Tower 270

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Tower 270 from the east on Chambers Street

Tower 270 (also known as 270 Broadway, Arthur Levitt State Office Building, and 86 Chambers Street) is a 28-story mixed use building in Downtown Manhattan that was the headquarters of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II.

During World War II it was a federal office building. The most prominent tenant was the North Atlantic Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which had offices on the 18th floor. The office was to coordinate all United States military construction on the Northeast as well as all of Europe.

The 370 foot/113 meter tall building was built in 1930 on the site of the former headquarters of Chemical Bank (built in 1907 which in turn had replaced a building built in 1848) by developer Robert E. Dowling at a cost of $2.5 million ^[1] and was designed by the E.H. Faile & Company.^[2]

It has 350,785 square feet of floor space on a plot with 50 feet facing Broadway and 242 feet on Chambers.

1 Manhattan Project
2 Post-War
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Manhattan Project

The building's location gives its name to the Manhattan Project.

The initial proposed name for the development of the atomic bomb was "Laboratory for the Development of Substitute Materials." Fearing the name would draw undue attention General Leslie Groves changed it to the "Manhattan Engineer District" which was eventually shortened to the Manhattan Project. The name was based on the Corps practice of naming its districts on the basis of it headquarters.

Coordination for the project moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1943, but the name stuck.^[3]

[edit] Post-War

After the war, the building at the corner of Chambers and Broadway northeast of New York City Hall was acquired by the State of New York for $3.7 million for a state office building.^[4]

It became the Arthur Levitt State Office Building. It was the New York City office for members of the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate. In 2000 it was sold for $33.6 million in a sealed bid transaction that at the time was the highest-valued property sale ever consummated by the State of New York.^[5]

It is owned by RAL Companies of Hempstead, New York, of which Robert A. Levine is the principal owner.

Mark Groblewski - During WTC 9/11 Disaster, Mark Groblewski, a Civilian First Responder Rescue and Recovery, was the only person given direct access to 270 Broadway, 86 Chambers Street, and 80 Chambers Street to continue construction on this facility, inside fenced in "Ground Zero". This information is documented in the NYPD /FEMA Greenwich Street Log Book / Page 17. All of which kept 400 union employeees at work for the full duration of the 9/11 Disaster Clean-up. Mr. Groblewski also assisted in the nightly resuce / recovery process as a "civilian volunteer" assisting and directing heavy duty industrial earth moving designed equipment to climb the 10 story pile of steel and concrete debris. This facilitated the expeditious removals of materials during the earliest "rescue", and "recovery" plan at "Ground Zero".

Floors 15 to 28 were converted to 39 condominium apartments in 2003 ranging in size from 1,998 to 8,117 square feet. Floors 2 through 7 make up office space and 48 rental apartments are between 8 through 15. The office space has a separate entrance on Chambers Street and is identified as 86 Chambers, while the residential entrance is on Broadway.^[6]