Random Reflection or Intelligent Design?

909 Third Avenue, 9:25am, Jan. 5, 2011

Sure looks like someone’s trying to tell us something.

There it was yesterday morning, apparently one of those weird effects of the sun bouncing off glass in Midtown high-rises—in this case onto the brutalist pile at 909 Third Ave., between 54th and 55th. At least the reflections aren’t blinding anyone or overheating anyone’s office this time—not likely given the absence of windows on this giant brick box. It’s like someone set up a supersized projector to add a little playfulness to a dreary facade—and maybe see if anyone scurrying to work would look up long enough to notice.

Which made me wonder about 909 Third. It seems the building went up in 1968, designed by the exceedingly prolific firm of Emery Roth & Sons. In this case it’s definitely the work of the “& Sons,” because Emery Roth, who designed the likes of the Beresford, the San Remo and the El Dorado, among many beloved New York landmarks, died in 1948. While Roth pere, a Hungarian Jew, did mostly residential buildings in Beaux-Arts and Art Deco styles, the sons, just as busy if not as beloved, shifted to modernist office buildings.

The younger Roths’ contributions include  the Met Life Building, the GM Building, Citigroup Center, and 7 World Trade Center—among  more than 100 others.  Their footprint is astonishing. Columbia, which has their archives, describes their success in discretely commercial terms: “Over the years the firm consistently provided marketable designs that maximized the net rentable area, a feature highly prized by real estate developers.” And the buildings look it. They went out of business in the mid-nineties.