1585 Broadway Building

The 1585 Broadway Building is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by Emery Roth & Sons, in association with Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, and built between 1989 and 1990 in New York, NY.

1585 Broadway Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The 1585 Broadway Building is also known, or has been known as, Morgan Stanley Building, or Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Corporate Headquarters.

Its precise street address is 1585 Broadway, New York, NY. You can also find it on the map here.

In 1998 the 1585 Broadway Building was awarded with the BOMA Award .

The building underwent a major restoration in 2000. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Highland Associates.

Emery Roth & Sons was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the 1585 Broadway Building a reality:

• WSP Cantor Seinuk in charge of Structural Engineering
• Starrett Brothers and Eken as the Main Contractor
• Solomon Equities as the Main Developer
• Jaros Baum & Bolles in charge of MEP Engineering
• Gwathmey Siegel, Gensler in charge of Interior Design

The 1585 Broadway Building can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.

The 1585 Broadway Building was completed in 1990. By 1990 the Postmodernism movement was experiencing a transition. Critics argued that Postmodernism, initially a rebellious and innovative style, had become formulaic and commercialized, and so the trend started moving away from blending historical styles, irony, and playful ornamentation, and begun to give way to emerging architectural trends concerned with more present matters such as technology, ecology or sustainability.

The 1585 Broadway Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete, steel slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a continuous blue-tinted reflective glass surface, with grey spandrels towards the corners of the buildings and even some smaller shiny aluminum panels highlighting the corners even further.

Ten dark glass fins protrude on one side of the building’s base, each displaying a character from the abbreviated name '1585 B'way.' Above them, taking advantage of the setback on the fourth floor, we find three signs display financial quotations and news.