Bush Tower
The Bush Tower (also the Bush Terminal Building, the Bush Terminal International Exhibit Building and formerly the Bush Terminal Sales Building) is a skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, just east of Times Square. Designed by Frank J. Helmle and Harvey Wiley Corbett of the firm Helmle & Corbett, the building occupies a plot at 130–132 West 42nd Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue.
Bush Tower
Bush Terminal Building, Bush Terminal International Exhibit Building, Bush Terminal Sales Building
Office
130-132 West 42nd Street
Manhattan, New York, US
August 1916
December 1918
June 1918
1921 (addition), 1938, 1983–1985, 2012–2016
$30 million (2023)
433 ft (132 m)
Steel superstructure
Brick, terracotta
30
7
14,947 square feet (1,388.6 m2)
Frank J. Helmle and Harvey Wiley Corbett
October 18, 1988[1]
1561
The Bush Tower was built for Irving T. Bush's Bush Terminal Company, which operated Bush Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York City. The 30-story section of the tower facing 42nd Street was developed between 1916 and 1918 and is 433 feet (132 m) tall. A 10-story wing, completed in 1921, extends south to 41st Street. The Bush Tower's design combined narrowness, height, and Neo-Gothic architecture, and the massing contains several setbacks to comply with the 1916 Zoning Resolution. The facade contains trompe-l'œil brickwork, which creates vertical "ribs" with a false "shade" pattern to enhance the building's verticality. It originally contained a buyer's club on its three lowest stories and exhibits on its upper stories.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company foreclosed upon the tower in 1938 and the upper floors were subsequently converted for regular office usage. By the early 1980s, the Bush Tower had deteriorated significantly and the owners considered demolishing the building. It was instead renovated and was designated as a city landmark in 1988 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. As of 2015, China Vanke has a controlling ownership stake in the Bush Tower, while Tribeca Associates and Meadow Partners hold a lease on the land.
Site[edit]
The Bush Tower is at 130–132 West 42nd Street, on the southern side of the street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.[3][4][1] The building extends 197.5 feet (60.2 m) southward to 41st Street,[3] where it carries the alternate address of 135–137 West 41st Street.[4][1] The building's land lot has a frontage of about 50 feet (15 m) along 42nd Street and 100 feet (30 m) on 41st Street, extending further west than the 42nd Street frontage. and covers 14,947 square feet (1,388.6 m2). The site is near the Knickerbocker Hotel to the west, 1095 Avenue of the Americas to the east, 4 Times Square to the northwest, and Bank of America Tower to the northeast.[3]
Bush Terminal Company (1917). . New York: Redfield-Kendrick-Odell Co.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Bush Terminal International Exhibit Building & Buyers' Club
. Architecture and Building. Vol. 50. December 1918. pp. 59, 17.
"Bush Terminal Sales Building"
Gillespie, H. S. (January 1919). . Architecture. Vol. 39, no. 1. pp. 1–4.