The Helmsley Building is a 35-story skyscraper at 230 Park Avenue between East 45th and 46th Streets, just north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.

The facade of the four-story base is composed of limestone and Texas pink granite, while the upper stories are clad with brick.

The Helmsley Building straddles the ramps of the Park Avenue Viaduct in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.

[10] The wings slightly resemble the "court of honor" designed by Reed and Stem, another collaborator in the Grand Central project.

[41][40] The bronze reliefs above the elevator doors contain winged helmets flanking a globe, a symbol of global influence.

[13] The elevator cab interiors contain Chinese red walls with wood moldings, as well as ceilings with gift domes and painted cloudscapes.

[42] After a fatal crash in 1902,[43] the New York state legislature passed a law to ban all steam trains in Manhattan by 1908.

[44][45] New York Central's vice president William J. Wilgus proposed electrifying the line and building a new electric-train terminal underground,[45][46] a plan that was implemented almost in its entirety.

[57] A 1920 New York Times article said, "With its hotels, office buildings, apartments and underground Streets it not only is a wonderful railroad terminal, but also a great civic centre.

[63] Initially, only the western leg of the present-day viaduct was open to traffic, and there was a severe bottleneck at Vanderbilt Avenue and 45th Street.

[9][64] As such, the city government refused to issue construction permits for buildings on Park Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets until the bottleneck was resolved.

[65] The city started negotiating with New York Central to open the eastern leg of the viaduct, although the railroad was holding out unless it was granted property on Park Avenue.

[65][5][68] The project to complete the Park Avenue Viaduct proceeded after the proposal was certified by Charles L. Craig, the city controller, in 1925.

[11] As part of the plan, the viaduct's roadways would cross over 45th Street without intersection, descending to ground level within the building.

[65] New York Central was responsible for all of the component projects of construction, including the viaduct ramps and the pedestrian walkways, while the city government provided support.

[10] The collaboration was described by The New York Times as "a fine example of the way in which private undertakings, when intelligently coordinated with municipal interests, can bring about a real public improvement".

[75] The building topped out on April 5, 1928,[76] though Chauncey Depew, the chairman of the railroad's board of directors, had died several hours before the topping-out ceremony.

[11] The New York Central Building received a temporary occupancy certificate in December 1928,[11] and its roof was first lit in January 1929.

The 32nd floor had a boardroom with English wood paneling gifted by the Van Swearingen brothers (who were railroad barons), as well as the president's and chairman's suites.

[83] Salvatore Maranzano, a boss for the American Mafia, had an office on the ninth floor, where he worked for the Eagle Building Corporation.

[108] The Helmsley Building was owned by Helmsley-Spear until August 1998, when it was sold to the Max Capital Management Corporation for $225 million.

[109] Max Capital subsequently hired Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to design the building's $50 million renovation.

[111] In 2005, the Helmsley Building was sold again to Istithmar, an investment firm owned by the royal family of Dubai, for $705 million.

[129] As of 2020[update], tenants at the Helmsley Building include 5W Public Relations (5WPR),[130] Cornell University,[131] Comerica Bank,[132] Elsevier,[32][133] Encyclopædia Britannica,[134] HSH Nordbank AG,[135] LexisNexis,[136] the New York Court of Appeals,[134] Novartis,[137] Powermat,[138] Simon Property Group,[139] Six Flags,[140] Stanley Hand Tools,[134] Tokio Marine Management,[141] and Voya Financial.

[32] In addition, a food hall called Urban Space opened in 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) within the Helmsley Building in 2014.

George Shepard Chappell, writing for The New Yorker in 1928 and 1929, called it "a dramatic stop sign at the end of the thoroughfare", and described the lobby's styles as ranging "from Pullman to Paramount".

Nathan Silver wrote in his 1967 book Lost New York: "With its outline and decoration, [the Helmsley Building] was able to indicate clearly its relationship to the height of a man.

[146] Paul Goldberger of The New York Times wrote in 1978 that the Helmsley Building "picks up on the architectural elements of Park Avenue, but transforms them into something more exuberant".

[30] Christopher Gray, writing for the same newspaper, stated in 1996: "The middle section is handsome, but the top explodes like a Caribbean coral formation.

Architecture critic Royal Cortissoz called the clock "one of the most conspicuous sculptural decorations ever erected in the city".