200 Park Avenue

Lead Designers Jerry Kugler, Burr Rutledge, Yungbin Kim, Jackson Ning

Entry Description

Walter Gropius’ skyscraper at 200 Park Avenue includes a direct connection to Grand Central Terminal. An important part of the urban pedestrian fabric when it opened in 1962, subsequent renovations over time had diminished this important connection.

The latest redesign restores these areas to midtown’s public realm with glowing entrances, a new reception lobby, and the recreation of a dramatic mural above the doors to Grand Central.

At 45th Street, uplighting and a bold pattern of wallwashers begins outside and flows through the transparent storefront deep into the interior.

At Vanderbilt Avenue, an elevated roadway had created a dark single-height zone in front of the double-height lobby. Lighting transformed this entrance by washing architectural surfaces and cladding the roadway parapet with luminous channel glass.

An all-new reception lobby adds contemporary warmth in keeping with Gropius’ minimalist modernism.

In a prior renovation of the Grand Central entrance, Josef Albers’ expansive mural Manhattan had been removed and destroyed. Now meticulously recreated, all light sources are concealed, and no reflections are visible from typical viewing angles.

Each space presented unique challenges, and the lighting designers stayed true to their creative mission: uphold the integrity of Gropius’ original modernist architecture and reinvigorate its connections for the public.