Recently designated as a New York City landmark, 125 Park Avenue is a consummate example of Beaux Arts architecture by the master architects York and Sawyer in conjunction with John Sloan. The property is situated on Park Avenue and 42nd Street, directly across from Grand Central Terminal. 125 Park Avenue is a classically ornate modern office building renowned for its architecturally superior exterior design, sweeping arches, and unique terra cotta façade. It is one of the true Park Avenue landmarks and is now fully restored to its original glory with oversized windows that offer stunning views of Grand Central Terminal and beyond. The tower offers timeless elegance and refinement with its fully modernized building systems for today’s workplace, an ultra-contemporary lobby, and an outstanding location.
Known originally as the Pershing Square Building, 125 Park is one of the district’s most sophisticated structures, featuring extraordinarily textured brickwork and colored terra cotta detailing, the first skyscraper to use these materials. The work was produced by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company, who also designed national landmarks including the Supreme Court, the Woolworth Building and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The superb Romanesque design compliments the magnificent former Bowery Savings Bank at 110 East 42nd Street (another design by York and Sawyer, and also an SL Green property), while the name honors the open space before Grand Central Terminal, named to honor the World War I General John J. Pershing. The newly revamped interior includes an updated lobby by Gertler & Wente, which retains the limestone walls and elevator doors from the original design while providing a spacious recessed entrance that echoes the forms of the adjacent Park Avenue Viaduct.
Finished in 1923, 125 Park was the last major tall office building in Pre-War New York City to be designed without the setbacks required by the 1916 Zoning Ordinance. Because 125 Park incorporated subway entrances from the previous structure on the site, a variance was granted to the developer, Henry Mandel, and a deep light well facing Park Avenue was incorporated instead.
125 Park was landmarked in 2016, with the Landmarks Preservation Commission praising the building for its “significant contribution to the variety and richness of Midtown East.”
