The Orion, 350 West 42nd Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 350 West 42nd Street by Carter Horsley

Orion is a handsome, blue-green glass, 58-story residential condominium tower at 350 West 42^nd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.

It was developed by the Intell Management and Investment Company, which subsequently became known as Extell Development.

The architect was Cetra/Ruddy.

The building, which contains about 550 condominium apartments, opened in 2006.

Bottom Line

The attractive and tall Orion is the major new residential tower on West 42^nd Street that is closest to Times Square and public transportation.

Description

This site is across the street from the Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, which should help protect its stupendous views to the north and the bus terminal's ramps will help protect its equally impressive views to the south.

Amenities

This building has a health club, a doorman, a concierge, a garage, a resident's lounge, a screening room, a residents’ cafe with complimentary full breakfast, and a roof deck, but no balconies and no sidewalk landscaping.

There is excellent nearby public transportation and many restaurants and theaters nearby, but there is a lot of traffic and many apartments.

Apartments

Apartment 37H is a one-bedroom unit with a 22-foot-long living room with an pass-through kitchen.

Apartment 32B is a two-bedroom unit with a 12-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 18-foot-long living room with a 15-foot-wide, pass-through kitchen.

Apartment 32D is a three-bedroom unit with a 24-foot-long living room.

Apartment H on floors 32 through the penthouse is a one-bedroom unit with a 22-foot long living room that faces south.

History

One of the most famous 1930s photographs of Manhattan shows a phalanx of tall towers marching across 42nd Street: the Chrysler Building, the Chanin Building, 500 Fifth Avenue, the Bush Terminal Building, the Chandler Building and the McGraw-Hill Building.

The McGraw-Hill Building was not the tallest of this group but it was then the furthest west and its green façade and horizontal fenestration pattern and sharp lines made it an instant midtown landmark.

Eventually, McGraw-Hill moved its headquarters to a new building on the Avenue of the Americas and the West 42nd Street Development Project finally coalesced into the new Times Square cluster of high-rise buildings at Broadway and Seventh Avenue.

More recently, tall residential towers have sprouted nearby but the "Green Giant," as the former McGraw-Hill Building was affectionately known, retained its splendid visual isolation.

This new tower, on which construction began in late 2004, however, eclipses the former McGraw-Hill building and not only hovers over it but its silvery blue glass façades out glisten it.

This tower is considerably taller than the former McGraw-Hill Building and blocks out most of its views to the west as it rises on a narrow plot separated only by a low-rise U. S. Postal Service building from it.

Of course, protected views are extremely rare in the city and usually only occur adjacent to parks or waterfronts. Indeed, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey has long had plans to develop a tower over its bus terminal on the east side of the former McGraw-Hill Building.

While one might lament the crowding of a famous and important skyscraper landmark, one might also be encouraged by the sleek design of this new tower, which strongly reinforced the westward redevelopment of 42nd Street, the city's most famous and important cross-street.

While much tamer than Arquitectonica's colorful design for the Westin Hotel nearby on the northeast corner of Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street, this development significantly upgraded the ambiance of this neighborhood that in the 1960s had become one of the sleaziest in the country.

As "BrooklynRider" noted March 24, 2005 in the WiredNewYork.com Forum discussion board for this building, "The once lone McGraw Hill Building is being boxed in on all sides. It will hardly register on the skyline after this one goes up and NYTT [the new headquarters building of The New York Times on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets] is completed. Once the western sentinel to Times Square - it's day has finally come."