Manhattan · New York County
55 East 52nd Street
POPS - Indoor Through-Block
- Location
- 55 East 52nd Street, Midtown East
- Size
- 0.08 acres
- Hours
- Open during business hours
- Type
- POPS - Indoor Through-Block
55 East 52nd Street is a Privately Owned Public Space in Midtown East, providing an indoor through-block connection between Park and Lexington Avenues near the Seagram Building.
The Seagram Building at 375 Park Avenue, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1958, is widely considered the finest International Style skyscraper ever built. Its bronze-clad facade and granite plaza set the standard for corporate architecture worldwide.
The Seagram Building's plaza, while not a POPS (it was built before the program existed), inspired the entire incentive zoning concept. The building demonstrated that providing public space could enhance a building's value and prestige.
The POPS at 55 East 52nd Street provides a through-block passage in the shadow of the building that invented the concept of the corporate plaza, near one of the most influential pieces of architecture in the 20th century.
This indoor passage serves the Midtown community near the building that inspired hundreds of subsequent POPS across Manhattan.