CBS Building

Manhattan, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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The CBS Building, also known as Black Rock, stands at 51 West 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan as a 38-story, 491-foot-tall tower designed by Eero Saarinen—his only skyscraper commission. Constructed from 1961 to 1964, the building exemplifies modern architecture through its distinctive facade of angled dark-gray granite piers alternating with dark-tinted glass, creating the visual effect of a continuous slab. Saarinen described it as the "simplest skyscraper statement in New York." Built originally as CBS broadcasting network headquarters, the structure features a reinforced concrete superstructure with steel beams only below ground, and its interior spaces and furnishings were designed by Saarinen and, following his death, by Florence Knoll Bassett. The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1997 and has subsequently served various commercial tenants after CBS gradually vacated the space in the early 1990s.