32 Avenue of the Americas

Thirty-two Avenue of the Americas served as the nerve center for global communication as the world’s largest hub for long-distance telephone operations. When it was completed in 1932, the massive building was designed specifically for American Telephone and Telegraph to handle the growing volume of voice traffic across the country. Architects at the firm of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker chose an Art Deco style that celebrated the era of the machine, with a facade of varied, earthy brick tones meant to evoke a massive, solid mountain of technology. The design team even adopted a recurring motif of weaving in the building's ornamentation as a tribute to the telephone operators of the time, whom the company famously nicknamed the Weavers of Speech.