{"nrhp_refnum":"80002663","name":"American Radiator Building","other_names":["American Standard Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"40--52 W. 40th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.75289478700006,"lon":-73.98392193099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-05-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A twenty-three story black and gold skyscraper at 40-52 West 40th Street in Manhattan, built 1923-24 to designs by Raymond M. Hood, with a five-story showroom and office extension added in 1936-37.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is one of Manhattan's finest skyscrapers and started a new trend in New York skyscraper design. Its bold cubic massing, often associated with Art Deco, broke from the Beaux-Arts classical details that had burdened earlier towers. Its black brick and gold color scheme was a daring experiment, and its setbacks were described by Hood as an honest development of the 1916 zoning law.","narrative":"Rising twenty-three stories on West 40th Street in Manhattan, this black brick skyscraper with gold-colored stone accents was built in 1923-24 for the American Radiator Company. Architect Raymond M. Hood shaped the tower with a series of setbacks that met the city's 1916 zoning law, ending in gold cubistic masses and an arched, pinnacled crown. The lower stories combine polished black granite, bronze-framed showroom windows and figural corbels by sculptor Rene Chambellan. Hood chose black brick so the many windows would not read as black holes against the walls. Contemporary critics called the color scheme the most daring experiment in color in modern American buildings, and floodlighting made it a glowing corporate advertisement. The design abandoned the classical details common in earlier New York skyscrapers and helped start a new direction in tall building design. A five-story showroom and office addition by J. Andre Fouilhoux followed in 1936-37. The exterior remains largely intact, while the interior has been modernized.","period_of_significance":"1923-24, 1936-37","architect_builder":"Raymond M. Hood; J. Andre Fouilhoux","architectural_style":"Cubistic massing often associated with Art Deco, with modified Gothic details","criteria":[],"status_note":"Exterior virtually unchanged; original lobby and showrooms completely modernized; condition listed as excellent and the building as occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:43.481987-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/80002663.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002663/3a515e3877-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002663/3a515e3877-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Jean-Christophe BENOIST","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NYC_-_American_Radiator_Building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jean-Christophe BENOIST</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NYC_-_American_Radiator_Building.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319251","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Radiator_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q466979"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/american-radiator-building-80002663/"}