1251 Avenue of the Americas
1251 Avenue of the Americas is a skyscraper on Sixth Avenue, between 49th and 50th Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is owned by Mitsui Fudosan. The structure is built in the international style and looks like a simple cuboid devoid of any ornamentation. The facade consists of alternating narrow, vertical stripes of glass and limestone. The glass stripes are created by windows and opaque spandrels, forming continuous areas that are washed by machines sliding down the facade. A seven-floor base wraps around the western portion of the building, and there is a sunken plaza with a large two-tier pool and fountains facing Sixth Avenue. In the plaza stands the bronze statue named Out to Lunch by John Seward Johnson II—of the same series as the one standing outside 270 Park Avenue.
The base of 1251 Avenue of the Americas
Artist-authorized replica of Pablo Picasso's tapestry for the ballet Mercure
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial for much of its length.
The "skyscraper alley" of International Style buildings along the avenue looking north from 40th Street to Central Park
Looking north from 14th Street in 1905, with the Sixth Avenue El on the right
The historic Ladies' Mile shopping district that thrived along Sixth Avenue left behind some of the largest retail spaces in the city. Beginning in the 1990s, the buildings began to be reused after being dormant for decades.
Sign for Venezuela on Sixth Avenue