Marsh & McLennan Companies

Sw Eden visited MMC Plaza of Marsh & McLennan Companies in a sunny Wednesday afternoon. This place impressed me by how kind its owners are. The width of it can be the width of a building, and the length of it is the width of a street block. That is 45th street in Manhattan, New York City, and every square foot should be more than $1,000. In fact, the landowners could make a lot of profit if they built a commercial building. It is just two blocks from Time Square, and many rich people are around there.

Sculpture at Marsh & McLennan Companies Plaza (MMC Plaza), Manhattan, New York City
View MMC Plaza and Memorial set on Flickr

Sw Eden would like to comment it architecturally. MMC Plaza divides its city block into two with a nice pedestrian walkway and hangout space. They grow some tree to green people’s feeling. The only shop on its east side is a flower shop, which is very appropriate for the people around there. They are working people/officers, and they would have enough money to decorate their love life with these beautiful flowers. A New-York-like piece of sculpture sit on top of the flat-stepped waterfall. Sw Eden called it, “New-York-like” because it is made of many perpendicular (90 degree) angles which is just like New York City grid, but it can be looked in many different ways and as many different shapes which is like all the New Yorkers. “New York is one of the most open cities”, quote from Angelo Falcon on ‘The Latinization of New York’, AM New York newspaper, May 5, 2010. When Sw Eden was in Language school, the teacher kept saying that this city was the melting pot or mosaic.

Pedestrian Walk at the east of the plaza.
View MMC Plaza and Memorial set on Flickr

Below the New-York-like sculpture, there is the stepped waterfall which can add a natural sound of water to hide the traffic-noise pollution. This mean the architect did not just slow the walker speed down to the hangout area, he also prevented the plaza users to feel about the rush city.

Two different zones which the architect created to match up two sides of MMC Plaza is about 3 feet difference. The east side is higher than the west side. As Sw said that the only store in the east side is the flower store. The floor level of this flower store is the same height as the east pedestrian walk. For the west side which is 3 feet dropped down, I guess it is for continuation with the indented lobby area of 1166 46th street. It is not only the height of the space which speck the same language with the company, the architect used this lower height to create the harmony of the allowed sunlight to get into the building smoothly.

Flower shop at the east of MMC plaza
View MMC Plaza and Memorial set on Flickr

MMC Plaza is still show the good responsibility for the owners to what they created. They always have the security guard walk around to keep the plaza safe. They are not the cruel guys as many other places in New York, because they are so nice to the visitors. I talked to one of them shortly before I left. MMC Plaza also has custodians to keep the space clean for whole day. You can imagine what people do to the Central Park after they finish eating.

Milestones of MMC Plaza
View MMC Plaza and Memorial set on Flickr

A big glass memorial inscription says, “Our Lost Colleagues Are Above All ,…..”. They define all the families and loving people and following with the list of the name. I do not know much about detail. You should do a little research on Wikipedia. I love that it has two layers lay on top of each other nicely with the name and signature. All these are really nice impressive space in our midtown. You must look at it once you are the NYers!

**Why don’t we walk 10 feet from here to get cheap books/CDs at Book Off store? (Click to read more)