General Motors Building (Manhattan)

For the building at 57th Street and Broadway that is also called the "General Motors Building", see 224 West 57th Street.

General Motors Building
The building as seen from 59th Street
Map
General information
StatusCompleted
TypeOffices, retail
Architectural styleInternational Style
Location767 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10153
Coordinates40°45′50″N 73°58′21″W / 40.76389°N 73.97250°W / 40.76389; -73.97250
Construction started1965
Completed1968
OwnerBoston Properties
Height
Roof705 ft (215 m)
Top floor644 feet (196 m)
Technical details
Floor count50
Floor area1,637,363 sq ft (152,116.0 m2)[1]
Lifts/elevators35
Design and construction
Architect(s)Edward Durell Stone & Associates
Emery Roth & Sons
DeveloperCecilia Benattar
EngineerJames Ruderman
Website
bxp.com/767-fifthavenue
References
[2]

The General Motors Building (also the GM Building) is a 50-story, 705 ft (215 m) office tower at 767 Fifth Avenue at Grand Army Plaza on the southeast corner of Central Park, in Manhattan, New York City. The building occupies an entire city block between Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, 59th Street, and 58th Street on the site of the former Savoy-Plaza Hotel. It was designed in the International Style by Edward Durell Stone & Associates with Emery Roth & Sons and completed in 1968.

The GM Building was developed by London Merchant Securities and was half occupied by General Motors (GM) upon its opening. The building's facade is made of vertical piers of white Georgia marble, alternating with strips of glass. The building has about 1.7 million square feet (160,000 m2) of space, and the lobby originally contained a GM showroom, later an FAO Schwarz department store. The public plaza outside the building on Fifth Avenue was originally below grade but, after two renovations, contains the Apple Fifth Avenue entrance and a seating area above ground level. Architecture critics, including Paul Goldberger and Ada Louise Huxtable, widely disapproved of the building upon its completion.

All of the space in the building had been leased by January 1967, over a year prior to opening. General Motors relocated most of its employees and announced their intention to sell the building in 1981. Ultimately, Corporate Property Investors (CPI) bought an option on the building in 1982 and conducted a renovation in 1990. Conseco and Donald Trump purchased the General Motors Building from CPI in 1998. Five years later, it was sold to Macklowe Organization for $1.4 billion, then the highest price for a North American office building. Macklowe sold the building in 2008 to the joint venture of Boston Properties, Zhang Xin, and the Safra banking family for $2.8 billion. The joint venture continues to own the building as of 2022.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt19840129 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "General Motors Building". Skyscraper Center. CTBUH. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved June 29, 2017.