Fuller Building

Fuller Building
  1. About the Fuller Building in New York
    1. Building Catalogations
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectural style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The Fuller Building is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Walker & Gillette, and built between 1928 and 1929 in New York, NY.

Its precise street address is 595 Madison Avenue, New York, NY. You can also find it on the map here.

The Fuller Building is a structure of significant importance both for the city of New York and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the Art Deco style. Because of that, the Fuller Building was officially declared as a national landmark on March 18th 1986.

At the time of its completion in 1929 the Fuller Building incorporated solutions that were quite advanced at the time, these included a fire alarm system that communicated directly with the New York Fire Department.

The building underwent a major restoration in 1994.

Building's timeline

Construction begins
1928
96
Construction completed
1929
95
Declared NL
1986
38
a
Restoration
1994
30
years ago
2024
  1. 1994 - Windows replacement, facade cleaning, interior update.

Architect and team

Walker & Gillette was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

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 Fuller Building a reality:

  • Fuller Company as the Main Developer
  • Elie Nadelman as the collaborating Artist

Architectural Style

The Fuller Building can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The Art Deco movement flourished during the 1920s and 1930s, with many historians marking the outbreak of World War II as its final decline. Even though a couple of decades might not seem as much, the Art Deco movement had a great impact on architecture, and it's widely represented in many American cities due to the development boom that happened during that time.

Art Deco marked the abandonment of traditional historicism and the embracement of modern living and the age of the machine. In architecture, that meant leaving behind the ornaments of Beux-Arts and Neo-Gothic buildings and instead favoring simplicity and visual impact through geometric shapes, clean lines, and symmetrical designs. Ornaments were still an important part of the design, but they became bold and lavish, and were often inspired by ancient cultures or industrial imagery, instead of nature.

The Fuller Building was completed in 1929, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

Spaces & Uses

The Fuller Building reaches an architectural height of 492ft (150m). It has a total of 40 floors, served by 9 elevators. In total, it has a built-up area of 334,004 sqf (31,030m2) offering 215,278 sqf (20,000m2) of usable space.

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1929, the Fuller Building has mainly been used as Commercial space.

492ft (150m)

Materials & Structure

The Fuller Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete 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 is non-load bearing either, as it is common in frame structure type buildings.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features Swedish black granite for the first 6 floors, combined with Rockwood stone to enhance its verticality. The main entrance, with a height of 3 floors, is emphasized by granite columns and a large stone sculpture. The entrance doors are made of glass with brass frames. Starting from the 7th floor, the facade is clad in light-colored limestone with black granite details. The building's crown is adorned with beige and black zigzag mosaics.

Other materials found at the Fuller Building include, mosaics, used in shades of gray, tan, white add black on the lobby floors, and marble , Tennessee gray marble, Belgian Black marble, Formosa marble with golden veins and Botticino marble are used on the walls.

Sources

  • s-media.nyc.gov