McGraw-Hill Building
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Architect: Raymond Hood for Godley & Fouilhoux
Year Completed: 1931
Location: 330 W 42nd Street, New York City, New York
Style: Streamline Moderne / International Style
The McGraw-Hill Building is a transitional building in terms of styling. Many aspects of the building suggest Streamline Moderne, the final phase of Art Deco. At the same time, it is cited as one of the first examples of the International Style in the United States.
Streamline Moderne aspects of the building include the blue-green terra cotta cladding as well as the strong horizontal lines. The blue-green colour used in this building was a popular shade during the Art Deco era. The Eastern building in Los Angeles is also similar in colour. While the building was under construction, the architect was very concerned about consistency with the shade of the blue-green terra-cotta bands. He personally inspected the shipments to ensure that they were consistent with the other bands that had already gone up.
As you can see in the third picture, the ground floor is a combination of green, silver and gold. As the building rises, it quickly becomes the blue-green colour you see in the picture. The drastic setback is a direct result of the zoning laws that were passed after the Equitable building was completed, but also a very typical aspect of Art Deco/Streamline Moderne skyscrapers.
The International Style, a book written by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, gave this new style a name and introduced it to the public. The book was written as a catalog to accompany an exhibit at the New York Museum of Modern Art, but became such an important book for this architecture movement that it is still published today. The book primarily focused on European architects and buildings since this is where the movement started; however, it does include a few buildings in the United States including the McGraw-Hill building.
This building can be classified as International Style primarily because of its regularity and lack of applied ornamentation. You can see the future Modernist movement in this building.
In the 1970s, McGraw-Hill decided to move their headquarters to Avenue of the Americas. Although the fate of the building was uncertain for a few years, Group Health Incorporated decided to use it for their corporate headquarters in 1974. GHI later moved out as well, but the building was then established enough to avoid any questions of its future.