IBM Building

 office building, skyscraper, 1983_construction, Modern (architecture)

603-foot, 41-story Postmodern office building completed in 1983. Designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes, it was built as the eastern regional headquarters for IBM. The wedge-shaped tower is clad in dark-grey polished granite and grey-green glass. The entrance to the lobby on Madison Avenue is "sliced off" diagonally at the lower three floors, resulting in the northeast corner of the building looming over the plaza. The granite paving on the outside extends into the lobby itself. In front of the doors and just below the overhang is a red Alexander Calder sculpture. To the south, along the avenue, the lower two floors are divided into three large, recessed bays of plate-glass (the south one being narrower) by 45-degree angled granite piers. The narrower south bay continues onto the east end of the south facade. Michael Heizer's sculpture Levitated Mass (1982), an engraved flat stone laying inside an angled pool of stainless steel, sits at the southeast corner. On the south side along 56th Street is a is a wonderful glass atrium with a large bamboo garden and sawtoothed glass roof line. A narrow, recessed connecting section with a pedestrian aracade joins the atrium and main tower to a 3-story mechanical area at the west end, clad in the same polished granite; it has three loading docks at the ground floor. The north facade on 57th Street has two more large, recessed bays between angled piers, and a narrower bay at the west end, next to the pedestrian arcade.

The plan of the main tower was designed as a unique wedge shape, having the southwest corner cut from the rectangular box. The volume can be seen differently from different angles, sometimes slender, sometimes gigantic. The moderately reflective surface of the granite-and-glass facade keeps changing its texture depending on the angle and the light. In contrast, the use of transparent glass for the public space emphasizes its openness and lets plenty of sunlight in.

The shaft of the tower is ringed by bands of glass at each floor. IBM sold off the building in 1994, but remained as a principal tenant, and the IBM name has continued to be used on the building. The three lower floors on the north facade is occupied by Tourneau watches.

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