500 Fifth Avenue Building vs 21 West Street Building

Comparing the 500 Fifth Avenue Building and the 21 West Street Building is interesting because they both stand in New York, NY, and were completed in the same year, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The 500 Fifth Avenue Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 696ft (212m) with 60 floors above ground, while the 21 West Street Building reaches 374ft (114m) with 31 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.

Both the 500 Fifth Avenue Building and the 21 West Street Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and Starrett & van Vleck followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The 500 Fifth Avenue Building is primarily commercial, while the 21 West Street Building is primarily residential.

Originally, the 21 West Street Building was designed for commercial, but over time it was converted to residential. The 500 Fifth Avenue Building by contrast has maintained its original role.

The 21 West Street Building offers 293 residential units.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.