Façade work is getting close to completion on the United Arab Emirates consulate at 315 East 46th Street in the Midtown East neighborhood of Turtle Bay. The 145-foot-tall, nine-story reinforced concrete structure is designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, developed by Fisher Brothers, and is being built by Plaza Construction. The topped-out edifice is located just up the street from the future consulate of the Republic of Turkey.
Photographs show the main southern façade, with its narrow vertical concrete fins, substantially finished. Only the ground floor, which is still covered behind the sidewalk scaffolding remains to be worked on. Meanwhile, the warm-colored stone slabs finally cover the majority of the concrete and cinder block walls on the eastern elevation that were still exposed in our early January update. A scaffolding rig hangs near the upper floors with workers installing the remainder of the panels. The emblem on the lower portion of this side is now visible and lightly etched into the stone surface.
315 West 46th Street. Photo by Michael Young
315 West 46th Street. Photo by Michael Young
315 West 46th Street. Photo by Michael Young
Not much about the interiors has been publicly disclosed, although we could expect multiple floors of government office space, meeting rooms, and a passport and visa office. The closest transit hub from the consulate is Grand Central Terminal, which is about a ten-minute walk or a six-minute car ride to the west.
A formal completion date for 315 West 46th Street hasn’t been announced, though it looks like it should be completed before the end of the year.
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The captions for the photos should say East 46th street!
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It reminds me of a telephone switching center building.
The best looking telephone switching building ever. I think it looks great.
Look at the rendering and guess which building is most likely to be packed with switching equipment?
The 60s have returned.
Exactly!
Unfortunately, the tenants in the building on the right will have blinding sunshine in their windows, due to the reflections from the “warm colored” slabs from the side of the Consulate. ?
That’s no one’s fault but their own building’s for being setback from the streetwall.
what a bore!!!!!
The facade is quite elegant in person. The fins are evocative of shifting sand as the light moves over them. This is a nice updated modernist building which blends perfectly with the other modernist buildings in the neighborhood. Well done SOM.