Type Commercial offices Completed 1928 Height 146 m Opened 1928 Architecture firm Warren and Wet | Construction started 1926 Roof 145.7 m (478 ft) Floors 24 Owner Consolidated Edison Architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh | |
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Architectural style Beaux-Arts
Neoclassical Location 4 Irving Place
Manhattan, New York 10003 Similar Metropolitan Life North Building, Academy of Music, Decker Building, New York Life Building, Daily News Building | ||
The Consolidated Edison Building, also previously known as the Consolidated Gas Building, is a Neoclassical skyscraper built in 1928. Designed by the architectural firms of Warren and Wetmore and Henry Hardenbergh, construction began in 1926 for the future headquarters of Consolidated Edison. The building, located at 4 Irving Place, takes up the entire block between East 14th and 15th Streets and Irving Place and Third Avenue.
Previously, the building's location had been the site of the Academy of Music, New York's third opera house, as well as the original Tammany Hall building. It was originally built for the Consolidated Gas Company, although its predecessor companies, such as the Manhattan Gas Light Company, were located at the same address as early as 1854. On February 10, 2009, the building was declared a National Historic Landmark.
Architecture
For the structure, the architects worked out a limestone form with its corners clad in mock quoining. Courses of stone were raised to create a column of protruding blocks. The 24-story tower is topped by a "Tower of Light" designed to look like a miniature temple, capped by a bronze lantern which lights up at night. Below the bronze lantern lies a recessed loggia of columns. The columns section is lit up at night with various color themes. Under the column architecture, the tower includes four separate 16-foot wide clock faces on each side of the building.