New York Central Building/Helmsley Building

ARCHITECT: Warren & Wetmore DATE: 1927-29 STYLE: Beaux-Arts, Skyscraper

The New York Central Building is the skyscraping counterpart of Grand Central Terminal. It was designed by the same architects in the same materials and Beaux-Arts style, simultaneously developing some of the depot’s most innovative circulation systems. Swallowing Park Avenue traffic and thereby relieving congestion around the terminal, the building functions as an open gate to the “Gateway to a Continent.” With a distinction all but unique in a grid patterned Manhattan, it has a double focus, as powerful by day as it is dramatic by night.