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Coordinates: 40°45′36″N 73°57′55″W / 40.760009°N 73.965381°W / 40.760009; -73.965381
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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
DesignatedDecember 19, 2023[1]
Reference no.2676[1]
Designated entityFacade
DesignatedMay 6, 2025[2]
Reference no.2684[2]
Designated entityDuplex interior

The Modulightor Building is a commercial building in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The first four stories, designed by the architect Paul Rudolph, originally comprised a townhouse that was rebuilt between 1989 and 1993. It was one of the last buildings that Rudolph completed in Manhattan; unlike his other projects, it was not particularly well known The fifth and sixth floors of the building were constructed from 2007 to 2015 in a project led Rudolph's associate Mark Squeo. The building was designated as a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2023, and the interior of the duplex was similarly designated as a landmark in 2025.

The building was constructed for Modulightor, a company that Rudolph co-founded to sell light fixtures. It has seen commercial and residential uses, and later housed a gallery on its top floors. The main elevation of the facade is to the north, while the rear elevation faces south; both are composed of overlapping, interlocking rectangles made of white I-beams. There is a rooftop deck with gray tiles, in addition to protruding balconies in the rear. The building holds Modulightor's fabrication center in the basement and on the first floor, while 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.

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.[3] 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).[4] Immediately outside the building is a sidewalk divided into square panels of gray slate, as well as a planting bed next to the curb.[5] The building is one block south of the Queensboro Bridge's Manhattan terminal and the Roosevelt Island Tramway plaza.[4][6] Nearby buildings include 252 East 57th Street one block to the south, as well as 311 and 313 East 58th Street to the east.[4]

Paul Rudolph, the Modulightor Building's developer, had bought the building specifically because of the presence of several design showrooms in the area,[7] which had been unofficially known as the Design District since at least the 1960s.[8][9] 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.[6] 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.[8] Characterized as a "strikingly new and modern building", the structure first housed the Ellsworth & Goldie gallery,[8][10] then housed fabric retail stores until the 1980s.[8]

Architecture

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The original section of the building was built from 1989 to 1994 to designs by Paul Rudolph.[11][12][5] The Modulightor Building was one of the last buildings that Rudolph ever completed in Manhattan; unlike his other projects, it was not particularly well known.[13] Mark Squeo, who had collaborated with Rudolph in the 1990s,[14] designed the upper portion of the building from 2010 to 2016.[5][15]

Exterior

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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.[5][16][13] The interlocking nature of the beams gives the facade a quality similar to a jigsaw puzzle.[5] The western facade is a white party wall with narrow windows on the fifth and sixth stories, while the eastern facade has narrow windows on the fourth floor, fifth floor, and rooftop deck.[17]

The main elevation is about 3 feet (0.91 m) deep and includes concrete panels for reinforcement.[16] The I-beams were manufactured in three different widths. 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.[18] 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.[5] 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.[5]

The rear elevation has fewer I-beams than the main elevation, although the windows are larger. The lowest two stories have not been modified since the 1960s.[18] These stories span the lot's width; there is a skylight above the second floor.[19] The third floor, designed by Rudolph, has a steel-grated wood deck spanning the lot's width, with mechanical equipment on one end and a hot tub on the opposite end. There is a door at the deck's eastern end, which ascends to a door with a transom window above it; a greenhouse is located to the west of this door.[17] The fourth floor of the facade was also designed by Rudolph.[18] On the fifth and sixth floors, which were built during Squeo's redesign, are four balconies of different sizes, which are made of metal.[17]

Roof

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There is a rooftop deck with gray tiles, which is surrounded by glass-and-metal parapets to the north and south. The rooftop deck connects with one of the balconies in the rear, and a skylight is raised above the western part of the roof deck. The front portion of the rooftop deck has a a glass-walled elevator foyer with glass doors, which adjoins an enclosed staircase descending to the sixth floor. There is a second, outdoor staircase to the sixth floor at the center of the deck; its balustrade is a metal grid with a handrail, and the stair risers have gaps between them.[17]

Interior

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As designed, the showroom of the Modulightor company was intended to be on the first floor, while on the story immediately above was to be Rudolph's office.[20] The third and fourth floors were to contain two duplex apartments (later combined into one).[20][21] An additional apartment was added on the fifth and sixth floors when these were completed in 2015.[22] As of 2024, the building holds Modulightor's fabrication center in the basement and on the first floor;[23] the Modulightor shop is connected to the upper floors via a stair in the rear.[3] The remaining spaces house the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture, which include the third- and fourth-floor duplex apartment.[23] The Rudolph Foundation rents out the apartments for events and gives periodic tours,[13][23] making the duplex the only Rudolph–designed space in New York City that is ordinarily open to the public.[24]

Third- and fourth-floor duplex

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The duplex's living space

The third- and fourth-floor apartment was occupied by Ernst Wagner, a Swiss man who had once worked with Rudolph.[20][25] Wagner's duplex is decorated in a white color palette throughout (including floors, walls, and ceilings), and there is white built-in furniture.[23][26] To add complexity to the design, Rudolph used decorations such as suspended staircases and bookshelves throughout the duplex.[23] Modulightor made all the lighting for the duplex.[26] When Wagner and Rudolph occupied the building, the duplex was decorated with objects such as Japanese figurines, African sculptures, and pieces of Turkish machinery, above which were small plantings.[23]

History

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The building is named for the Modulightor lighting company, which Wagner and Rudolph had cofounded in 1976.[25][27] Originally, the firm was located at 54 West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan.[22] 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.[25] The owner, MIRA-X International Furnishings Inc,[8] sold the building on February 24, 1989, to Rudolph and Wagner for $1.75 million.[22]

Original structure

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The facade seen in 2006

The four-story building was constructed for Modulightor. It has seen commercial and residential uses, and later housed a gallery on its top floors.[11][12] Originally, Donald Luckenbill oversaw the project between 1989 and 1990;[28] Luckenbill reflected that Rudolph "did hundreds of facade studies for this modest building".[13] Mark Squeo took over the design after 1990.[28] The Paul Rudolph Institute's president Kelvin Dickinson described the Modulightor Building as a passion project of Rudolph's, saying in 2025: "I think he ran out of money three times."[29]

The facade panels at the front and rear were being installed by mid-1992, and the beams on the facade were being painted by early 1993.[28] A temporary certificate of occupancy was granted for the building's first basement, the ground-story retail space, and an office mezzanine in May 1993. In June of the following year, another certificate of occupancy was granted for both basement levels and the four above-ground stories.[28][30] The temporary certificate of occupancy provided for two duplex apartments on the third and fourth floors—one each on the south and north sides of both floors.[21] By that July, Rudolph had completed plans for the duplexes[21] and began leasing out these apartments.[28][31] Rental income from these apartments was used to help pay off the building's mortgage.[31]

Rudolph was diagnosed with mesothelioma, or asbestos cancer, toward the end of his life[32] and was seriously ill by 1996.[28] That June, MTV founder John Lack agreed to rent both duplexes, each for $6,000 per month; he lived in the southern duplex, and his daughter took over the northern duplex.[22] The same year, the wall between the third- and fourth-floor duplexes was removed.[21] Rudolph attempted to give his home at 23 Beekman Place to the Library of Congress so the library could preserve his documents after he died, but the Library of Congress instead sold the Beekman Place apartment.[29] Instead, in April 1997,[22] Rudolph bequeathed a partial ownership stake in the Modulightor Building to Wagner.[28][29] Rudolph ultimately died that August.[22][32]

After Rudolph's death

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Wagner began seeking a buyer for Rudolph's other residence at 23 Beekman Place in 1998,[22][33] though it would not be sold for two years.[22][34] Mark Squeo designed an expansion of the building after Rudolph's death.[35] After a prolonged disagreement over Rudolph's will and testament, Wagner moved to the building in 2002, and Luckenbill subsequently combined two of the building's apartments.[28] This work involved removing a wall between the northern and southern duplex units on the third and fourth floors.[30] The enlarged duplex was completed in 2003,[13] and the structure was known as the Modulightor Building by the next year.[28]

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.[12] Following the completion of the building's top floors, the fashion house Bottega Veneta hosted a fashion show there in 2017,[36][37] and an exhibition called Paul Rudolph: The Personal Laboratory was hosted on the upper stories in 2018.[11]

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the Modulightor Building as a New York City landmark in December 2023.[38][39] 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.[15] In December 2024, the third- and fourth-floor duplex was nominated for interior landmark status.[40][35] The duplex had not been eligible for landmark designation before then, as New York City designated landmarks were required to be at least 30 years old.[35] On May 6, 2025, the LPC designated the duplex as an interior landmark.[29][30]

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".[20] Joseph Giovannini of The New York Times wrote in 2004, "Like Italian architects carving Renaissance and Baroque facades to be revealed in Mediterranean light, Rudolph succeeded in suggesting depth within shallow dimensions."[13] In designating the duplex interior as a landmark in 2025, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission wrote: "The duplex features interlocking double-height spaces that express Rudolph’s modern sculptural aesthetic utilizing off-the-shelf materials, creating an interior space unlike any other."[24]

See also

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 1.
  2. ^ a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 2025, p. 4.
  3. ^ a b The Architects' Journal. Architectural Press Limited. 2004. p. 31. ISSN 0003-8466.
  4. ^ 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)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 6.
  6. ^ a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 8.
  7. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, pp. 8–9.
  8. ^ a b c d e Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 9.
  9. ^ "Showrooms Grow In Design District". The New York Times. August 27, 1967. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  10. ^ Gardner, Arron (1969). Gardner's Guide to Antiques and Art Buying in New York City. Bobbs-Merrill. p. 66.
  11. ^ a b c Farago, Jason (December 20, 2018). "Paul Rudolph at 100: The Mischief Maker in a New Light". The New York Times.
  12. ^ a b c Cohen, Michelle (July 29, 2019). "Modernist Must-See: Tour the Upper East Side's Paul Rudolph-Designed Modulightor Building". 6sqft.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Giovannini, Joseph (July 8, 2004). "An Architect's Last Word". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 15, 2025.
  14. ^ Ginsburg, Aaron (October 3, 2023). "Paul Rudolph's modernist Modulightor Building may become NYC landmark". 6sqft. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ a b "Our Office". Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  17. ^ a b c d Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 7.
  18. ^ a b c Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 12.
  19. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, pp. 6–7.
  20. ^ a b c d Devlin, Polly (2017). New York Behind Closed Doors. Gibbs Smith. p. 230. ISBN 978-1-4236-4732-4.
  21. ^ a b c d Landmarks Preservation Commission 2025, p. 11.
  22. ^ a b c d e f g h "1988.01 Modulightor". Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture. June 6, 2001. Retrieved May 18, 2025.
  23. ^ a b c d e f Gallow, Lauren (September 25, 2021). "The Modulightor Building". Cereal Magazine. Archived from the original on September 27, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2025.
  24. ^ a b "LPC Designates Manhattan's Modulightor Building Apartment Duplex as an Interior Landmark". Welcome to NYC.gov. May 6, 2025. Retrieved May 15, 2025.
  25. ^ a b c Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 10.
  26. ^ a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 2025, p. 6.
  27. ^ Rohan, Timothy M. (2014). The Architecture of Paul Rudolph. Yale University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-300-14939-5.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g h i Landmarks Preservation Commission 2023, p. 11.
  29. ^ a b c d Barron, James (May 7, 2025). "A Landmark Celebrates an Architect Many Have Forgotten". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
  30. ^ a b c Ginsburg, Aaron (May 6, 2025). "City landmarks duplex apartment in Paul Rudolph's Modulightor Building". 6sqft. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
  31. ^ a b Rohan, Timothy M. (July 10, 2014). The Architecture of Paul Rudolph. Yale University Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-300-14939-5.
  32. ^ a b Muschamp, Herbert (August 9, 1997). "Paul Rudolph Is Dead at 78; Modernist Architect of the 60's". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 15, 2025.
  33. ^ Brown, Patricia Leigh (December 3, 1998). "Toil and Trouble In Plexi-Land". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  34. ^ Reed, Danielle (May 4, 2000). "Witkoff plots plans for Hell's Kitchen". New York Daily News. p. 377. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
  35. ^ a b c Ginsburg, Aaron (December 12, 2024). "The duplex apartment in Paul Rudolph's Modulightor Building may be landmarked". 6sqft. Retrieved January 25, 2025.
  36. ^ Minton, Melissa (January 5, 2017). "Bottega Veneta's Latest Campaign Features Lauren Hutton, Joan Smalls, and an NYC Landmark". Architectural Digest. Retrieved May 17, 2025.
  37. ^ Hyland, Véronique (January 4, 2017). "At 73, Lauren Hutton Is the Star of Bottega Veneta's New Campaign". The Cut. Retrieved May 17, 2025.
  38. ^ 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.
  39. ^ Ginsburg, Aaron (December 19, 2023). "Paul Rudolph's Modulightor Building is now an NYC landmark". 6sqft. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  40. ^ Levingston, Miranda (December 12, 2024). "The Inside Of This UES Apartment Could Be NYC's Next Landmark". Upper East Side, NY Patch. Retrieved January 25, 2025.

Sources

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Modulightor Building.


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