Featured Article Summary #117

330 West 42nd Street, also known as the McGraw-Hill Building and formerly the GHI Building, is a 33-story, 485-foot skyscraper in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Designed by Raymond Hood and J. André Fouilhoux, it mixes International Style, Art Deco, and Art Moderne and was built from 1930 to 1931 as the McGraw-Hill Companies’ headquarters. Its stepped setbacks on 41st and 42nd streets follow the 1916 Zoning Resolution, and the facade uses blue-green terracotta panels and green metal-framed windows with a strong horizontal look. The design was controversial at the time, but later critics came to see it as an early example of the International Style. Over the years the building changed hands and uses, moving from McGraw-Hill to GHI, and, after major renovations in 2021, its upper floors were turned into apartments starting in 2023. It is now recognized as a New York City landmark and is listed as a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. 330 West 42nd Street is in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on the south side of 42nd Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues. The site is 27,975 ft² with 130 ft of frontage and extends 197.5 ft deep, near major landmarks like the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the 42nd Street–Port Authority station. In the late 1920s, the area had mostly low-rise homes, including tenements on 42nd and 41st Streets. The site was partly tied to plans by John A. Larkin for a planned 110-story skyscraper that was canceled in 1930, and over time many nearby tenements were converted into office buildings, leading to the development of 330 West 42nd Street. The McGraw-Hill Building at 330 West 42nd Street was designed by Raymond Hood, Frederick Godley, and J. André Fouilhoux, and completed in 1931 as the headquarters for the McGraw-Hill Companies. It blends International Style with Art Deco and Art Moderne details, rises 485 feet with 33 stories, and is shaped to fit the practical needs of a publishing business, using an efficient plan focused on good working conditions and economy. The building rises 35 stories and uses setbacks to meet the 1916 Zoning Resolution. Setbacks are placed at specific floors and only one bay deep, with extra setbacks on the 32nd and 34th floors. Because they appear mainly on the northern and southern sides, the building looks like a flat slab from the front, while the lack of setbacks on the west and east sides makes it stand out like an industrial structure—compared to an ocean liner. The building mostly has a plain facade, with the first floors and the top stories more decorated than the middle. Instead of using traditional Art Deco styling, it used color as a main decorative feature, matching an idea by architect Hood that New York’s skyline would be filled with brightly colored buildings—something that only became common later with postmodern architecture.