Solow Building

The Solow Building, located at 9 West 57th Street, is a Manhattan skyscraper built in 1974 and designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. It is located just west of Fifth Avenue between the 57th and 58th Street, next to the Bergdorf Goodman department store and the Plaza Hotel. At 50 stories and 689ft in height, the building's only nearby competitor by height is the GM Building, located one block north and east. Floors above the 23rd floor offer an unobstructed view of northern Manhattan and a complete view of Central Park and The Plaza Hotel.A notable feature is the concave vertical slope of its north and south facades, facing 57th and 58th Street. This is similar to another Bunshaft designed building, the 630ft W. R. Grace Building, where Bunshaft used the initial, rejected façade design for the Solow Building.The building is named after Sheldon Solow, the real estate developer whose company built the building.OwnerThe building is owned by billionaire Sheldon Solow, who in the 1960s commissioned architect Gordon Bunshaft to build the tower. The building is privately managed and tenancy is held by Sheldon Solow's company.Layout and architectureThe first floor of the building features a gallery of the Sheldon Solow's collection, including works by Franz Kline, Matisse, and Giacometti, among other artists. Though managed under the non-profit Solow Art and Architecture Foundation, the gallery is perpetually closed and not open to the public.