461 Fifth Avenue is a 28-story skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 40th Street. The building was constructed in 1988 by the

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development group and designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

History

In the late nineteenth century, 461 Fifth Avenue was the residence of the Misses Furniss, who were known for hosting musicals and other social functions. They had acquired the address from a J. M. Bixby sometime after 1873. Sometime between 1911 and 1915, the private house was replaced with an eleven-story office building, which in 1945 was renovated to become a

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store. By 1988 the Lane Bryant building was demolished. The current structure was built in 1988 by a Japanese-lead development group using a design by

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of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Within a year of completion, the building had a 90% occupancy rate and had spurred a building boom in the Fifth Avenue area. By 1992 it was fully leased. The first floor shopping level was occupied by a

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until 2007, when it was leased to

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. The building was sold to its current owner,

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, in 2003 for $62.3 million.

Architecture

The building uses modern materials, creating a stone-finish look, as well as a setback at the base, which is at the same height as older buildings in the neighborhood. The building is also noted architecturally for its combination of a 10-story 19th-century base, which mirrors nearby older buildings, and an 18-story

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tower. The exterior uses a

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finish to mimic the appearance of limestone and has a copper

mansard A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

roof similar to other buildings in the area.

References

{{Bryant Park 1989 establishments in New York City Bryant Park buildings Fifth Avenue Modernist architecture in New York City Office buildings completed in 1989 Postmodern architecture in New York City Skidmore, Owings & Merrill buildings Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan