Park Avenue Plaza

55 East 52nd Street | also 52 East 53rd Street, 55 Park Ave Plaza, 56 East 53rd Street | Midtown | built 1980

Open on the map9 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1978

    The Racquet and Tennis Club proposes a 38-story hotel over its clubhouse, threatening the new tower's views

    In March 1978 the Racquet and Tennis Club told city officials it wanted to build a 38-story luxury hotel above its Park Avenue clubhouse. Estimated at about $24 million with roughly 340 rooms, the hotel would have blocked most Park Avenue views from the skyscraper Fisher Brothers planned right behind the club. The club said it was losing money on operations and needed to put its air rights to use.

    Source: Internet Archive

  2. 1978

    Fisher Brothers reportedly agree to pay the Racquet and Tennis Club $5 million not to build its hotel

    Fisher Brothers had cut off talks to buy the club's air rights after winning a special permit tied to a public galleria. When the club unveiled its hotel plan at the last minute, talks reopened, and in November 1978 the Times reported an agreement said to call for a $5 million payment to the club not to build. Fisher then wanted to give back its special permit, trading the galleria for two additional office floors.

    Source: Internet Archive

  3. 1979

    June

    First Boston, McKinsey and Main Hurdman lease space before the tower is built

    By the March 1979 groundbreaking, First Boston has taken sixteen floors of Park Avenue Plaza and McKinsey & Company five. In June 1979 the accounting firm Main Hurdman & Cranstoun leases seven more. The tower is only about 10 percent built, yet nearly 90 percent of its space is already rented.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1980

    Demonstrators storm the construction site, saying too few minority workers were hired

    In 1980 a group of demonstrators stormed the tower's construction site, alleging that the developer, Fisher Brothers, had too few minority workers on the job. One worker was injured during the protests. The skyscraper was then rising in the middle of the block between East 52nd and East 53rd Streets.

    “A group of demonstrators stormed the construction site in 1980, claiming that Fisher Brothers had not hired enough minority workers; one worker was injured…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1981

    Raul de Armas designs Park Avenue Plaza's tower and public atrium

    Raul de Armas of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designs the tower for Fisher Brothers, which holds a groundbreaking in March 1979 and sees the building completed in 1981. To earn a zoning bonus, the developer builds an enclosed atrium at the base, roughly 30 feet tall, running between 52nd and 53rd Streets. Fisher Brothers intends it to resemble London's Burlington Arcade, and it holds a waterfall and a large painting by Frank Stella.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1982

    February 20

    Paul Goldberger finds the new tower tame outside but is more interested in its indoor plaza

    In a Times appraisal of February 20, 1982, Paul Goldberger called Park Avenue Plaza earnest but tame and said its blue-green glass clashed with the tan stone of the Racquet and Tennis Club. He found the interior public space, with a waterfall, plantings, a cafe and seating, too small to be a true enclosed square but grander than a typical lobby. He noted that the 44-story tower was the first of the East 50s' new giants to be finished.

    Source: Internet Archive

  7. 1987

    First Boston sells its stake in Park Avenue Plaza to Fisher Brothers

    In December 1987 the Times reported that the First Boston Corporation had sold its minority stake in Park Avenue Plaza at 55 East 52nd Street, its main Manhattan building, along with a mortgage it held on the property. The buyer was Fisher Brothers, and the prices were not disclosed. The deal was to give First Boston a pretax gain of $80 million as securities firms faced a business slump.

    Source: Internet Archive

  8. 2002

    Aon, displaced from the World Trade Center, chooses Park Avenue Plaza as its new home

    In May 2002 the Times reported that the insurance company Aon, which had offices in the World Trade Center, had decided to make Park Avenue Plaza its new home. It was completing a deal to rent 270,000 square feet in the 44-story glass tower for roughly $58 per square foot, executives briefed on the talks said, even as downtown landlords courted tenants. Aon was the last major World Trade Center tenant to secure a new home.

    Source: Internet Archive

  9. 2011

    SOHO China buys Rockpoint's 49 percent stake, lifting the tower's valuation to $1.19 billion

    The Boston-based Rockpoint Group bought a 49 percent stake in Park Avenue Plaza in July 2010 for $330 million. The next year it sold the stake to the Chinese investment firm SOHO China, controlled by Zhang Xin, for $569.1 million. The two sales pushed the building's valuation up from $695 million to $1.19 billion within one year.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown