Architectural Photography Rebrands the World Diamond Tower in NYC at 580 5th Ave NYC

Sometimes my duties as an architectural photographer are to review the existing visual assets or shot list and decide how to supplement and improve them.  In this case, there were many historical images and architectural photographs of the World Diamond Tower at 580 Fifth Avenue from a long life as a major player in the commercial real estate market. Some of the assets, such as photos with guards in the lobby and the thin vertical aspect ratio of many of the earlier images, made it clear where there were opportunities for me to supply images that would aid in the upcoming web redesign (which would include a number of banner advertisements).  Another item that was missing was viewed from various floors of the building showing how well centered the building was in Manhattan, looking both North and South along its 5th Avenue axes.   

580 Fifth Avenue in NYC is at the heart of Midtown and the Diamond District. The Warren and Wetmore building consists of three properties linked via a sprawling lobby, which also serves as an outpost for the NYC police and International shipping for many of the local diamond merchants. The main tower was constructed in 1924 and there was a recent remodeling of the lobby and main commercial space by Beyer Blinder Belle in 2016 for $8.5 million.

In our pre-production meeting via Zoom with property manager, Brian Kern, we learned what he wanted and proposed some ideas about interior and exterior images. Given that most people will see the building online, I recommended clean graphic images that would captivate the viewer. We opted for a Friday as this is when food traffic in the area would be at the slowest due to the Jewish Sabbath. We agreed to wait for the soonest Friday after the new year that would have clear skies. Our shoot had been postponed once due to a high Covid infection rate in the area and another time due to a snowstorm and water main break, so everyone was eager for some nice weather. We also agreed that shooting at dawn to capture the building at the “magic hour” would be better because we would have fewer people bundled up in coats in the image as opposed to shooting it at dusk, where mask-wearing winter coat clad people would distract.

For our shoot in mid-February it turns out morning magic hour is between 5:30 - 6:15am.  It was exhilarating to drive around NYC so early with no traffic and I was thrilled when my assistant Fernando Souto turned up on his trusty bicycle.  We ran to the building, dropped off the extra stands and lighting, and ran back into the cold to face the dawn.  I knew the building already had a daylight exterior shot from the 2016 renovation by BBB, and I wanted to create a dawn image that was blue and moody so the designer could choose between two great options.  Once we finished on street level we ran up to the top floor to try and capture the dawn glow as tail lights snaked south in midtown. 

 One of the other challenges of shooting the lobby was to capture it without people.  Nothing dates an image faster than a person in pink Ugg boots so to create more timeless images we opt out of the latest fashions   This being the middle of the Covid pandemic, there was also a large plexiglass safety box situated on top of the reception desk, which would have to be removed in post production.  Brian had told us Fridays were slow but there was still a huge amount of traffic through the space at 7am.  It was great to see the renovation holding up so well, which is a huge credit to those who work so hard behind the scenes.  Capturing all the elevator lobbies was like herding cats but being patient paid off and we were able to find a few moments of calm in a hectic day. 

 Even though it wasn’t the best time of the year to capture the exterior of the building, we selected a time of day where the reflected light off the other building would create the same type of shimmer as a well-cut diamond.  We took over 100 exposures from this angle to ensure we could composite an exterior that felt like NYC but not too busy and not too many people running around in masks to avoid dating the images.  As the main commercial tenant was Sephora it was important to show their presence at the pedestrian level.  We removed 14 construction cones from in front of the building along 48th street to reduce the visual noise.  

To me the most overlooked part of the existing website was the lack of views of the surrounding the area. This was a little tricky to remedy but with the aid of the building super we were able to hop in and out of elevators and onto various roof decks and offices to capture the breathtaking views. After we completed the main shot of the building at 5:50 am we ran up to the 32nd floor to capture the view both north and south along Fifth Avenue. It was spectacular. In the end the view from the balcony on the 20th floor proved the best compromise between the 32nd and 10th floor which either seemed too tall or too low compared to the other buildings in the surrounding area. I knew the client needed an image that could be cropped for banner advertisements and the one seemed to really have a lot of interest and architectural variety.

Below is the view North taken at 6 am. The goal was for the trailing car lights to create a dramatic effect along Fifth Avenue. Anyone familiar with architecture can see St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, the Citicorp Building, and a few of the newer skyscrapers a mile uptown. Sadly, there wasn’t a roof deck at the 32nd floor so we put the camera on a low Foba tripod and used my black jacket to block any stay light that could cause reflections. As much as I love Johnny Cash for his music I rely on his fashion advise about dressing in all black, which really helps in avoiding and reducing reflections in creating images such as this one. Once again the goal was to provide our client with a fresh perspective of their building and give them a direction in rebranding. As always everything was shot using Canon camera bodies and lenses.

New York City commercial real estate is very competitive so it’s very helpful to always have an updated website and samples for potential clients to have comparables, or comps, as real estate professionals say. The final goal was to capture some of the recently completed private offices and show the lavish build outs. This is the direction the owners were hoping for so our photography was to highlight the best of the existing space to inspire new tenants to lease in the World Diamond Tower. This office below had recently been renovated with dark wood trim and a recessed light well. It’s very dramatic, much like many of the characters who work here and provide the best diamonds in the jewelry business, including a $4,000,000 canary yellow diamond which we saw. The hope is that the new tenants and customers will continue to grow and evolve like the building itself.

“As Cindy Adams used to say Only in New York, kids, only in New York.”