Solow Building


The Solow Building is a skyscraper located at 9 West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, built in 1974 and designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. It is located just west of Fifth Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets, next to the Bergdorf Goodman Building and the Plaza Hotel. The building was developed by Sheldon Solow, who named the building after himself and continues to manage and own the building.
At 50 stories and in height, it is the 71st tallest building in New York. For decades, the building's only nearby competitor in height was the GM Building, located one block north and east. However, since the completion of 432 Park Avenue in 2015, other skyscrapers along nearby Billionaires' Row have risen considerably higher.
Floors above the 23rd floor offer an unobstructed view of Upper Manhattan and a complete view of Central Park and The Plaza Hotel. The building is home to many hedge funds and private equity firms with rents of over $100 per square foot ranking among the most expensive in the city. A July 2016 appraisal valued the building at over $3.4 billion, making the property one of the most valuable office buildings in Manhattan.

Tenants

Rental fees at the Solow Building are amongst the most expensive in Manhattan. The Solow Building Company occupies a permanent lease of the top floor. Notable tenants include Chanel and private equity firms Sycamore Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Apollo Management, Silver Lake Partners, Providence Equity Partners, and Highland Capital Management.
Several law firms and hedge funds occupy a majority of the remaining space, including Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb, Och-Ziff Capital Management, Tiger Global Management, Highbridge Capital Management, and Coatue Management. The corporate offices of Avis Budget Group are also located in the building. Bombardier Inc. signed a lease agreement for 14,000 square feet on the 49th floor.

Architecture and design

The concave vertical slope of its facade is similar to another of Bunshaft's creations, the W.R. Grace Building, which was also built in 1974. The initial, rejected design of the Solow building was used in the design for the Grace Building.
The sloping facade also evokes the Chase Tower in Chicago.

Amenities

The building features an underground parking garage, retail space, an underground space occupied by the Brasserie 8½ restaurant, a 2-floor trading area on floors 2-3, a newsstand in the lobby, and 24 high-speed elevators subdivided into sets of floors.
The first floor of the building houses a private gallery of billionaire Sheldon Solow's art collection, including works by Franz Kline, Henri Matisse, and Alberto Giacometti, among others. Though managed under the non-profit Solow Art and Architecture Foundation, the gallery is perpetually closed and not open to the public.

Legal issues

In 1971, Avon Products rented 21 floors, soon increased to 25 floors. The building was shortly being referred to as "the Avon building". Williams Real Estate, the broker that brought Avon to the deal, sought the commission that they thought had been promised. Cushman & Wakefield, which held a contract with Solow as the building's exclusive rental agent, claimed that they were also owed a commission. Solow refused to pay either, so both sued. After a long jury trial in State Supreme Court, Solow was ordered to pay commissions of $150,000 to Cushman & Wakefield and $1.7 million to Williams, the largest such award in New York real estate history. An interesting moment in the trial came when architect Gordon Bunshaft explained the key role played by neoprene gaskets around large glass plates in creating the building's sleek look.

Sculpture

The large red sculpture of the digit 9 in front of the building was included in the project as a response to the complaints that the building's sloping reflecting walls revealed unappealing sides of older neighbors that had been previously obscured. The brightly colored sculpture was designed by graphic artist Ivan Chermayeff.