Architectural style
Setbacks, metalwork, and vertical ornament distinguish Manhattan's Art Deco towers.
Compare the Chrysler Building, Daily News Building, and 500 Fifth Avenue. Look at how their setbacks and decorative details give each tower a different profile.
35 building histories
Commercial · 1929-31
1 Wall Street, New York, NY
Constructed in 1929-31 as the corporate headquarters of the Irving Trust Company, this 50-story, limestone faced skyscraper is situated on what was considered the "most expensive real estate in New York," the...
Read the storyCommercial · 1910-12
14 Wall Street, New York, NY
The 14 Wall Street Building, with its distinctive pyramidal roof, is one of the great towers that define the lower Manhattan skyline. Located in the heart of the financial district, the building was erected in 1910-12...
Read the storyCommercial · 1926-28
2 Park Avenue, New York, NY
The colorful and striking 2 Park Avenue Building, built in 1926-28 on lower Park Avenue, was designed by one of New York’s foremost architects of the first half of the twentieth century, Ely Jacques Kahn. Constructed...
Read the storyCommercial · 1929-31
21 West Street, New York, NY
The thirty-one story, brick Art Deco office building at 21 West Street was constructed in 1929-31 to the designs of the prolific architectural firm of Starrett & Van Vleck.
Read the storyCommercial · 1930-31
275 Madison Avenue, New York, NY
Rising 43 stories in height and completed in 1931, 275 Madison Avenue is an outstanding Art Deco skyscraper dating from the end of New York’s 1920s and early-1930s skyscraper boom. Designed by noted architect Kenneth...
Read the storyArmory · 1921-24
2360 5th Avenue, New York, NY
The 369th Regiment Armory occupies the eastern half of the block bounded by West 142nd Street and West 143rd Street at 2360 Fifth Avenue, just off the Harlem River Drive. Like other New York City armories built in the...
Read the storyCommercial · 1929-31
500 5th Avenue, New York, NY
Built in 1929-31, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon’s 500 Fifth Avenue Building is a soaring 59-story Art Deco skyscraper, located at the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The building was constructed concurrently...
Read the storyCommercial · 1923-27
140 West Street, New York, NY
The Barclay-Vesey Building of the New York Telephone Company (also known as the New York Telephone Building) was the first major work of prominent New York architect Ralph Walker. Constructed in 1923-27 and built at a...
Read the storyResidential · 1929-31
228 East Broadway, New York, NY
The Lower East Side of Manhattan is one of New York’s most storied neighborhoods, synonymous with the American immigrant experience and once home to the largest population of Jewish residents in the world. The...
Read the storyResidential · 1931
25 Central Park West, New York, NY
The Century Apartments, extending along the entire blockfront of Central Park West between West 62nd Street to West 63rd Street, anchors the southern end of one of New York City's finest residential boulevards. Vith...
Read the storyCommercial · 1927-29
122 East 42nd Street, New York, NY
The Chanin Building, built in 1927-29, rises 56 stories at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street. Designed by the architectural firm of Sloan & Robertson with sculptural decoration by Rene Chambellan, it is a...
Read the storyCommercial · 1930-32
70 Pine Street, New York, NY
The former Cities Service Building at 70 Pine Street is a 66-story skyscraper, rising from a trapezoidal site bounded by Pine Street, Cedar Street, and Pearl Street. An icon of the lower Manhattan skyline, the...
Read the storyCommercial · 1929-30
220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY
Built in 1929–30 as the home of the Daily News, this East 42nd Street tower is a major work associated with Raymond Hood. The project credits John M. Howells, Raymond M. Hood, and J. André Fouilhoux as associated...
Read the storyRecreational · 1929-30
19 West Street, New York, NY
This 35-story, Art Deco skyscraper opened in 1930 as the Downtown Athletic Club. A membership association geared toward businessmen and lawyers who worked in lower Manhattan, the Downtown Athletic Club was founded in...
Read the storyCommercial · 1931-34
319 Grand Street, New York, NY
In the second half of 19th century, Edward Ridley & Sons was the largest department store on the Lower East Side. Founded by Edward Ridley in c. 1848, over the next three decades the business grew by converting...
Read the storyResidential · 1929-31
300 Central Park West, New York, NY
The Eldorado, extending along the entire blockfront of Central Park West between 90th and 91st Streets, is the northernmost of the four twin-towered apartment houses that give Central Park West its distinctive skyline...
Read the storyCommercial · 1930-31
350 5th Avenue, New York, NY
The Empire State Building opened on May 1, 1931, after a construction campaign that began in March 1930. Shreve, Lamb & Harmon designed the 102-story tower on the site of the original Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Its rapid...
Read the storyCommercial · 1929-30
3 East 57th Street, New York, NY
The L.P. Hollander & Company Building, constructed in 1929-30, was part of the exclusive retail shopping district developing on East 57th Street that catered to New York’s wealthy and stylish women. Designed by the...
Read the storyCommercial · 1926-27
551 5th Avenue, New York, NY
Located on the northeast corner of 45th Street and Fifth Avenue, the Fred F. French Building was constructed in 1926-27 as corporate headquarters for the prominent real estate firm of the same name. A proto - Art Deco...
Read the storyCommercial · 1928-29
599 Madison Avenue, New York, NY
The Fuller Building, designed by the prolific architectural firm of Walker & Gillette, and built in 1928-29 as the home office for one of the largest and most important construction firms in America, is a particularly...
Read the storyCommercial · 1930-32
606 5th Avenue, New York, NY
The ten-story Goelet Building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 49th Street, built in 1930-32, was designed by Victor L. S. Hafner in the Art Deco style but modified to exhibit the supporting skeletal frame devised by...
Read the storyCommercial · 1927-28
69 8th Avenue, New York, NY
The Hearst Magazine Building was designed in 1926-27 by Joseph Urban (one of the foremost theater designers in America in the early twentieth century as well as a skilled architect) in association with George B. Pest &...
Read the storyCommercial · 1930
2714 Broadway, New York, NY
The 3-story, limestone-clad Horn & Hardart Automat-Cafeteria Building at 2710-2714 Broadway (at West 104th Street), a distinctive small-scale commercial structure executed in the Art Deco style, is one of the best...
Read the storyCommercial · 1932
322 Church Street, New York, NY
The Long Distance Building of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company was designed by noted architect Ralph Walker, a specialist in the design of communications buildings and partner in the office of Voorhees, Gmelin...
Read the storyResidential · 1930-31
115 Central Park West, New York, NY
The Majestic is one of five towered skyscraper apartment buildings which define the impressive skyline of Central Park West. Erected in 1930-31 by the Chanin Construction Company, headed by architect and developer Irwin...
Read the storyTheater · 1932-33
2626 Broadway, New York, NY
The Midtown Theater (now Metro Theater), a rare surviving small Art Deco style neighborhood movie theater, has one of the finest facades of its type in New York City. Among the Art Deco buildings in New York City many...
Read the storyResidential · 1927-28
3 Mitchell Place, New York, NY
Prominently sited at the top of Beekman Hill, the Panhellenic Tower (now the Beekman Tower Hotel) is one of the great Art Deco skyscrapers in Midtown Manhattan. Erected in 1927-29 as a residence and clubhouse for women...
Read the storyCommercial · 1929-30
43 West 61st Street, New York, NY
The Art Deco Sofia Brothers Warehouse was designed by the firm of Jardine, Hill & Murdoch as one of two Kent Automatic Parking Garages. Built in 1929-30, the garage used a patented automatic parking system in which an...
Read the storyCommercial · 1930-31
1619 Broadway, New York, NY
Since its construction in 1930-31, the 11-story Brill Building has been synonymous with American music – from the last days of Tin Pan Alley to the emergence of rock and roll. Occupying the northwest corner of Broadway...
Read the storyCommercial · 1928-30
405 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY
William Van Alen designed the Chrysler Building for automobile manufacturer Walter P. Chrysler. Completed in 1930, it briefly held the world's height record before the Empire State Building overtook it in 1931. The...
Read the storyCommercial · 1929-31
570 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY
The General Electric Building, constructed in 1929-31 to create a highly visible image for the fledgling RCA Corporation, has a significant place in the history of architecture in New York City. Designed by the firm of...
Read the storyResidential · 1928-29
312 Riverside Drive, New York, NY
The Master Building, erected in 1928-29 to house an apartment hotel and museum, is an innovative and significant example of the work of Harvey Wiley Corbett, an architect influential in skyscraper design, and expresses...
Read the storyHotel · 1929-31
301 Park Avenue, New York, NY
Schultze & Weaver designed the Park Avenue Waldorf-Astoria, which opened in 1931. Its paired towers rise above lower blocks facing Park and Lexington avenues. Pale limestone and matching brick give the exterior a...
Read the storyCommercial · 1928-30
60 Hudson Street, New York, NY
The Western Union Building (1928-30), designed by Ralph Walker, one of New York's foremost architects of the period, is a recognized achievement in modernistic skyscraper design. The building is characteristic of a...
Read the storyCommercial · 1927-28
444 East 10th Street, New York, NY
The Wheatsworth Bakery Building was constructed in 1927-28 to the designs of J. Edwin Hopkins, a specialist in the design of industrial bakeries. This Art Deco/Viennese Secessionist style factory building features a...
Read the story