W. R. Grace Building

skyscraper
international-style
NY
New York

About the W. R. Grace Building in New York
Architect and team
Architectural style
Spaces and uses
Structure and materials

The W. R. Grace Building is an International Style skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with Gordon Bunshaft as lead architect, and built between 1970 and 1974 in New York, NY.

W. R. Grace 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 W. R. Grace Building is also known, or has been known as, Grace Plaza, or Monsanto Building.

Its precise street address is 1114 6th Avenue, New York, NY. You can also find it on the map here.

The building underwent a major restoration between 2005 and 2007. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Gilsanz Murray Steficek.

Building's timeline

Construction begins

1970

Construction completed

1974

Restoration

2007

years ago

2025

2005 to 2007 - Improvement work was carried out on the facades and the roof.. The architect in charge was Gilsanz Murray Steficek.

Architect and team

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with Gordon Bunshaft as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

Commonly known as SOM, the firm was founded in Chicago in 1936 and has grown to be one of the largest architecture firms in the world.

Even long after its founders passed away, SOM has remained at the top of worldwide architectural excellence by attracting visionary architects. Amongst their most notorious partners we find names such as Gordon Bunshaft, Bruce Graham, Walter Netsch, Adrian Smith, Myron Goldsmith or David Childs.

SOM has also managed to grow and evolve to tackle the architectural challenges of each time, whatever those might be, and today is committed to aspects as important as efficiency and sustainability, as core values of their designs.

With a legacy spanning decades, SOM continues to shape the skylines of cities around the world, and is a usual contestant in any competition or selection process to design large-scale or iconic buildings and structures.

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 at the very least we know that there was one other part involved, that was Brookfield Properties as the Main Developer.

Architectural Style

The W. R. Grace Building can be categorized as an International Style building.

The international style originated in Europe in the early 20th century, and made its way to the US a couple of decades later when the rise of the Nazi regime forced figures such as Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, or Mies van der Rohe to flee Europe.

The International Style emerged as a response to the prevailing historicism and ornate architecture styles of the late 19th century, which according to a younger generation of architects didn't represent the new materials and construction techniques that were on the rise at the time.

Architecture in the early 20th century US was marked by the adoption of steel structures, modern construction techniques, and the rise of the skyscraper. As it turns out, this combination of circumstances created the perfect ecosystem for the International Style to flourish, becoming the to-go style for skyscraper designs during the mid-20th century, when American cities were growing fast.

The International Style’s legacy can not only be found in numerous iconic buildings across all major American cities, but also incorporated in contemporary architecture, which still puts a big emphasis on functionality and minimalism.

Spaces & Uses

The W. R. Grace Building reaches an architectural height of 630ft (192m). It has a total of 52 floors, 50 above ground and 2 basements, served by 32 elevators.

In regards to parking space, the building has a total of 185 spots available, which roughly equals 4 spots per floor (above ground).

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1974, the W. R. Grace Building has mainly been used as Commercial space.

The building opens to a 2,787 m² public plaza on its north-west corner, which is how it gets the 6th Avenue address, despite the building visually appearing to have facades only to 42nd and 43rd streets.

Materials & Structure

The W. R. Grace 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 dark-tinted windows divided by a white travertine marble clad grid, that organizes the North and South facades in 7 bays. The East and West facades are fully clad in travertine marble.

The North and South facades feature a concave vertical slope, which gives the building its unique silhouette, only comparable to the Solow Building, also designed by Gordon Bunshaft. This curve evokes a mathematical asymptote, and a possible philosophical interpretation is that the structure seeks to reach the infinite and dissolve into it.