Eero Saarinen's CBS 'Black Rock' Manhattan tower gets a gentle overhaul by Vocon and MdeAS

2023-08-08T11:21:00-04:00

A $36 million restoration of Eero Saarinen’s 1964 corporate headquarters for CBS in Manhattan has been announced by New York-based Harbor Group International, LLC (HGI) ahead of the project’s expected completion early this fall.

The architect’s lone skyscraper design, an ominous 38-story masterpiece of sable granite and polished concrete, is now renamed 51W52 in reflection of its Midtown location and features a pair of newly-renovated lobbies, restored bronze fin wall exterior, elevator bays, and lounge areas “curated” with Saarinen's own furniture designs for the Knoll company that were originally manufactured between 1948 and the late-1950s.

Image courtesy Harbor Group International, LLC

The building, which offers proximity to Grand Central Station, the 53rd Street corridor, MoMA, and Rockefeller Center, received a landmark designation from the city in 1997 and was renovated along similar lines in 1992 in an effort Paul Goldberger then criticized as “an attempt to convert one of th...

The challenges and opportunities of updating Midtown NY’s aging office towers

2015-12-22T18:20:00-05:00

Amid contentious debate on rezonings across the city, the late 2013 hubbub around an upzoning proposal for East Midtown has, for the moment, abated — but hasn’t disappeared. In a bid to spur significant new development for the first time in decades, the de Blasio administration is currently retooling the Bloomberg-era plan to allow developers to construct much larger buildings [...] Whether this rezoning eventually occurs or not, the buildings in Manhattan’s core aren’t getting any younger.

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Eero Saarinen's CBS 'Black Rock' Manhattan tower gets a gentle overhaul by Vocon and MdeAS

The challenges and opportunities of updating Midtown NY’s aging office towers