Fred F. French Building

The Fred F. French Building stands at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Forty-Fifth Street as one of the city's most prominent examples of a business palace from the late nineteen twenties. Completed in nineteen twenty-seven, it was designed as the corporate headquarters for real estate developer Fred Fillmore French. The structure is famous for its proto-Art Deco style, which draws heavily from Ancient Near Eastern and Mesopotamian architecture. You can see these influences in the tower's dramatic setbacks, which mimic the shape of ancient ziggurats, and in the colorful, decorative faience tiles that adorn its upper reaches.