114 West 47th Street
This outdoor but covered through block connection joining West 46th and 47th Streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues is stripped down for circulation. Polished granite façades frame the entrances, but the rest of the space is spare. Located under the western side of the building, the straight-shot corridor curves only by way of its wavy concrete paving surface. The white brick walls bring to mind older city subway stations. A porthole near West 47th Street offers a glimpse into the building lobby to the east, but the space is otherwise unconnected to anything but its two streets, in apparent conflict with the Zoning Resolution’s requirement of a connection to the lobby. No record of City approval for such a contradiction has been found.
This through block connection is the third link in a four-block chain from West 44th Street to West 48th Street. The network includes the through block connection at Millennium Broadway, the through block connection at Bertelsmann, and 1211 Sixth Avenue’s through block arcade to the north.