“The new terminal focus
for the long sweeping vista of Park Avenue will be the Pan Am Building, a
behemoth-sized office structure astride the Grand Central Station complex. An octagonal structure 59 stories tall
encompassing 2,400,000 sq. ft., it will house 25,000 office workers and
executives when it is completed in 1963.
The erection of such an overwhelming structure – the largest single office
building in New York – will radically alter the existing scale of the buildings
along Park Avenue. It will also
add an extraordinary burden to existing pedestrian and transportation
facilities, and in these aspects its anti-social character directly contradicts
the teachings of Walter Gropius, who has collaborated in its design.”
- “Four Walking Tours of Modern Architecture in
New York City,” The Museum of Modern Art and the Municipal Art Society of New
York, Prepared by Ada Louise Huxtable; Distributed by Doubleday & Company,
Inc., Third Printing 1966.
Image via nyc-architecture.com.
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