Eero Saarinen’s Only Tower Enters a New Era

Eero Saarinen’s architecture was rarely simple—the swooping forms of his Gateway Arch and the TWA Hotel, two of his most famous buildings, were both neo-futurist gestures that captured an optimistic era of burgeoning technology. When it came to skyscrapers, though, the late Finnish architect only designed one, the CBS Building in Midtown Manhattan, and described it as the “simplest skyscraper statement in New York.” Nicknamed “Black Rock” after its angled granite facade and dark-tinted glass windows, it appears as a continuous slab, not unlike its Modernist peers the Seagram Building and the erstwhile Union Carbide Building, but still has “guts,” as he once said. “The spirit of a building should be expressed, not hidden behind a neutral curtain of glass.”

Black Rock was long the headquarters of CBS until they sold the 38-story building in 2019 and left it in the hands of Harbor Group International, which commissioned design firms Vocon and MdeAS Architects to modernize its dated interiors. Luckily, the designers benefited from Saarinen’s column-free floor plates and an abundance of natural light thanks to the structure’s rectangular doughnut-shaped layout—groundwork that enabled them to devise modern interventions that enhance Saarinen’s vision. Renovation work involved restoring bronze fin walls, creating a sparkling light installation in the lobby, and adding amenities befitting a five-star hotel like upscale dining options, a tricked-out fitness center, and a tranquil rooftop garden.

Read more in this article from Surface.