1585 Broadway Building vs 550 Madison Avenue

Comparing the 1585 Broadway Building and the 550 Madison Avenue is interesting because they both rise in New York, NY, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Emery Roth & Sons and Johnson/Burgee Architects, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than 6 years apart.

This contrast within the same city allows us to see how different creative minds interpreted the evolving needs of New York across time.

Let's take a closer look!

The 1585 Broadway Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 686ft (209m) with 42 floors above ground, while the 550 Madison Avenue reaches 646ft (197m) with 37 floors above ground.

1585 Broadway Building also offers more total built-up area, a total fo 1,302,432 sqf (121,000m²), which is about 482,438 sqf (44,820m²) more than what the 550 Madison Avenue offers.

The 1585 Broadway Building also concentrates more floor area on its site, indicating a higher floor area ratio.

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.

Both the 1585 Broadway Building and the 550 Madison Avenue were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Postmodernism style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Emery Roth & Sons and Johnson/Burgee Architects followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

Both the 1585 Broadway Building and the 550 Madison Avenue 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 550 Madison Avenue also provides 20 parking spaces.

Both towers share the same structural solution, a Frame system.

A frame structure uses a grid of columns and beams to carry the building's loads. This frees the walls from structural duties, allowing for flexible floor plans and larger windows.

However, when it comes to the facade, both buildings use different approaches. The 1585 Broadway Building uses a Curtain Wall facade, while the 550 Madison Avenue uses a Modular facade.

A Curtain Wall facade like the one seen in the 1585 Broadway Building uses a lightweight glass curtain wall hung from the structure, while a modular facade like the one seen in the 550 Madison Avenue employs prefabricated panels, often mixing solid surfaces with smaller windows.