Famous Ankles

I was wandering on 53rd Street and spotted the words “CBS” above a doorway.  I looked more closely and found that I was at the famed “Blackrock” building.

The plaque reads:  CBS Building – The CBS Building (1961-1964 is one of the country’s great examples of modern architecture.  It was the last completed work designed by master architect Eero Saarinen, whose goal was to build “the simplest skyscraper in New York.”  Unlike the steel-cage office building typical at the time, the CBS Building was the first postwar reinforced concrete skyscraper.  Sheathed in Canadian black granite with gray-tinted vision glass, the 38-story tower, nicknamed Blackrock, rises 490 feet without setbacks.  Constructed as the headquarters of one of America’s legendary radio and television networks, the CBS Building was commissioned by William S. Palyey, founder and chairman of CBS.

The building is really located on Sixth Avenue.

The side doors:

The more interesting part of the building is its isolation from other buildings.  Most skyscrapers like this are abutted to other buildings.  But Blackrock has a open area with tables and the like in the back, and it is one block wide.

-H

This entry was posted on April 9, 2008 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.