25. October 2024
All photographs by John Hill/World-Architects
World-Architects got an exclusive peek at 520 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan ahead of its official topping out on Thursday, October 24. At 1,002 feet (305 m) tall, the mixed-use supertall designed by KPF for the development firm Rabina will be the tallest mixed-use tower on Fifth Avenue once it is complete next year.
Below is a photographic tour from our visit, with captions providing additional information on 520 Fifth Avenue and describing what we saw from the tower's rooftop. (A short video of the hoistway ride up the side of the building.) First up are photos of the building designed by KPF under design principal James von Klemperer, who showed us around the building.
The 88-story building sits at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, in a stretch of the storied avenue known for shopping rather than living and working. From bottom to top, the tower will have a private members club, 25 floors of office space, and 100 luxury residences.
The tower sets back periodically in response to New York City's famous zoning code, while the arched windows that wrap the building serve to tap into pre-modern architecture and provide a sense of scale both on the skyline and for the building's occupants.
The tower's setbacks are most pronounced when seen from Fifth Avenue. Although the tower has an address on the avenue, the lobbies for the three uses will be on 43rd Street, suitably accessed via three archways.
Terra cotta is used for the arched facade on the lower floors and enameled aluminum on the upper floors, though the finishing of the latter makes it hard to distinguish between the two materials.
The aluminum facade, seen here from one of the terraces that are provided at setback levels, has five coats, including a splatter coat that gives it a masonry appearance and a clear finish coat for reflecting natural light.
The impact of the arched windows is most pronounced inside, as in this office space on one of the lower floors. Note the operable window left of center: a novelty for modern office buildings in NYC, which tend to be sealed, it hints at the building being designed in the thick of Covid-19, when natural ventilation in office spaces was desirable.
Photos from the tower's rooftop at 1,002 feet (305 m) above the street follow. Although the roof will not be accessible once the tower is complete, the 88th floor amenity suite for residents will be directly below it, meaning these views are not much different than what those lucky few will experience. Coming to the fore during our hard-hat tour was the location of the tower between four of Midtown's popular — and increasingly gimmicky — observation decks, each one clearly visible in a cardinal direction.
The view to the north is punctuated by the supertall residential towers along 57th Street (aka Billionaraires' Row) and extends to and beyond Central Park. In the foreground is the Comcast Building, familiarly known as 30 Rock, the tallest building at Rockefeller Center and home to the Top of the Rock observation deck.
Top of the Rock is on the 70th floor of 30 Rock, at 850 feet (259 m) from the street, low compared to other observatories. To compete with them, it just opened Skylift, a small rotating platform 30 feet (9.1 m) above the deck, and The Beam, which allows visitors to recreate the famous “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” photograph.
The view south, toward Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Statue of Liberty in the Bay, is punctuated by the iconic Empire State Building, which sits at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, less than a half mile away.
The Empire State Building has two observatories: the 86th floor (1,050 feet / 320 m) and the 102nd floor (1,250 feet / 381 meters). The experience is free of gimmicks, the way it should be, but unfortunately a visit means one cannot actually see the Empire State Building, arguably the best skyscraper in Manhattan.
To the east is Queens, the East River, and the Chrysler Building, the latter now dwarfed by One Vanderbilt, the 59-story office building also designed by KPF.
One Vanderbilt's attraction, called SUMMIT, occupies three floors near the top of the skyscraper, at about 1,100 feet (336 m) above 42nd Street. Ironically, the experience is more immersive than expansive, with mirrored surfaces creating kaleidoscopic effects that distract from the views.
The view west, toward the Hudson River and New Jersey, is busy, with Times Square's towers in the foreground and the cluster of towers at the Manhattan West and Hudson Yards developments visible beyond.
