Arch2O.com

Arch2O.com - Architecture & Design Magazine
Designed by architecture rm Davis Brody (now Davis Brody Bond) and completed in 1969, 450 West 33rd Street (now Five Manhattan West) was an exemplar of late Brutalist architecture. The edifice?s structure is effectively a steel bridge spanning the Penn Station rail lines leading to Hudson Yards, supporting a cast-in-place concrete column-and-slab frame. The building?s enclosure was originally composed of precast concrete in- ll panels with integrated windows.
Courtesy of REX
During the 1980s, the building?s hard beauty was neutered when its external structural elements were painted beige and its ll-in wall panels clad in brown- colored metal siding. Over the years since, 450W33rd has become a bizarre artifact marooned in the no-man?s land of West Chelsea, disparagingly nicknamed ?the elephant?s foot? or ?The Tyrell Building? after the headquarters in the dystopian lm Blade Runner. With Brook eld O ce Properties? development of Manhattan West (500,000 m2 / 5,380,000 sf) immediately to its east, and The Related Companies? development of Hudson Yards (1,180,000 m2 / 12,700,000 sf) immediately to its west, 450W33rd has suddenly taken on serious import within Manhattan?s evolution. Courtesy of REX
The building?s massive floor plates (ranging from 8,000 m2 to 11,500 m2 / 86,000 sf to124,000 sf) and unusually high ceilings (typically 5 m / 16.5 ft) provide a huge amount of uniquely dimensioned, free plan ?support space? f...