The Solow Building, also known as 9 West 57th Street, is a skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Completed in 1974 and designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, it is west of Fifth Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets, overlooking the Plaza Hotel and Central Park. The building measures 689 feet (210 m) tall with 50 stories. 9 West 57th Street was developed by Sheldon Solow, who named the building after himself and continued to manage and own the building until his death in 2020. Since then, it has been owned by his son Stefan Soloviev.
The Solow Building's north and south facades curve inward from ground level to the 18th floor, where the tower rises upward to the 50th story. The north and south walls are made of gray-tinted glass, while the west and east facades are clad in travertine. The design was largely criticized upon the building's completion, with many architectural critics regarding the building as a disruptive presence on the skyline. There is a travertine plaza at ground level, with a red sculpture of the digit "9" on the 57th Street side. The first floor contains a private art collection and the basement includes the Brasserie 8 1/2 restaurant. The building contains about 1.5 million square feet (140,000 m2) of rentable space.
Solow acquired the building's site in the 1960s from numerous owners, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which had originally planned its own skyscraper at the site. Construction of the Solow Building commenced in 1969, and Avon Products took up a third of the space, becoming the major tenant. Since opening, the Solow Building's office stories have been occupied for some of the highest rates in the city, being rented largely to law and financial firms. The lower stories were less successful; the basement was unused until 2000, when Brasserie 8 1/2 opened there. During his lifetime, Solow was obstinate about several aspects of the building's operation, and he was involved in several lawsuits against tenants.
The Solow Building is at 9 West 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, just south of Central Park, between Fifth Avenue to the east and Sixth Avenue to the west. It contains frontage on 57th Street to the south and 58th Street to the north. The Solow Building's site covers 62,058 square feet (5,765.4 m2). It measures 268 feet (82 m) along 57th Street, with a depth of 200.83 feet (61.21 m) between 57th and 58th Streets. The Solow Building is near the Park Lane Hotel and the Plaza Hotel to the north, Grand Army Plaza and the General Motors Building to the northeast, the Bergdorf Goodman Building and the Paris Theater to the east, and the Crown Building and 17 West 56th Street to the south.
The surrounding stretch of 57th Street was part of an artistic hub during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The southern part of the site was occupied by the Pace Gallery, which operated there from 1963 to 1968. On the northern part of the site was a 14-story building at 4 West 58th Street, containing the Paris Theater. The Solow Building also replaced a six-story loft building on 26 West 58th Street that had housed the office of modernist architect Paul Rudolph. The rest of the site was largely composed of low-rise commercial and apartment buildings. The Solow Building, as well as the Squibb Building at 40 West 57th Street, were among the first high-rise office developments to be built on West 57th Street following the 1961 Zoning Resolution.
9 West 57th Street was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) and developed by Sheldon Solow. It was built by the Diesel Construction Company. When constructed, the building was also referred to as "9 West" and "Tower 9". The building is 689 ft (210 m) tall, with 50 stories. Weidlinger Associates was the structural engineer and Code Consultants Inc. was the code consultant.
According to Solow, the building was designed to have "magnificent views" and areas for workers to relax because "such surroundings attract and keep good workers to such a degree that corporate tenants are willing to pay premium rents to get them". The building is distinguished by curved facades on its northern and southern elevations, which taper at higher stories. 9 West 57th Street was the first major structure in New York City to be developed with a sloped facade.
The north and south facades curve inward from ground level to the 18th floor, where it rises upward to the 50th story. The building is 64 feet (20 m) narrower at the 18th floor than at ground level. The massing is similar to the W.R. Grace Building, completed around the same time; the initial, rejected design of the Solow Building was used for the Grace Building. The sloped design came from an early concept in which the elevators were placed outside the main structural core, though this idea was not feasible. Bunshaft instead decided to use curved facades on the north and south elevations, avoiding the need for rectangular setbacks. One author compared the curves to the face of a ski slope.
The north and south walls are made of gray-tinted glass. Immediately above the ground level, the north and south elevations end in a large gutter, which collects rainwater. Custom rails were installed on the facade for the window-washing scaffolds. The glass panels consist of windows as well as spandrels in between stories. The panels are attached to the superstructure by black gaskets made of neoprene.
The western and eastern facades are clad in tan bands of travertine limestone. On either side is a narrow window opening spanning several stories. The building's structural steel bracing crosses diagonally in front of these windows. The sections of the steel bracing in front of the windows are coated with black aluminum.
The building has a setback of 36 feet (11 m) from 57th Street and 49 feet (15 m) from 58th Street. A plaza extends in front of the building on both 57th and 58th Streets. The plaza is clad in travertine and extends the width of the block from 57th to 58th Streets.
A red sculpture of the digit "9" on the 57th Street side of the building was designed by Ivan Chermayeff. The sculpture weighs 6 short tons (5.4 long tons; 5.4 t) and measures about 10 feet (3.0 m) high by 5 feet (1.5 m) wide. It faces east toward Fifth Avenue and is supported by a three-story column in the basement. The sculpture was installed because Solow thought the plaza as designed was excessively large, and also because Solow wanted to draw attention away from the bare walls of other nearby buildings. The idea for the sculpture had come after Chermayeff had joked that the facade could be a "launching pad" for the "9". After the sculpture was first installed in 1972, Solow had removed the sculpture for a year due to a dispute over where it should be placed. He ultimately agreed to install the sculpture on the sidewalk, initially paying the city $1,000 annually in rent. By the 1990s, the sculpture was described in The New York Times as "a cultural artifact as well as the building's signature".
The 58th Street side of the plaza contains Moonbird, a sculpture by Joan Miró. The sculpture, originally commissioned in 1966, is 14 feet (4.3 m) tall and made of bronze. Solow installed Moonbird in 1994, saying that "it is one of my very favorite sculptures"; he already had a print of the same work. Before Moonbird was installed, the 58th Street side of the plaza had a 12-foot (3.7 m) "mobile" by Alexander Calder. Solow removed the mobile after realizing the work could fall onto pedestrians in the wind.
9 West 57th Street is structurally supported by columns above the public plaza, creating the appearance of an arcade. Storefronts on either side were originally planned. Two basement shopping levels were originally connected to the plaza by two pair of escalators, one each on 57th and 58th Streets. The retail space, covering 45,000 square feet (4,200 m2), remained empty for thirty years after the building's completion. Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates then designed the Brasserie 8 1/2 restaurant in the space, which opened in 2000. The 230-seat restaurant covers 13,000 square feet (1,200 m2) and is accessed by a stair inside a 275-square-foot (25.5 m2) cylindrical entrance from the lobby. The basement also has a parking garage.