I came across this building while out and was immediately struck with sadness and awe. Sadness that the era of this grand building is ending, and awe because it still stands as a testament to glory of books. I couldn’t stop staring at its green exterior, now showing its age with rust dotting its hull like age spots. It stood assumed empty in hell’s kitchen watching the younger buildings thrive and grow tall. But it remembers the glory that embodied it once. The height of books and the power of the written word that is so subtlety yet quickly being taken over by its electronic brothers.
The McGraw Hill Building is located on 330 West 42nd Street. Wikipedia – admittedly not the most reliable source – says it was completed the same year as the Empire State building. It’s the only New York building shown in the influential International Style exhibition in 1932, and has been cited as a Art Deco design landmark. It also became a National Historic Landmark.
It’s now been replaced by a spiffy new building in a more business-like area, but I find this building to be one in a million. When we will ever again see a publishing company so big, they can place their name on the top of the building?
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