Block & Lot: An Art-Studded Corner of Midtown Manhattan

Photo Credit: Nate Dorr

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

In many ways, the block is defined by MoMA—a museum that, much like the city it’s rooted in, has reinvented itself continuously. Constructed in 1939, the museum’s first purpose-built home on West 53rd Street was a taut palazzo dressed in white marble panels and an innovative type of glass, thermolux, that diffuses light further into the building than clear glass would. After a series of expansions by architects Philip Johnson, César Pelli, and Yoshio Taniguchi, the museum got two major makeovers in 2017 and 2019, when Diller Scofidio + Renfro expanded the lobby, weaved in a new circulation network, and built in a new wing to the west. 

53 WEST 53RD STREET

Along the way, a building that housed the American Folk Art Museum—a copper-bronze structure with a handsome angular facade by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects—was sacrificed to make way for MoMA’s new glass wing, as well as a new condo tower by French architect Jean Nouvel. Dubbed “53 West 53,” the supertall skyscraper rises above MoMA and incorporates three gallery floors into its plinth, along with a 65-foot lap pool and vertical gardens designed by French botanist Patrick Blanc. The building’s tapered design is characterized by Nouvel’s signature exposed structural system, which dictates a unique layout inside the residences. 

MUSEUM TOWER

Nouvel’s skyscraper adds 145 living units to the block, which already featured Museum Tower, a slender condominium tower further down the street. Designed by architect César Pelli, the complex was built in 1985, as part of a major expansion of MoMA, and overlooks the museum’s Sculpture Garden. 

Modern architecture isn’t all there is to Block 01269. To the north, a grouping of two attached and identical Beaux-Arts townhouses was constructed in 1897 by Henry Hardenbergh, the architect behind the famed Plaza Hotel. Number 13 on 54th Street was purchased by John D. Rockefeller in 1906. Forty-nine years later, Number 15 was purchased by his son Nelson Rockefeller. 

Meanwhile, on the southeastern edge of the block, the French Gothic Revival Saint Thomas Church has been around since 1914. A designated New York Landmark, it was designed by Ralph Adams Cram, who also designed the Princeton University Chapel, and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, the architect behind the nearby St. Bartholomew’s Church.