60 Hudson Street Building vs 2 Park Avenue Building

Comparing the 60 Hudson Street Building and the 2 Park Avenue Building is interesting because they both stand in New York, NY, and were completed within 2 years of each other, 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.

These two towers present an interesting contrast in their proportions. The 60 Hudson Street Building rises higher at 371ft (113m), while the 2 Park Avenue Building reaches 361ft (110m). However, the 2 Park Avenue Building accommodates more floors with 28 levels above ground, compared to 24 floors in the 60 Hudson Street Building.

This suggests different approaches to interior space design. The 60 Hudson Street Building has an average floor-to-floor height of approximately 4.7m, while the 2 Park Avenue Building has more compact floors averaging around 3.9m each. The taller building's more generous floor heights might indicate grander interior spaces, higher ceilings, or different programmatic requirements.

These different proportions likely reflect the specific needs each building was designed to serve, whether driven by zoning regulations, client requirements, or the intended use of the spaces within. The contrast shows how architects can achieve different spatial experiences even when working with similar overall building scales.

Both the 60 Hudson Street Building and the 2 Park Avenue 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 Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker and Buchanan & Kahn 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 60 Hudson Street Building and the 2 Park 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.

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