1 New York Plaza is an office building in New York City, built in 1969, and is located at the intersection of South and Whitehall Streets (). It is the southernmost of all Manhattan skyscrapers.
| One New York Plaza | |
|---|---|
Façade of One New York Plaza at ground level. |
|
| General information | |
| Status | Complete |
| Type | Office |
| Location | New York, New York USA |
| Construction started | 1967 |
| Completed | 1969 |
| Opening | 1970 |
| Height | |
| Roof | 640 ft (195 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 50 |
| Floor area | 2,587,000 sq ft (240,300 m2) |
| Elevator count | 45 |
| Design and construction | |
| Main contractor | Tishman Construction |
| Architect | Kahn & Jacobs, Lescaze & Associates |
| Structural engineer | Super Structures, Inc |
Contents |
In 1959 the City of New York attempted to acquire through eminent domain the land under this development as part of the Battery Park Urban Renewal Area. The plan involved consolidating several blocks into a "superblock" for public housing. When that plan fell through the city hoped to entice the New York Stock Exchange to relocate to the property. However the owner of the property—the firm of Atlas McGrath—successfully sued to retain their land, claiming they were more than willing to develop the site privately.[1]
The building is 640 feet (195 m) tall with 50 floors. The building was designed by William Lescaze & Assocs. and Kahn & Jacobs.
The facade was designed by Nevio Maggiora, consisting of a boxlike "beehive" pattern with the windows recessed within, made of aluminum-clad wall elements resembling a type of thermally activated elevator button popular at the time of construction.
On August 5, 1970, the building suffered a fire in which two people were killed and 35 injured. The deaths were caused after an occupied elevator was "summoned" to the burning floor when one of the thermally-activated call buttons - designed to react to a warm finger tapping it - reacted instead to the heat of the fire on that floor.[2]
The building was renovated in 1994, and repainted from a dark Black/Grey Color scheme to a lighter White/Light Grey color. Today One New York Plaza stands as one of the more prominent buildings of Lower Manhattan, being the southernmost skyscraper on Manhattan.
Notable occupants of One New York Plaza include Goldman Sachs,[3] Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson,[3] and Morgan Stanley.[4]
One New York Plaza's air-conditioning chiller depends on Con Ed's Manhattan steam-power network.[5] On August 11, 2001, a steam turbine failed in the basement, and the damage from the resulting explosion disrupted Goldman's market-making NASDAQ activities for the day.[3]