1201 North Market Street Building vs 383 Madison Avenue Building

Comparing the 1201 North Market Street Building and the 383 Madison Avenue Building is compelling because they were both designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, yet they stand in different cities (Wilmington, DE and New York, NY), and were completed a decade apart.

What this will allow us to see, is how the same firm's approach adapted to different places in different periods of time.

The 383 Madison Avenue Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 755ft (230m) with 47 floors above ground, while the 1201 North Market Street Building reaches 361ft (110m) with 23 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

The 1201 North Market Street Building was designed in the Modern style, while the 383 Madison Avenue Building reflects the principles of Contemporary.

The 1201 North Market Street Building represents a late expression of the Modern, a style already in decline in 1988 when it was completed. By contrast, the 383 Madison Avenue Building followed the then mainstream Contemporary, embodying the dominant architectural direction of its time.

Both the 1201 North Market Street Building and the 383 Madison Avenue Building were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

The 1201 North Market Street Building also provides 475 parking spaces.

The two buildings opted for different structural and facade solutions.

The 1201 North Market Street Building uses a Framed Tube In Tube system, which combines a strong central core with a perimeter tube of columns, while the 383 Madison Avenue Building uses a Frame system, that relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight.

And when it came to the facade, the Curtain Wall went with a Curtain Wall facade, which uses a lightweight glass curtain wall hung from the structure, while the 383 Madison Avenue Building opted for a Modular facade, that employs prefabricated panels, often mixing solid surfaces with smaller windows.