Home / New York City / Urban Renewal / Midtown

670 Sixth Avenue

670 Sixth Avenue is a late 19th century townhouse that was clad in the 1960s with a glass and aluminum modernist facade that was remarkable for its inescapable datedness and complete obliviousness to the other architecture on the block. As with Madison Square Garden, this is a summative artifact of 1960s arrogance.

A renovation of the building into yet another bank, resulted in a cleanup of the facade to a state that gives at least a glimmer of the attraction that such architectural mistakes had for their generation.

Next: 70 West 45th Street (at Sixth Ave.)