Aerial photograph from the Howard Sochurek photographic archive, camh-dob-040405, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin. c. 1965.
PARK AVENUE: Past, Present, Future
In the century-plus since Grand Central Terminal opened in 1913, after more than a decade of massive construction, the blocks from 42nd to 53rd Street were transformed from a noxious, impassable railyard into one of Manhattan’s most desirable and prestigious addresses: Park Avenue.
In conjunction with the Museum's current exhibition Th
speculative office towers answered growing demand for modern, air-conditioned space. Soon, the iconic Lever House, Seagram, and Union Carbide buildings recast Park Avenue as an elite corporate corridor. In the 21st century, incentivized by the City’s rezoning of East Midtown, shiny new skyscrapers of even greater height and density have continued to redefine its trophy architecture.
A range of historians, authors, architects, planners, and policy-makers will examine and discuss the evolving history and identity of the avenue that was created out of thin air and has become the engine and anchor of modern Midtown.
SCHEDULE (in construction)
The programs will take place in-person at The Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Place, Battery Park City, unless otherwise noted.
This is a virtual program — online only.
Carol Willis, museum director and curator of the exhibition The Invention of Park Avenue, will launch the series with an online lecture TRA(I)NSFORMATION. The talk will illustrate how the New York Central Railroad transformed its right of way into Manhattan via Fourth Avenue into a spectacularly successful infrastructure project that linked rail and real estate, not only as a revenue stream, but as what became an engine of urban development.
Previewing the arc of the series, Willis will illustrate how, in its first phase, Park Avenue was a zone of posh hotels, clubs, and apartments. The "highest and best use" began to shift toward tall office buildings in the mid-1920s. In the postwar years, a boom in speculative office towers answered growing demand for modern, air-conditioned space. Soon, the iconic Lever House, Seagram, and Union Carbide buildings recast Park Avenue as an elite corporate corridor. In the 21st century, incentivized by the City’s rezoning of East Midtown, new skyscrapers of even greater height and density have continued to redefine its trophy architecture and secure the future of the Midtown's prestige address.
The Architects of Terminal City
Tuesday, June 2, 2026 at 6pm
Architectural historians and authors Andrew S. Dolkart and Anne Walker will join forces in this program on the architectural firms Warren & Wetmore and Schultze & Weaver. To an astonishing degree, the designers of these two firms, closely related in practice and projects, dominated the commissions in the Grand Central district's – often called Terminal City – first phase of development from c.1906 to 1931. They designed the better part of all the buildings erected above the railyard from 42nd to 50th Street, largely hotels and swank apartments. Stately on the exterior and opulent within, the collective effect of their architecture was to create a high-rise lifestyle for High Society.
After a short history of the introduction of the International Style office buildings on Park Avenue after WWII by Carol Willis, Managing Partner of MdeAS Architects, Dan Shannon, will explain the major issues postwar glass boxes have faced and how their owners seek to update their aging curtain walls, lobbies, and mechanical systems to compete in the current market. Over the past 35 years, MdeAS has rejuvenated a large portfolio of postwar buildings on the Park Avenue corridor, including 90 Park Avenue for Vornado Realty Trust; 100 Park Avenue for SL Green; 200 Park Avenue for Tishman Speyer and Irvine Company; 237 Park Avenue for RXR; and 430 Park Avenue for Midwood Investment & Development. Shannon will discuss the economic influence on the tower as a typology, as well as how some emerging modernists held to traditional elements while others became fully modern.
Assessing East Midtown Rezoning
Tuesday, July 7, 2026 at 6pm
The goal of the rezoning of East Midtown – the 78-block district that stretched from East 39th to East 57th Street, from Third to Madison Avenues – was, in the words of the New York Times when it was passed in 2017, “to revitalize what was once the core of corporate activity in New York City.” Now, nine years later, we’ll revisit that history and assess the impact of East Midtown Rezoning.
First proposed by the Bloomberg administration in 2012 and ultimately adopted by the City Planning Commission and the City Council in August 2017, East Midtown Rezoning was a public policy measure designed to tip the shifting scales back from the government-subsidized competition of the new, Class A towers of Hudson Yards and Ground Zero and toward the transit-rich, but aging office district anchored by Grand Central and Park Avenue – the original Terminal City.
The program will bring together a panel of experts who helped to frame the draft and details of the East Midtown Special District, as well as those who have designed buildings within its borders. They will explain the challenges of its process and evaluate the outcomes to date.
Speaker Bios
Andrew S. Dolkart is an architectural historian, preservationist, and Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he was Director of the Historic Preservation Program from 2008-2016. He is the author of numerous books on the architecture and urban development of New York City, focusing in particular on the city’s everyday, vernacular building types. These include the award-winning volumes Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture and Development; Biography of a Tenement House in New York City: An Architectural History of 97 Orchard Street; and The Row House Reborn: Architecture and Neighborhoods in New York City 1908-1929. He wrote about the architecture of Schultze & Weaver in "Millionaires' Elysiums: The Luxury Apartment Hotels of Schultze and Weaver," for "The American Hotel" issue of The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts in the 2005 issue (Vol. 25).
Dan Shannon is the Managing Partner at MdeAS Architects in New York City and is a recognized leader in commercial design. With four decades of experience, he has honed his expertise through in the construction of over 100 million square feet of urban fabric. Notable projects include the restoration of the iconic GM Building and the incorporation of the Apple Cube into its plaza, which earned a MASterworks Award for Best Privately-Owned Public Space; the redevelopment of numerous prominent buildings along Bryant Park, Madison Avenue, and Park Avenue; and, most recently, PENN 1 & PENN 2 of THE PENN DISTRICT. Dan’s affinity for the philosophy of modernism informs his design approach and his commitment to urbanistic values inform all his projects.
Anne Walker is a co-author with Peter Pennoyer on a series of stunning monographs on American architectural firms of the early twentieth century, including The Architecture of Delano & Aldrich (2003), The Architecture of Warren & Wetmore (2006), The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury (2009), New York Transformed: The Architecture of Cross & Cross (2014) and Harrie T. Lindeberg and the American Country House (2017). Anne is a graduate of the Chapin School and Middlebury College. She received her MS degree in History Preservation and Conservation from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Carol Willis is the founder, director, and curator of The Skyscraper Museum. She is the author of Form Follows Finance: Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago (Princeton Architectural Press, 1995), among other publications. An architectural and urban historian, she has taught as an adjunct professor at Columbia University for more than thirty years.
HOW TO REGISTER
Members receive priority for reserved spots and can register for the entire series or individual programs by emailing [email protected].
If you are not a member of The Skyscraper Museum, you must register for each program separately by clicking the RSVP button on the individual lecture's page, which forwards you to Ticketstripe. You will receive the Zoom link upon reserving your FREE ticket on Ticketstripe.
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