SALMON TOWER

In this century, nearly every new high-rise in Manhattan is covered in glass with form, function, but no exterior ornamentation. On 42nd Street, the One Vanderbilt, Bank of America Tower, and Conde Nast Tower serve as examples of post-millennial design. Across from Bryant Park at 11 W. 42nd Street there is an elaborate entrance gateway from an earlier time for office buildings.

Completed in 1928, the Salmon Tower has the months of the year with zodiac symbols personified in Romanesque bas-reliefs, with selected professions standing above them. These nine men, four women, and two dogs are shown holding a T-square used by architects, cogwheel, and books. One woman is kneeling and typing, while another is kneeling and writing on a scroll.

The building’s namesake is not a fish but its developer, Walter J. Salmon, Sr. who commissioned architect Albert J. Wilcox, with the firm York & Sawyer designing the entrance. Three years later, Salmon developed the neighboring parcel 500 Fifth Avenue with a taller office building in the Art Deco style.

With the exception of Broadway (now mostly pedestrianized), the streets, avenues, and property lines in Midtown conform strictly to the street grid, which is why I was curious about the curve in this building’s lobby on its W. 43rd Street entrance. Looking back at the floor plans, it was a quirk provided by the designer without any connection to the site’s previous history. This entrance has a gateway identical to 42nd Street, with its own address as 20 W. 43rd Street.

Also notable is that the lobby ceiling has Guastavino tiles, which I also recently documented at the nearby Biltmore garage. Over the decades, this building has hosted distinguished firms such as architects Kohn Pedersen Fox, the radio station NPR, clothing designer Michael Kors and New Yorker Magazine. They all walked through those Romanesque Revival gateways. 

In contrast to the Salmon Tower, its taller neighbor 500 Fifth Avenue is landmarked, precluding changes to its exterior appearance. As they were built close in time to each other, they represent the transition from Romanesque Revival to Art Deco.

The most decorative exterior feature at 500 Fifth Avenue is the frieze depicting an allegorical woman holding a model of this tower flanked by stylized palms. From a distance, she can be mistaken for the women on the New York state emblem. Prior to the office building, the Hotel Bristol stood at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and W. 42nd Street.

On the 42nd Street side of this skyscraper are stylized eagles and the address in a distinctive typeface. There are more than a dozen fonts created during the Art Deco period. I’ll have Kevin name this one.

[Likely a custom font used only on the building — Ed.]

Looking at Sanborn’s Manhattan Land Book of 1996, we see Salmon Tower and its landmarked neighbors, including the former Manufacturers Trust Company, Century Association, and Engine Company 56 which Kevin visited in 2024. A block to the north, the Hippodrome office building’s name honors the entertainment venue that stood here a century earlier. Finally, the dotted lines running through the Salmon Building mark Lowes Lane, a pre-grid road that ran from Eastern Post Road (Third Avenue at 41st Street) to Bloomingdale Road (Broadway at 44th Street). With the northward expansion of urbanization, this forgotten street was closed in 1833.

Sergey Kadinsky is the author of Hidden Waters of New York City: A History and Guide to 101 Forgotten Lakes, Ponds, Creeks, and Streams in the Five Boroughs (2016, Countryman Press), adjunct history professor at Touro University and the webmaster of Hidden Waters Blog. This month, Sergey was blessed as he and his spouse welcomed their third child.

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5/24/26