American Express Company Building ARCHITECT: James L. Aspinwall; Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker DATE: 1914-17 STYLE: Neo-Classical

The American Express Co. Building was constructed in 1916-17 in neo-Classical design. It was built as the new headquarters of the American Express Co. The concrete-and-steel-framed building was designed with an H-shaped plan with tall slender wings arranged around central light courts, a type of plan employed from the 1880s through the 1910s to provide offices with maximum light and air. Both facades, clad in white brick and terra cotta above a granite base, are articulated in the tripartite composition of base-shaft-capital then popular for skyscrapers.