The Vanderbilt is a 42-story residential tower, which rises from a densely populated area of midtown Manhattan. Only a few blocks from such architectural landmarks as the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, and Raymond Hood’s Daily News Building, the Vanderbilt houses 370 residences designed to answer the needs of those who want to live in close proximity to their work as well as restaurants, libraries, the United Nations and the Theater District. The building’s residences range in size from studios to four-bedroom apartments while its exterior embraces a resolutely modernist idiom. Through a commitment to strict rectilinearity, the Vanderbilt retains a largely modular progression from base to summit and does not follow the traditional division into base, shaft, and lantern.

The most striking example of the Vanderbilt’s modernist idiom is the stunningly eccentric footprint of the building. Viewed from the Southwest perspective, there appear to be four towers rising up in sequence. Conceived for more than mere effect, the design allows the fullest amount of sunlight to enter the residential apartments while maximizing the views. To take advantage of this, the Vanderbilt has a cantilevered balcony at each setback corner of the tower, invoking a modernist motif dating back to Gordon Bunshaft’s Manhattan House on Third Avenue and 66th Street.

Among the amenities that distinguish the Vanderbilt is its public plaza designed by landscape architect Paul Friedberg along its East 40th Street entrance and a through-block automobile drop-off that runs between East 40th and East 41st Streets. The interior conveniences include a health spa complete with Olympic-sized swimming pool, laundry facilities, meeting rooms and resident parking.