This lovely band of leaflike curves is part of the lower facade of the Chanin Building, a 56-story office tower on Lexington and 42nd Street.
It’s a little bit of Art Deco across from the Beaux-Arts Grand Central Terminal, which was built just a decade and a half earlier but feels like it’s from an entirely different era.
Tags: Art Deco skyscrapers in New York City, beaux-arts, Chanin Building, Chanin Building Friezes, Grand Central Terminal, Irwin Chanin, Sloan and Robertson architects
Ephemeral New York 
December 7, 2009 at 6:17 pm |
Go inside the lobby and check out the beautiful metal work on the elevator doors and radiator grilles.
December 17, 2009 at 4:47 pm |
I’m behind in all my blog reading, but @Joe R is totally correct – the inside is just as beautiful as the outside. LOVE the Chanin Building. One of my faves in town.
July 21, 2010 at 4:24 am |
[…] the Chanin Building, an Art Deco skyscraper on 42nd Street, the woman is gazing at […]
April 8, 2013 at 5:15 am |
[…] By 1939, when this photo was taken, the flagpole-sitting fad was over, and Kelly was reduced to doing gimmicks for events such as National Donut Dunking Week—which is the reason he’s upside-down on the roof of the Chanin Building on East 42nd Street. […]
May 5, 2014 at 2:34 am |
[…] doesn’t sound too thrilling, except that he performed this act on the edge of the roof of the Chanin Building, the 56-story Art Deco skyscraper on East 42nd Street opened in […]
October 8, 2015 at 5:12 pm |
Absolutely beautiful! Don’t see much of that or of any of your blog items here in Wichita, KS. I LOVE NEW YORK!