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Modulightor Building
The building in 2024, after its additions
Map
General information
Architectural styleModernist
Address246 East 58th Street,
Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates40°45′36″N 73°57′55″W / 40.760009°N 73.965381°W / 40.760009; -73.965381
Construction started1989
Construction stopped1994
Design and construction
Architect(s)Paul Rudolph

The Modulightor Building is a commercial building in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by noted architect Paul Rudolph.

Site

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The Modulightor Building is at 246 East 58th Street in the East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.[1] The rectangular land lot covers approximately 2,000 square feet (190 m2),with a frontage of 20 feet (6.1 m) on 58th Street and a depth of 100 feet (30 m).[2] Immediately outside the building is a sidewalk divided into square panels of gray slate, as well as a planting bed next to the curb.[3] The building is one block south of the Queensboro Bridge's Manhattan terminal and the Roosevelt Island Tramway plaza.[2][4] Nearby buildings include 252 East 57th Street one block to the south, as well as 311 and 313 East 58th Street to the east.[2]

Paul Rudolph, the Modulightor Building's developer, had bought the building specifically because of the presence of several design showrooms in the area,[5] which had been unofficially known as the Design District since at least the 1960s.[6][7] The block had once contained many row houses, which had been developed starting in the mid-19th century and were commonplace along 58th Street and other west-east streets.[4] These row houses had included an Italianate brownstone at 246 East 58th Street, which was three stories high and dated to the 1850s or 1860s. This rowhouse had been divided into 15 rooms by 1941 and was converted into a commercial building by 1966, with two-story annexes both in the rear and at the front.[6] Characterized as a "strikingly new and modern building", the structure first housed the Ellsworth & Goldie gallery,[6][8] then housed fabric retail stores until the 1980s.[6]

Architecture

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The original section of the building was built from 1989 to 1994 to designs by Paul Rudolph.[9][10][3] The Modulightor Building was one of the last buildings that Rudolph would ever complete in Manhattan; unlike his other projects, it was not particularly well known.[11] Mark Squeo, who had collaborated with Rudolph in the 1990s,[12] designed the upper portion of the building from 2010 to 2016.[3][13]

Facade

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The main elevation of the facade is to the north, along 58th Street. Both the main facade and the rear facade are composed of overlapping, interlocking rectangles made of white I-beams.[3][14] The interlocking nature of the beams gives the facade a quality similar to a jigsaw puzzle.[3]

The main elevation is about 3 feet (0.91 m) deep and includes concrete panels for reinforcement.[14] The vertical beams are largely 4.25 inches (108 mm) deep, except for those at the far western and eastern edges which are 8.25 inches (210 mm) deep. The horizontal beams are 6.25 inches (159 mm) deep. Though most of the rectangles contain glass windows, a small number of the openings on the facade are filled with concrete blocks, and other openings contain wooden doors.[3] There is an entrance on the left (east) side of the facade, which is screened by a gate with vertical metal bars; the left wall of this entrance has a lattice with plants, while the door itself is topped by a planting box. Another entrance on the right (west) side of the facade leads to a showroom at the ground level, with a recessed glass door and a marble pavement. The center of the first-floor facade has a tripartite display window.[3]

The first and second stories of the rear elevation occupy almost the entire lot; there is a skylight above the second floor.[15]

Rooftop decks

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Interior

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As designed, the showroom of the Modulightor company was intended to be on the first floor. On the story immediately above was to be Rudolph's office, while the other floors were to contain a small number of duplex apartments. One of the apartments was occupied by Ernst Wagner,[16] a Swiss man who had once worked with Rudolph.[17]

As of 2024, the building currently holds Modulightor's fabrication center in the basement and on the first floor; the remaining spaces house the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture and several duplexes. One of these duplexes is occupied by Ernst Wagner, the building's owner.[18] The Modulightor shop is located on three levels and is connected to the upper floors via a stair in the rear.[1]

History

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The facade seen in 2006

The building is named for the Modulightor lighting company, which Wagner and Rudolph had cofounded in 1976.[17][19] Modulightor had manufactured lighting fixtures for 23 Beekman Place, Rudolph's Manhattan townhouse, as well as for his other structures. The company had a workshop in SoHo, but the workshop's lease was about to expire by 1988, when Wagner noticed that the structure at 246 East 58th Street was for sale.[17]

Original structure

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The four-story building was constructed for Modulightor. It has seen commercial and residential uses, and later housed a gallery on its top floors.[9][10]

Expansion

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The fifth and sixth floor of the building were constructed from 2007 to 2015, in a project led by the original project manager using Rudolph's preliminary designs for a six-story building on the site.[10] Following the completion of the building's top floors, an exhibition called Paul Rudolph: The Personal Laboratory was hosted on the upper stories.[9]

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Modulightor Building as a New York City landmark in December 2023.[20][21] This made the Modulightor Building one of a few official city landmarks designed by Rudolph, along with 23 Beekman Place and Tom Ford's house at 101 East 63rd Street.[13]

Reception

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One writer described the Modulightor Building as "a light-filled jewel of a house, an artificial geode, so conceptually integrated that when you're inside the outside world seems ready to invade".[16]

See also

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References

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Citations

  1. ^ a b The Architects' Journal. Architectural Press Limited. 2004. p. 31. ISSN 0003-8466.
  2. ^ a b c "597 Madison Avenue, 10022". New York City Department of City Planning. Retrieved March 20, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 6.
  4. ^ a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 8.
  5. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, pp. 8–9.
  6. ^ a b c d Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 9.
  7. ^ "Showrooms Grow In Design District". The New York Times. August 27, 1967. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  8. ^ Gardner, Arron (1969). Gardner's Guide to Antiques and Art Buying in New York City. Bobbs-Merrill. p. 66.
  9. ^ a b c Farago, Jason (December 20, 2018). "Paul Rudolph at 100: The Mischief Maker in a New Light". The New York Times.
  10. ^ a b c Cohen, Michelle (July 29, 2019). "Modernist Must-See: Tour the Upper East Side's Paul Rudolph-Designed Modulightor Building". 6sqft.
  11. ^ Giovannini, Joseph (July 8, 2004). "An Architect's Last Word". The New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  12. ^ Ginsburg, Aaron (October 3, 2023). "Paul Rudolph's modernist Modulightor Building may become NYC landmark". 6sqft. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  13. ^ a b Gunts, Edward (December 21, 2023). "Modernist structures by Paul Rudolph and Ulrich Franzen are now landmarks". The Architect’s Newspaper. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  14. ^ a b "Our Office". Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  15. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, pp. 6–7.
  16. ^ a b Devlin, Polly (2017). New York Behind Closed Doors. Gibbs Smith. p. 230. ISBN 978-1-4236-4732-4.
  17. ^ a b c Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 10.
  18. ^ Gallow, Lauren (September 2021). "The Modulightor Building". Cereal Magazine.
  19. ^ Rohan, Timothy M. (2014). The Architecture of Paul Rudolph. Yale University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-300-14939-5.
  20. ^ Senzamici, Peter (December 20, 2023). "This Sutton Place Building Is Now A Mid-Century Modern Landmark". Upper East Side, NY Patch. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  21. ^ Ginsburg, Aaron (December 19, 2023). "Paul Rudolph's Modulightor Building is now an NYC landmark". 6sqft. Retrieved January 6, 2024.

Sources

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Modulightor Building.


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