Just a block and a half from Grand Central Terminal, 220 East 42nd Street, also known as the Daily News Building, is a 37-story, Art-Deco skyscraper designed by Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells. Towering majestically above Midtown Manhattan, the building was originally the headquarters for The New York Daily News. In addition to being recognized by New York City’s landmark agency, the News Building was also designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1989. The world’s largest indoor globe, made famous by the original Superman television series and feature films, occupies the center of the dramatic lobby under a black glass-domed ceiling. The tower floors offer spectacular views of the East River and downtown Manhattan’s skyline. With its convenient proximity to Grand Central, landmark status, and exclusive high-end amenities, 220 East 42nd is a historic and covetable address.
One of the most distinctive Art Deco buildings in America, 220 East 42nd was finished in 1930 by architects Hood and Howells, who also designed the iconic Tribune Tower in Chicago. The building rises as a monumental slab, with setbacks gathered closely about a single soaring mass. A great carved frieze surmounts the entrance, showing New Yorkers of the period rushing to work under the banner “He Made So Many of Them” while a titanic city piles up in the background. The result has been praised as one of the first free-standing modernistic skyscrapers in the world and one of the first tall buildings in New York to be designed without an ornamental spire.
The interiors are just as dramatic, with black glass and colored marble creating a dynamic yet atmospheric inner chamber. The vast rotating globe, set partially into the floor, inspired the name and design of Clark Kent’s workplace, The Daily Planet in the original Superman comics. Meteorological equipment shows rainfall and temperatures, while clocks display the times in cities around the globe. Set into the marble floors are the distances from the lobby to places such as the North Pole and Gibraltar – a clever way of suggesting that New York was literally at the center of the world.
With its superb location, architecture, amenities, views and convenience to Grand Central subway and Metro-North commutes, 220 East 42nd is poised to be the center of anyone’s world.
