merged their respective companies.; It was then headquartered at the Hill Publishing Building at 475 Tenth Avenue, at the corner with 36th Street. With numerous acquisitions of other companies over the following decades, the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company found its existing space insufficient by the late 1920s. The twelve-story building at Tenth Avenue was expanded by an additional story and some freight elevators in that building were converted to passenger use. Even so, by 1929, employees of that building were being asked to walk up or down some flights rather than take the elevators. The same year, a committee was appointed to oversee the development of a new building. The new-building committee considered numerous sites on the area bounded clockwise from north by 47th Street, Second Avenue, 34th Street, and Ninth Avenue. The group identified Larkin's 42nd Street lot, as well as another lot at Eighth Avenue and 41st Street half a block east, as feasible sites. In May 1930, McGraw-Hill Companies bought the 47,500-square-foot Larkin site at 326–346 West 42nd Street and 327–345 West 41st Street. The Larkin site had been selected specifically for its convenience and relatively low price. McGraw-Hill intended for its skyscraper to accommodate both commercial and industrial uses, and much of
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...
was not zoned for such a purpose. Furthermore, the site was near the major rail hubs at
Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
and
Pennsylvania Station Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...
; post offices; and the Engineering Societies' Building and Engineers' Club. Construction began on December 29, 1930, when the first rivet was driven by the publishing company's vice president James H. McGraw Jr.
Starrett Brothers Starrett Corporation, formerly known as Starrett Brothers, Inc. and Starrett Brothers and Eken, is a real estate development and construction firm known for having built the Empire State Building, Stuyvesant Town, Starrett City and Trump Tower in ...
, the main contractor, hired about 800 construction workers for the project. Steelwork started immediately afterward. The company secured a $3.8 million loan to finance the building's construction a week after work started. Work progressed quickly and was nearly completed by June 1931; that month, twenty workers received awards for "superior craftsmanship".


McGraw-Hill use

McGraw-Hill's publishing division moved into the building by October 25, 1931. Six weeks later, the McGraw-Hill Book Company relocated from its longtime headquarters at 370 Seventh Avenue to the new building at 330 West 42nd Street. Construction had taken fourteen months from planning to completion. The building had initially been expected to cost $2.7 million but ran $642,000 over budget. As one of the tallest buildings in Hell's Kitchen at the time, the McGraw-Hill Building stood out from the rest of the neighborhood. The company had hoped that the building would be one of several on 42nd Street after a planned rezoning of the street that never happened. Frank Gale of McGraw-Hill wrote in January 1932, three months after the building's completion, that only six of the 33 usable office stories had not been occupied by then. With the onset of the Great Depression, the industrial equipment on the lower floors became obsolete and was sold in January 1931. In addition to McGraw-Hill's headquarters, space was rented to tenants such as the J. C. Valentine Company; the Topics Publishing Company; Charles Eneu Johnson, a printer-ink supplier; Media Records, an advertising-statistics company; the International Development Corporation; the Edge Moor Iron Company;
United Cigar Stores United Cigar Stores was a chain of cigar stores in the United States that in its first quarter-century grew to nearly 3,000 shops. It eventually became part of the corporation that bought Marvel Comics and its parent company Magazine Managemen ...
; the
Home Owners' Loan Corporation The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) was a government-sponsored corporation created as part of the New Deal. The corporation was established in 1933 by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation Act under the leadership of President Franklin D. Ro ...
; and the Adolphe Hurst Company, an importing concern. By 1935, the building was almost fully occupied. Subsequent tenants included pulp publisher Martin Goodman, who founded
Timely Comics Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...
(
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...
’ common name during the
Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...
) at the building during 1939, as well as soap firm
Givaudan Givaudan () is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of flavours, fragrances and active cosmetic ingredients. As of 2008, it is the world's largest company in the flavour and fragrance industries. Overview The company's scents and flavours are de ...
. McGraw-Hill suffered from financial issues of its own, occupying only 34 percent of the floor area by 1939. During World War II, the McGraw-Hill Building's owners devised emergency blackout procedures in case of an air raid warning, because of the building's large number of windows relative to other structures in the area. The western part of McGraw-Hill's lot, which had not been developed for the McGraw-Hill Building, was proposed as the site of an interstate bus terminal in 1940, due to the building's proximity to the
Lincoln Tunnel The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It carries New Jersey Route 495 on the New Jersey side and unsigned Ne ...
entrance to New Jersey. The terminal was approved in early 1941, but plans for the terminal were delayed by the war, and the terminal ultimately was instead built one block south in 1950. The adjacent lot ultimately was developed as a post office. In the mid-1950s, the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...
started training "spotters" to look at traffic on the Lincoln Tunnel approaches from the 35th floor of the McGraw-Hill Building. The spotters used two-way radios to direct traffic, as well as a CCTV camera mounted on the top of the building. The McGraw-Hill Companies moved some of its publications to
1301 Avenue of the Americas 1301 Avenue of the Americas (also known as the Crédit Agricole CIB Building; formerly the Crédit Lyonnais Building and the J.C. Penney Building) is a 609 ft (186m) tall skyscraper in Manhattan, New York City. It is located on the west si ...
in 1964 due to a lack of space at 330 West 42nd Street. At that time, the company occupied 94 percent of the space at 330 West 42nd Street and was planning to expand the structure. The company also took space at 620 Eighth Avenue. McGraw-Hill then announced its intention to develop additional stories atop the Port Authority Bus Terminal annex, being built immediately to the east, but the plan did not come to fruition. The company was unable to expand to the west because the post office was there. Ultimately, McGraw-Hill announced in 1967 that it would construct a new headquarters at 1221 Avenue of the Americas, one of the "XYZ Buildings" at
Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
. McGraw-Hill sold 330 West 42nd Street to C. Russell Feldmann in 1970. The sale price was subsequently reported at $15 million. Although Feldmann wanted to convert the building into office space, his financial troubles led McGraw-Hill to retake the property in February 1973 to satisfy an unpaid mortgage of $11.1 million, netting McGraw-Hill a profit of $4 million.


Late 20th century

McGraw-Hill moved to 1221 Avenue of the Americas in 1972. Its old headquarters at 330 West 42nd Street was placed for sale at under $15 million, less than ten percent of the $175 million construction price of its new building. Despite the relatively low price, 330 West 42nd Street stood vacant for three years, during which only a maintenance crew of ten workers was staffed in the building. The vacancy was attributed to developers' reluctance to take space on West 42nd Street, which was considered "tawdry", and the decline in the general neighborhood. During this time, McGraw-Hill lost $650,000 per year on maintenance and taxes for the vacant building. The building was purchased in late 1974 by medical insurance company Group Health Inc. (GHI) for $5.5 million, becoming the GHI Building. At the time, GHI was headquartered at 230 West 41st Street, one block west, but urgently needed another . Through the end of the 1970s, the building was only one-third occupied, with most of that space being taken by GHI. The rundown character of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood meant that rent at 330 West 42nd Street was relatively cheap and, thus, the office space was taken by organizations like the 42nd Street Development Corporation. Following lobbying from that organization, the LPC designated 330 West 42nd Street as a city landmark on September 11, 1979, and the building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on March 28, 1980. 330 West 42nd Street was taken over by Newmark & Company in February 1980, although GHI remained in the building. The new owners commenced a $2 million rehabilitation of the building; to reduce vacancies, Newmark president
Jeffrey Gural Jeffrey Gural (born July 6, 1942) is a New York real estate developer. Early life and education Gural was born to Jewish American real estate developer Aaron Gural and Harriet Feil. His mother died in 1945. His father was part owner of Newmar ...
rented space to any tenants who could reliably pay. The lobby was renovated by architects Warner Burns Toan & Lunde and interior designers
Valerian Rybar Valerian Stux Rybar (or Stux-Rybar; 17 June 19199 June 1990) was an American interior designer, called the "world's most expensive decorator" in 1972, and known for his opulent and extravagant taste. Early life Rybar was born on 17 June 1919, in ...
and Jean-Francois Daigre. Mechanical systems were also updated throughout the building. A
site-specific art Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork. Site-specific art is produced both by commercial artists, and independently, and can ...
work, an angular metal sculpture by Owen Morrel entitled ''Boomerang'', was mounted up the southeast corner in 1981. By the end of that year, 330 West 42nd Street was fully rented again, due in part to the redevelopment of the surrounding stretch of 42nd Street. Gural had become more selective with tenants, only accepting large leases and telling ''The New York Times'' in 1981 that he could bring the building to full occupancy "three times over in ten minutes". These tenants included a trading floor of
Paine Webber PaineWebber & Co. was an American investment bank and stock brokerage firm that was acquired by the Swiss bank UBS in 2000. The company was founded in 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts, by William Alfred Paine and Wallace G. Webber. Operating with t ...
, as well as the
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is the department of the government of New York City dedicated to supporting New York City's cultural life. Among its primary missions is ensuring adequate public funding for non-profit cultur ...
. The base of the building became a popular performance venue for bands. 330 West 42nd Street was declared a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...
in 1989.Pitts, Carolyn. (February 9, 1989) , National Park Service and GHI moved out of 330 West 42nd Street in 1994, taking space at its own building at 441 Ninth Avenue. The same year Deco Towers Associates, a foreign investment group, acquired 330 West 42nd Street as its sole property. The sale had become complicated by the fact that the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures cr ...
had taken over the building's mortgage holder, the American Savings Bank, which had gone bankrupt. A long-term restoration of the building began in 1998 and continued over the next two decades. Shortly after the project began. Deco Towers dismantled ''Boomerang'', having found severe deterioration in that sculpture during inspections over the previous five years. The company had offered to give the work to Morrel or restore it if funding was provided. The
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is the department of the government of New York City dedicated to supporting New York City's cultural life. Among its primary missions is ensuring adequate public funding for non-profit cultur ...
(DCLA) moved to a space at 330 West 42nd Street in 1998, having been forced to relocate from 2 Columbus Circle. The DCLA relocated to the city-owned
Surrogate's Courthouse The Surrogate's Courthouse (also the Hall of Records and 31 Chambers Street) is a historic building at the northwest corner of Chambers and Centre Streets in the Civic Center of Manhattan in New York City. Completed in 1907, it was desi ...
in 2006.


21st century

330 West 42nd Street received some facade renovations during the mid-2010s. The restoration of the facade won an award in 2019 from the
New York Landmarks Conservancy The New York Landmarks Conservancy is a non-profit organization "dedicated to preserving, revitalizing, and reusing" historic structures in New York state. It provides technical assistance, project management services, grants, and loans, to owne ...
. At the time, the
Service Employees International Union Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of members ...
(SEIU) was a major tenant, although its lease was scheduled to run out in October 2020. Deco Towers announced in 2018 that it planned to convert the 16th through 34th floors into residential condominiums, following the expiry of SEIU's lease. The plan to convert the upper stories to apartments was subsequently abandoned. By early 2021, the building had been vacated in preparation for its renovation. That February, the LPC approved a plan by Moed de Armas and Shannon Architects (MdeAS) to renovate part of the building. The plans called for renovating the facade and signs on the ground floor, as well as a new tenant doorway at West 42nd Street. MdeAS also proposed gutting the streamlined lobby as part of a series of changes to reconfigure the lower floors, formerly occupied by SEIU, for office use. After a tweet of the proposed design of the replacement lobby circulated, numerous preservationists petitioned the LPC to grant landmark status to the lobby's interior. A plan to remove the sign atop the crown, replacing it with one spelling out the building's address, was rejected by the LPC after opposition from preservationists. The following month, a spokesperson for the building's owner claimed that the lobby had mostly been demolished but that pieces were being stored. According to Gerard Nocera of Resolution Real Estate (the asset manager for the building's owner, Deco Towers), the LPC had rejected three requests to preserve the lobby during the preceding decades. The LPC had declined to preserve the lobby because it had been substantially altered during the 1980s. During September 2021, the
New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
dismissed a lawsuit from preservationists who sought to protect the lobby, and the owners were allowed to dispose of the lobby's decorations. The lawsuit had been rejected in part because the lobby had been substantially modified. The same month, the renovation was completed and the building's owner Resolution Real Estate started leasing office space. The $120 million renovation had included adding amenity spaces, refurbishing the office floors into an open plan, reconfiguring the lobby, and installing operable windows and air filters. By late 2022, Deco Towers was considering converting the 11th to 32nd stories into apartments, and converting the top two floors into residential amenity spaces, because of declining demand for office space during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. Under this new plan, designed by Gloria Glass of
SLCE Architects SLCE Architects is an American architecture firm which provides architectural services in both the public and private sector. Between 2010 and 2015, the firm received the most commissions for residential developments in New York City. The firm is ...
, the upper floors would largely contain studio apartments and one-bedroom units, as well as several two-bedroom units.


Reception

Upon the McGraw Hill Building's completion, much controversy arose over its use of the International Style, which was then relatively new compared to Art Moderne and Art Deco. George Shepard Chappell, writing in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' under the pseudonym "T-Square", lambasted the McGraw Hill Building's use of horizontal lines, saying: "The fact remains that a tall building, considered as a mass, goes up, not sidewise." Chappell found the building's mass and color to be unappealing, though he did approve of the building's limited use of ornamentation. Alfred T. North commented on the building's controversy, saying, "Lacking all of the earmarks of historical architecture, this building is running the gauntlet of criticism." Ultimately, North was unable to determine the style in which 330 West 42nd Street was designed. Others spoke more positively of 330 West 42nd Street. Upon Hood's death in 1934, shortly after the building's completion, the ''New York Daily News'' called the building "among the finest modern achievements in architecture", along with Hood's American Radiator Building, Daily News Building, and
Beaux-Arts Apartments The Beaux-Arts Apartments are a pair of apartment towers on 307 and 310 East 44th Street in the East Midtown and Turtle Bay neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Raymond Hood and Kenneth Murchison, the Beaux-Arts Apartmen ...
. The building was the only skyscraper in the city displayed in
Henry-Russell Hitchcock Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903–1987) was an American architectural historian, and for many years a professor at Smith College and New York University. His writings helped to define the characteristics of modernist architecture. Early life He ...
and
Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...
's influential International Style exhibition at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
in 1932, and the only other U.S. skyscraper at that exhibition, besides the
PSFS Building The PSFS Building, now known as the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, is a skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A National Historic Landmark, the building was the first International style skyscraper constructed in the United States. ...
. Hitchcock and Johnson objected only to the crown, which they described as "an illogical and unhappy break in the general system of regularity". In subsequent years, McGraw-Hill came to characterize 330 West 42nd Street as an "International" style building. With the greater acceptance of the International Style, the McGraw-Hill Building became known as an early example of that style, although other writers described it as having a blend of Art Deco and Art Moderne elements as well.
Lewis Mumford Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a w ...
wrote in 1953 that 330 West 42nd Street's horizontal facade emphasis was a "logical end" to the early-20th-century development of the skyscraper, alongside the Daily News Building's vertical emphasis, the
Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from " Empire State", the nickname of the ...
's height, and the
New York Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center (previously known as New York Hospital or Old New York Hospital or City Hospital) is a research hospital in New York City. It is part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the teaching hospital for Cornell University. ...
's "spacious setting". Meanwhile,
Vincent Scully Vincent Joseph Scully Jr. (August 21, 1920 – November 30, 2017) was an American art historian who was a Sterling Professor of the History of Art in Architecture at Yale University, and the author of several books on the subject. Architect Phi ...
called it "proto-jukebox modern", When McGraw-Hill moved to 1221 Avenue of the Americas, ''Architecture Plus'' magazine wrote, "How could a corporate client, which commissioned such an outstanding structure in those difficult days of the Great Depression, find itself moving into one that is, in architectural terms, a nonentity?" During the building's 1970s vacancy,
Paul Goldberger Paul Goldberger (born in 1950) is an American author, architecture critic and lecturer. He is known for his "Sky Line" column in ''The New Yorker''. Biography Shortly after starting as a reporter at ''The New York Times'' in 1972, he was assign ...
called the lobby "one of the best rooms of the period in New York". When GHI bought the building, an opinion writer for ''The New York Times'' celebrated the fact that the "distinctive green giant" would be preserved, even though it was not yet an official landmark. The architect
Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a r ...
said of the McGraw-Hill Building, "Once again Hood has combined two incompatibles in a single whole."


See also

*
Art Deco architecture of New York City Art Deco architecture flourished in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s, before largely disappearing after World War II. The style is found in government edifices, commercial projects, and residential buildings in all five boroughs. The a ...
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in New York City This article lists National Historic Landmarks in New York City, of which there are 116. One of the New York City sites is also a national monument, and there are two more national monuments in NYC as well. These are listed further below. It a ...
* List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets *
National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Manhattan Island, the primary portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan (also designated as New York County, New Yo ...


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * {{National Register of Historic Places in New York 1931 establishments in New York City 42nd Street (Manhattan) Art Deco architecture in Manhattan Art Deco skyscrapers Art Moderne architecture Office buildings completed in 1931 Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan International style architecture in New York City National Historic Landmarks in Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan