1 New York Plaza

One New York Plaza

East and south sides
General information
Status Complete
Type Office
Location 1 New York Plaza, Manhattan, New York 10004, United States
Coordinates 40°42′08″N 74°00′42″W / 40.70214°N 74.01175°WCoordinates: 40°42′08″N 74°00′42″W / 40.70214°N 74.01175°W
Construction started 1967
Completed 1969
Opening 1970
Owner Brookfield Office Properties
Height
Roof 640 ft (195 m)
Technical details
Floor count 50
Floor area 2,587,000 sq ft (240,300 m2)
Lifts/elevators 45
Design and construction
Architect Kahn & Jacobs, Lescaze & Associates
Developer Atlas-McGrath
Structural engineer Aaron Garfinkel & Associates
Main contractor George A. Fuller Company

1 New York Plaza is an office building in New York City's Financial District, built in 1969 at the intersection of South and Whitehall Streets. It is the southernmost of all Manhattan skyscrapers.

The building is 640 feet (195 m) tall with 50 floors. The building was designed by William Lescaze & Assocs. and Kahn & Jacobs. The building has 2.556 million square feet of office space. There is a 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) retail concourse on the lower level.[1]

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.

Notable occupants of One New York Plaza include Salomon Brothers in its heyday, Goldman Sachs,[2] Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson,[2] and Morgan Stanley.[3]

History

North façade

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.[4]

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.[5]

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.

Incidents

One New York Plaza's air-conditioning chiller depends on Con Ed's New York City steam system.[6] 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.[2]

In October 2012, the building was heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy. An estimated 23 million gallons of water flooded the lower levels of the building. The retail concourse was completely submerged and needed to be completely gut renovated. Office tenants were allowed to return starting November 17, 2012[7] and the retail concourse reopened in the winter of 2015.[8]

See also

References

  1. "One New York Plaza in New York - New York". Brookfield Office Properties. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Burst Pipes Halt Goldman's Nasdaq Trading". Fox News.com. August 13, 2001.
  3. "Morgan Stanley to Move 2,300 Employees Downtown". LowerManhattan.info. 2005.
  4. "New York Architecture Images-ONE NEW YORK PLAZA". Nyc-architecture.com. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
  5. "U.S. Report on Trade Center Echoes Lessons of Past Disasters". 911research.wtc7.net. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
  6. "One New York Plaza Building Specifications" (PDF). Brookfield Properties. Retrieved 2011-03-29.
  7. Barbarino, Al (2013-01-11). "One New York Plaza Retail Concourse to Be Rebuilt After Post-Sandy Flooding". Commercial Observer. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
  8. Henderson, Jennifer (5 June 2014). "Brookfield Secures Retro Fitness as 1 New York Plaza Tenant". Commercial Observer. Retrieved 17 March 2015.

External links