3 Park Avenue Building vs 250 Vesey Street Building

Comparing the 3 Park Avenue Building and the 250 Vesey Street Building is interesting because they both rise in New York, NY, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and César Pelli & Associates, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than a decade 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 3 Park Avenue Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 554ft (169m) with 42 floors above ground, while the 250 Vesey Street Building reaches 499ft (152m) with 34 floors above ground.

Despite being taller and having more floors, 3 Park Avenue Building has less total built-up area than 250 Vesey Street Building.

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 3 Park Avenue Building and the 250 Vesey Street Building 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 Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and César Pelli & Associates 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 3 Park Avenue Building and the 250 Vesey Street 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.

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 3 Park Avenue Building uses a Window Wall facade, while the 250 Vesey Street Building uses a Curtain Wall facade.

A Window Wall facade like the one seen in the 3 Park Avenue Building uses panels fitted between floor slabs, leaving slab edges visible, while a curtain-wall facade like the one seen in the 250 Vesey Street Building uses a lightweight glass curtain wall hung from the structure.