1 Wall Street
Residential skyscraper in Manhattan, New York From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1 Wall Street (also known as the Irving Trust Company Building, the Bank of New York Building, and the BNY Mellon Building) is a mostly-residential skyscraper at the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Designed in the Art Deco style, the building is 654 feet (199 m) tall and consists of two sections. The original 50-story building was designed by Ralph Thomas Walker of the firm Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker and constructed between 1929 and 1931 for Irving Trust, an early-20th-century American bank. A 36-story annex to the south was designed by successor firm Voorhees, Walker Smith Smith & Haines and built between 1963 and 1965.
| 1 Wall Street | |
|---|---|
 Seen from the east in 2010 | |
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| General information | |
| Status | Completed |
| Type | Mixed use (residential and commercial) |
| Architectural style | Art Deco |
| Location | Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 40°42′26″N 74°00′42″W |
| Construction started | 1929 (original building) 1963 (annex) |
| Completed | 1931 (original building) 1965 (annex) |
| Opening | March 24, 1931 |
| Renovated | 2018–2023 |
| Owner | Macklowe Properties |
| Height | |
| Roof | 654 ft (199 m) |
| Top floor | 52[lower-alpha 1] |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 50 |
| Floor area | 1,165,645 sq ft (108,292.0 m2) |
| Lifts/elevators | 41 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Ralph Walker |
| Developer | Irving Trust |
| Main contractor | Marc Eidlitz |
| References | |
| [1][2] | |
| Designated | March 13, 2001[3] |
| Reference no. | 2029[3] |
| Designated entity | Original building: exterior |
| Designated | June 25, 2024 |
| Reference no. | 2679 |
| Designated entity | Red Room: interior |
| Part of | Wall Street Historic District |
| Reference no. | 07000063[4] |
The facade, made of limestone, contains slight inwardly-curved bays with fluting to resemble curtains. On the lower stories are narrow windows with mullions, as well as ornate entrances. The massing of 1 Wall Street incorporates numerous small setbacks, and the top of the original building consists of a freestanding tower. The corners of the original building consist of chamfers, while the top of the tower has fluted windowless bays. The facade of the annex is crafted in a style reminiscent of the original structure. The original building has an ornate lobby, known as the Red Room, with colored mosaics. Originally, the 10th through 45th floors were rented to outside tenants, while the other floors contained offices, lounges, and other spaces for Irving Trust. After 1 Wall Street's residential conversion, the upper stories have contained 566 condominium apartments.
At the time of its construction, 1 Wall Street occupied what was considered one of the most valuable plots in the city. The building replaced three previous structures, including the Manhattan Life Insurance Building, which was once considered the world's tallest building. After Irving Trust was acquired by The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) in 1988, 1 Wall Street subsequently served as BNY Mellon's global headquarters through 2015. After Harry Macklowe purchased the building, he renovated it from 2018 to 2023, converting the interior to residential units with some commercial space.
The building is one of New York City's Art Deco landmarks, despite initially remaining ignored in favor of such buildings as the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. The original portion of the building and its Red Room are designated city landmarks, and the structure is a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places district.
1 Wall Street occupies the entire block in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, bounded by Broadway to the west, Wall Street to the north, New Street to the east, and Exchange Place to the south. 1 Wall Street is adjacent to the Adams Express Building, 65 Broadway, the Empire Building, Trinity Church, and Trinity Church's churchyard to the west; the American Surety Company Building to the north; 14 Wall Street to the northeast; the New York Stock Exchange Building to the east; and 52 Broadway to the south.[5] Entrances to the New York City Subway's Wall Street station, served by the 4 and 5 trains, are adjacent to the building.[6]
Because of the curves in the facade, the original structure does not completely occupy its full land lot; instead, 180 square feet (17 m2) is used as a sidewalk. At the chamfered corners of the building, the facade is recessed by up to 7.5 feet (2.3 m) from the lot line. Consequently, when 1 Wall Street was built, its main occupant Irving Trust embedded small metal plaques to delineate the boundaries of its lot.[7][8][9] Under municipal law, any private land that was adjacent to public property (but not clearly marked as such) would eventually revert to the government of New York City. The presence of the plaques was meant to preclude such a seizure.[10]
The original building was designed by Ralph Walker of the Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker in the Art Deco style. The annex was designed by Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker's successor firm Voorhees, Walker Smith Smith & Haines.[11][2][12] Everett Meeks, the dean of the Yale School of Art, was the building's design consultant.[13] The original building reaches 50 stories and stands 654 feet (199 m) tall.[2][12][14] The southern annex was originally 28 stories tall with a height of about 391 feet (119 m),[15] but, in 2019, it was expanded to 36 stories[2][16] with a height of about 494 feet (151 m).[17] Dormer structures of up to two stories are located on the tops of both sections.[16]
Although author Daniel Abramson said 1 Wall Street was "Art Deco in many respects",[18] historian Anthony Robins characterized the building as being "Gothic Modern—a skyscraper reflection of Trinity Church".[19] Walker had designed other Art Deco buildings in the New York City area, mainly telecommunications structures. These included the Barclay–Vesey Building (1927), New Jersey Bell Headquarters Building (1929), 60 Hudson Street (1930), and 32 Avenue of the Americas (1932), as well as telephone buildings in Upstate New York.[20]
Form and facade
1 Wall Street's facade is made primarily of limestone.[21][22][23] This contrasts with the brick facades of Walker's telecommunications buildings, the use of which was likely influenced by Dutch and German Expressionism.[21][24] At the time of 1 Wall Street's construction, limestone was a relatively expensive material and was rarely used for a building's entire facade, with cheaper brick being used instead.[25] 1 Wall Street also contains numerous setbacks on its exterior. Though setbacks in New York City skyscrapers were mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution in order to allow light and air to reach the streets below,[20][26] they later became a defining feature of the Art Deco style.[27] The facade contains uninterrupted vertical piers, similar to other Art Deco buildings. Although the piers emphasize the building's height, Walker said this effect was not the main goal of his design.[23]
Original building
The original 1931 building is on the northern portion of the site. The first twenty stories occupy almost the entire site.[25][28] The building contains a series of small setbacks starting at the 21st story[11][16][29] and continuing until the 35th story, above which a slender tower rises.[11][16] The setbacks on the Broadway and Wall Street elevations alternate with each other.[14] The southern portion of the original building rises as high as a dormer on the 37th floor, though the 36th floor is the highest story that also connects to the annex.[16] The original structure measures 179 feet (55 m) on Broadway by 102 feet (31 m) on Wall Street.[11][30][31] The tower stories, from the 37th to the 48th floors, measure 60 by 80 feet (18 by 24 m) each.[29] The top two stories constituted an executive penthouse.[32][33]
Walker emphasized the design of the building's facade, rather than the massing, as was done for other early-20th-century skyscrapers in Lower Manhattan.[14] The facade contains several decorative elements that make it appear as an organic design, rather than a machine-produced design.[21] The facade has indented vertical bays with fluting that are arranged like curtains,[10][12][21][34] although it could also resemble a cliff-like natural shape from different angles.[28] Walker said the building would "have 200 thousand people looking at it from all sides" in a single year, including workers and pedestrians, and he wanted them to have "mental relief and pleasure" when looking at the building.[21][35][36] Walker also said he "tried to superimpose one rhythm upon a basic rhythm"; as such, he treated the facade as a series of "rhythmic motifs" in different sizes.[11][37][38] The resulting concave bays were angled inward at a pitch of 1:9.[36] Each of the bays is separated by curved, projecting piers that rise to each setback.[37][39] Several piers also contain vertical incisions for emphasis.[40] The windows of the original building contained custom curved frames to fit into the facade,[34][9] which added $40,000 to the construction cost.[36]
The base of the original building is composed of the lowest three stories. The section of the base along Wall Street is eight bays wide, with a double-width entrance in the middle of the Wall Street facade, which is reached by a short flight of stairs and leads to the main lobby.[40] The entryway is framed by a jagged portal.[10] The sections of the base on Broadway and New Street are seventeen bays wide.[40] On the New Street elevation, the name "Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker" is printed in cursive script.[41] There is an exposed granite basement on New Street with a service entrance.[42] On the upper floors, each of the bays has a single sash window on each floor.[40] The northwestern and northeastern corners of the building both contain chamfers,[23][40] which visually connect the west, north, and east elevations of the facade.[23]
Annex
The southern annex, completed in 1965, is also mostly made of limestone.[11] On the New Street side, there are setbacks above the 5th and 10th floors; the building then rises as a slender slab with setbacks on the 29th, 34th, and 35th floors.[16] Along Broadway, the facade of the annex was originally recessed behind that of the original building by two bays.[40]
In 2018, an entrance to the retail space was constructed in front of the annex;[43] the entrance is clad with glass.[43][44] The entrance structure ranges between one and seven stories high. The facade of the 2018 addition projects forward to the facade of the original structure.[16] Five to six stories were also built atop the initial portion of the annex.[45][46] In total, according to zoning documents, the annex measures 180 feet (55 m) on Broadway and 132.5 feet (40.4 m) on Exchange Place.[16]
Features
| External videos | |
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 Tour an Art Deco Masterpiece, The Daily 360 , The New York Times |
The building contains 10 elevators as of 2019,[47][48] compared with 43 elevators and 14 escalators prior to the residential conversion.[2] When built, 1 Wall Street contained 29 elevators,[11][49] some of which were near the building's exterior walls.[48] Irving Trust had six private elevators,[49] accessed from Wall Street.[50] The rest of the building contained three groups of elevators, serving the lower, intermediate, or upper floors;[51] these elevators could be reached from Broadway, New Street, or the subway.[50] Because the New Street side of the building was lower than the Broadway side,[52] engineers configured the original elevator shafts so that double-deck elevators could be installed if necessary,[49][52] but these double-deck elevators were never built.[53] At its completion, 1 Wall Street was the first office structure in Lower Manhattan to use alternating current for electric power. It contained a network of pneumatic tubes for sending documents between floors.[11] When 1 Wall Street was converted to residential use, all of the elevators were moved to the center of the building.[48][54]
There is 1,165,645 sq ft (108,292 m2) of interior space,[1] of which the original building had 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) of floor space.[9][51][55] The original building's first through 21st stories each contained 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2).[9] There are also five basement levels under the original structure, three of which were below sea level.[51][56] A corridor inside 1 Wall Street's basement, stretching between Broadway and New Street, provided access to the northbound platform of the Wall Street station,[57][58] but it was converted to a communications room by 2000.[59] Upon the building's opening, Irving Trust occupied the basements, lowest ten floors, and uppermost three floors of 1 Wall Street.[11][55][60][61] Following its 2018–2021 conversion, 1 Wall Street contained 678,000 square feet (63,000 m2) of residential space and 166,000 square feet (15,400 m2) of commercial space.[62] The top stories of the annex (completed in the 2020s) were largely built as voided slabs with hollow plastic spheres embedded into the concrete, which reduced the weight of the floor slabs.[46][63] The glass retail addition is cantilevered outward from the original annex, avoiding the need to drill into the Wall Street subway station, which is located directly underneath the retail addition.[46]
Red Room and lobby
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At ground level is the Red Room, a large space with a ceiling 30 feet (9.1 m),[64] 33 feet (10 m),[65] or 37 feet (11 m) high.[40] The Red Room measures 100 feet (30 m) long, stretching between the western and eastern facades, and 40 feet (12 m) wide.[13][51] Walker and his associate Perry Coke Smith designed the room, while Hildreth Meière was hired as a "color consultant".[13][37] The space was intended mainly as a reception room[11][51][66] and was accessed primarily from Wall Street to the north.[61][67] The Red Room had no tellers' counters since Irving Trust was a commercial bank, rather than a savings bank.[66][64] Lewis Pierson of Irving Trust described the Red Room as a place "where we shall meet our customers and friends".[66] In addition, unlike earlier banking rooms such as those in the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building and National City Bank Building, the Red Room did not contain classical-style decorations.[64]
The room is shaped like an oblong polygon, and there are few right angles within the space.[64] On the north wall is a bronze-clad entrance vestibule, while on the south wall are frosted double glass doors leading to the elevator foyer. There are arched windows on the eastern and western walls, as well as doors on the northern and southern walls. Each of the windows to the east and west has a deep sill, and there are also lancet windows on either side of the entrance to the north. There are radiators with ornate bronze grilles beneath each window.[67] When Irving Trust occupied the building, the Red Room did not have permanent furniture, but it did have chairs and desks.[68] The brokers' loan officers had desks next to the eastern wall, while the officers of Irving Trust's city office sat at desks near the western wall.[69]
Although the building was completed just after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Red Room's design included ornate materials to attract customers.[70] The floor is made of red terrazzo tiles.[28][37] Walker and Smith personally supervised the creation of the floor tiles in Berlin.[37] The walls and ceilings are decorated with 8,911 square feet (827.9 m2)[71] or 13,000 square feet (1,200 m2) of mosaics,[65] which were designed by Meière and manufactured by the Ravenna Mosaic Company in Long Island City and Berlin.[65][71] The color scheme of the mosaic ranges from red-on-blue on the walls to gold-on-black on the ceiling.[28][69] The mosaic gradually becomes lighter near the ceiling, thus drawing visitors' attention toward the ceiling.[67][72] The mosaic also contains abstract gold patterns.[72] The remainders of the walls are made of Pyrenees black marble, and the columns are made of Verona red marble, similar to a design used in the Stockholm City Hall.[37][55][61] The two columns are placed on an east-west axis and have bronze capitals.[67] The ceiling had an allegorical painting measuring 20 by 66 feet (6.1 by 20.1 m), depicting the influence of wealth on the creation of beauty.[53][55][61] Meière and Kimon Nicolaïdes designed the painting.[53][73] At the northern and southern ends of the room, the ceiling slants slightly upward.[74]
South of the entrance is a foyer that runs between Broadway and New Street, with two polygonal piers.[69] The foyer in turn connected directly to the building's elevators.[50] The Broadway and New Street lobby had walls made of Pyrenees black marble.[9][61] When the annex was built, the expanded lobby floor was clad in travertine, and the original lobby's ceiling was covered with a dropped ceiling.[53]
Upper floors
As with other early-20th-century skyscrapers in the Financial District, the lower stories had large floor areas for the building's primary tenant, Irving Trust, while the upper stories were smaller.[75] The lowest 21 floors each spanned about 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2).[9] Irving Trust occupied the first ten stories,[11] using their large floor areas to house its clerical staff.[76] The second floor originally contained Irving Trust's Wall Street office, which served businesses in the Financial District.[77] The third floor was for the bank's corporate and personal trust divisions.[77][76] The fifth floor contained the bank's executive offices, wainscoted with wood from around the world, while the sixth floor accommodated the out-of-town and foreign divisions and a telephone room for long-distance calls.[77]
The 10th through 45th floors were rented to outside tenants.[11][51][53] Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker were not responsible for the layout of the offices, instead hiring specialists for that task.[78] Architectural firms also designed some of the offices; for example, the Fiduciary Trust Company's 30th-story offices were designed by Delano and Aldrich, while the offices on the 31st story were designed by Cross & Cross.[79] Generally, law firms and financial firms leased entire stories for themselves.[80] These included brokerage house Bear Stearns, which hired H. J. Horvath & Company and designer W. A. Zwicke to subdivide its 10th-floor space into various offices and other rooms.[81]
Irving Trust's dining room was on the 46th floor. The directors' room, on the 47th floor, contained 18-foot-high (5.5 m) wooden wainscoting, as well as directors' chairs arranged in a semicircle.[49] The stories above it had dining spaces and a three-story observation lounge; these spaces contained Art Deco furnishings.[37][53] The executive lounge, at the 49th story, had a ceiling made of gold-leaf seashells,[22][32][82] as well as walls covered with multicolored patterned fabrics.[32][83] The executive lounge also had a triple-height ceiling, fluted walls, teak floors, and a fireplace,[84] as well as four full-height windows that faced each of the cardinal directions.[32] The walls were also decorated with depictions of Native American war bonnets.[28]
After 1 Wall Street's residential conversion, there have been 566 condominium apartments, of which 304 are studios and one-bedroom units. Forty-seven of the condominiums have private decks.[47][48][65] The condominiums are designed by SLCE Architects.[48][85] The upper three floors were converted into a three-story penthouse apartment with 12,965 square feet (1,204.5 m2), four bedrooms and four bathrooms, as well as a private library and chef's kitchen.[62][65] Other apartments included model units designed by FrenchCalifornia, Elizabeth Graziolo, and Cyril Vergniol.[86][87] There are also amenities such as a 75-foot (23 m) indoor swimming pool, 39th-floor observation deck, library, golf simulator, dog spa, and playroom,[44][48][65] as well as a lounge and a private restaurant.[88] The building also contains communal spaces with kitchens, phone booths, AV equipment, and printers.[89] These amenities are mostly clustered in the annex,[43] occupying the 38th and 39th floors.[86][87] Lifetime Fitness operates an athletic club within the building,[90] and there is also a coworking space known as One Works.[91]
Vault
Irving Trust's bank vault, weighing 5,000 short tons (4,500 long tons; 4,500 t),[61] was located 69 to 72 feet (21 to 22 m) below ground level. At the time of the building's 1931 completion, the vault was the second-largest in the city and third-largest in the world, behind those of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building and the Bank of England.[34][55][92] The vault was encased on three sides by a 6-foot-thick (1.8 m) wall composed of iron, steel, and concrete;[55][61][92] the fourth side was composed of 3 feet (0.91 m) of concrete and a thick layer of metal.[61]
The vault had three stories, of which the top level was used by safe-deposit customers, and the lower floors stored Irving Trust's own fortunes.[11][61][93] Each story had 2,700 square feet (250 m2) of space.[11][93][94] There were six vault doors,[95] each measuring 30 inches (760 mm) thick;[95][96] the doors were laced with chemicals that reportedly emitted "paralyzing fumes" if a robber tried to open the door using a blowtorch.[96] The two main doors on the upper level, and one door on each of the other levels, weighed 45 short tons (40 long tons; 41 t) each.[95] A tank of water, as well as chemical, electrical, and mechanical systems, were used to deter break-ins.[92][95][97]
Previous structures
Northern portion
Since the settlement of New Amsterdam in the 17th century, only three buildings on the northern portion of the current skyscraper's site had carried the address 1 Wall Street. The first was a 17th-century stone house, and the second was built in the 19th century.[98][99] The third such structure was an 18-story office building built in 1907 and designed by St. Louis-based firm Barnett, Haynes & Barnett.[100][101] The structure was known as the "Chimney Building"[102][103][104] or the "'chimney corner' building",[105] and its footprint measured only 29 by 39 feet (8.8 by 11.9 m).[106][107] The Chimney Building was developed by a syndicate from St. Louis, headed by Festus Wade of the St. Louis Mercantile Trust Company.[102] In mid-1905, the company paid $700,000 for the 1,131-square-foot (105.1 m2) plot, or an average of $576 per square foot ($6,200/m2).[108][109] The next year, the syndicate announced that it would start erecting an 18-story structure at 1 Wall Street.[110] The Chimney Building was completed in 1907,[107] and for years afterward, its site was regarded as the world's most valuable.[103]
Adjoining the Chimney Building were between three and five other structures, ranging from approximately 10 to 20 stories high.[104][111] The oldest of these was the Union Trust Building, which was erected in 1889 and had 8-foot-thick (2.4 m) masonry walls because engineers of the time did not know how much steel the building required.[111] One of the twelve-story structures surrounded the Chimney Building, and in 1926, this structure and the Chimney Building were sold to a syndicate of bankers.[103] The writer Washington Irving, the namesake of the Irving Trust Company, had occupied a house at 3 Wall Street several years before the building's development.[9][112]
Southern portion
The southern half of the block contained two structures: the Manhattan Life Insurance Building on the north and the Knickerbocker Trust Company Building to the south. The 18-story Manhattan Life Building, completed in 1894, was located in the middle of the block at 64 Broadway.[113] The Manhattan Life Building was slightly extended north in 1904 to encompass all lots between 64 and 70 Broadway.[114]
The Knickerbocker Trust Company bought the land immediately south of the Manhattan Life Building in early 1906,[115] and finalized building plans the next year.[116] The 22-story Knickerbocker Trust building at 60 Broadway was completed in 1909[117] and contained a ground-floor banking room, a private penthouse restaurant, and eight elevators.[115] There was a 23-foot-wide (7.0 m) space between the Manhattan Life and Knickerbocker Trust buildings.[115] A 10-inch (250 mm) strip of land on the northern side of the gap was sold to John E. Schermerhorn in 1912.[118] The Schermerhorn family subsequently built an eight-story structure at 62 Broadway, within the gap.[119]
Development
The idea for the current skyscraper was attributed to Irving Trust president Harry Ward.[120] Irving Trust, founded in 1851, had merged with numerous other banks in preceding years,[121][122] and the firm had outgrown its offices in 60 Broadway, the Equitable Building, and the Woolworth Building.[123] When the building was proposed, the bank was known as American Exchange Irving Trust, having merged in 1926 with the American Exchange-Pacific National Bank.[122][124] During the mid- and late 1920s, many Art Deco office buildings were constructed in New York City, peaking around 1929 and 1930.[123][125] Additionally, banks in Manhattan were clustering around Wall Street, and the corner of Broadway and Wall Street was seen as a valuable location.[126][127]
Planning
By April 1928, the Central Union Trust Company controlled the buildings from 64 to 80 Broadway, and reportedly planned to build a 36-story structure at the site of the Chimney Building.[128] The following month, American Exchange Irving Trust bought the Chimney Building along with three adjacent structures at 7 Wall Street, and 74 and 80 Broadway, in exchange for $5.5 million in cash and a $9 million mortgage.[105][30][31] The transaction cost approximately $725 per square foot ($7,800/m2).[30] Following the sale, the Central Union Trust Company moved to the Manhattan Life Building[105] and modified the structures at 60, 62, and 70 Broadway.[129]
Immediately after the purchase, Irving Trust announced it would erect an office building on the site.[130][131] This announcement occurred amid an increase in the number of large banks in New York City.[131] The company's board of directors founded a sub-committee for construction oversight, and several Irving Trust employees formed the One Wall Street Unit to coordinate logistical planning for the new skyscraper. Thirty-five potential architects were identified and interviewed extensively.[31] Ultimately, in June 1928, Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker were hired to design the structure,[132] and Marc Eidlitz was hired as builder.[31] Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker filed plans with the Manhattan Bureau of Buildings the next month.[133] The initial plans, known as Scheme B1,[130] called for a 46- or 52-story building[130][133] on a plot of 178 by 101 feet (54 by 31 m).[133] The plans called for two banking rooms at ground level.[130]
An August 1928 memorandum between the architects and Irving Trust prompted several changes to the plans. Among those were separate elevators for bank employees and rental tenants; the removal of retail spaces and luncheon clubs; and the addition of a common reception lobby.[134] In October 1928, local newspapers reported that Irving Trust had accepted "final plans" for a 44-story building rising 560 feet (170 m).[127][135] This design resembled the current structure, with setbacks and a curving facade.[136] The actual final plans, filed in June 1929, provided for a 50-story structure.[31] The 1929 plans were released after Irving Trust applied for, and received, a zoning variance that allowed the base's first setback to be higher than would normally be allowed. The variance also allowed for a shallower setback, and the tower was allowed to cover more than 25 percent of the lot, the maximum lot coverage ratio typically allowed under the 1916 Zoning Resolution.[29]
Construction
Construction on the site of 1 Wall Street began in May 1929,[137] with the demolition of the four buildings on the northern portion of the site.[106][138] Several engineering professors from Columbia University were hired as consultants for the demolition process.[139] Work was complicated by the fact that one of the previous buildings on the site had extremely sturdy walls ranging from 4 to 10 feet (1.2 to 3.0 m) thick.[140] The Indiana Limestone Company was hired to supply the building's Indiana limestone.[141] During December 1929, Ward sent engraved letters to 500 nearby property owners, apologizing for the noise created during the riveting process; this generated positive publicity for the building in both the local and national press.[142] Walker and his associate Perry Coke Smith designed a large banking room called the Red Room for the lower stories, and Walker hired Hildreth Meière to design the mosaics for the Red Room.[13][37][70] Smith and Meière collaborated on the Red Room's color scheme, while Lynn Fausett helped draw out the designs for the room.[143][68]
The ceremonial cornerstone was laid on January 15, 1930.[56][144][145] During the construction process, nearby structures such as Trinity Church were shored up.[11] That March, Irving Trust signed an agreement with the Interborough Rapid Transit Company—at the time, one of the operators of the city's subway system—to build three new entrances to the Wall Street station on Broadway and another entrance in 1 Wall Street's basement.[146] Excavations began in July 1930,[56] and work on the building itself began that August.[11] Timekeepers and auditors checked employees' attendance, as well as job runners, who delivered architectural drawings and ensured that materials were delivered.[147] The frame involved the installation of 250,000 rivets and was completed within five months of the groundbreaking without any serious incidents.[148][149] The Ravenna Mosaic Company was hired to manufacture mosaics for the Red Room,[65][71] and six workers from a mosaic-tile labor union helped Ravenna's workers install the mosaics.[68]
When the steel frame topped out on May 12, 1930, workers hoisted an evergreen tree to the top of the frame. While the workers were securing the final rivets, a hot steel rivet fell from the building's top and hit a truck below, narrowly missing the truck driver's head and causing a small fire on the street.[148][149] The exterior was completed by August 1930.[51] Several hundred boxcars were used to transport the building's Indiana limestone to New York City;[lower-alpha 2] according to railroad workers, it was the largest-ever such order.[34] Before being used in the building, the limestone blocks went to a workshop in Long Island City, where they were carved to meet the building's specifications.[11][34]
Irving Trust use
By December 1930, Irving Trust announced that 80 percent of the space had been leased in the nearly-completed building.[60] Tenants started moving into 1 Wall Street by mid-March 1931, before its formal opening,[150] at which point it was 85% occupied.[9] Among the tenants were several members of the New York Stock Exchange and Curb Exchange.[150] The Irving Trust Company moved into the building on March 23, 1931. Two hundred guards armed with machine guns moved the bank's $8 billion holdings from its former location at the Woolworth Building.[92][151][152] The same day, 1 Wall Street opened to public use, with thousands of visitors.[153][154] By that time, the building was 90 percent occupied.[152] Shortly afterward, the Fiduciary Trust Company of New York also moved its banking quarters to the 30th floor, making that space the highest banking quarters in New York City.[155][156] In a 1938 incident, an electrical transformer on the 21st-story setback blew up; though the windows were shaken, nobody was injured.[157][158] An air-conditioning system was installed at 1 Wall Street in 1953.[159]
The original building soon became too small to accommodate the operations of Irving Trust and its tenants. Accordingly, in 1961, Irving Trust purchased the three buildings at 60, 62, and 70 Broadway from Hanover Bank, thereby giving Irving Trust control of the entire block between Broadway, Wall Street, New Street, and Exchange Place.[160][161] The company initially anticipated that the annex would cost $25 million.[162][163] Voorhees, Walker Smith Smith & Haines were hired to design the annex,[164] while Turner Construction was hired as the main contractor.[165] By mid-1963, the site had been cleared;[164] in advance of the work, Irving Trust took a sublease at 2 Broadway.[166] To finance construction, Irving Trust sold the building to a subsidiary, which then sold $30 million of secured notes to investors.[167] Renovations also took place in the original building; tenants continued to use 1 Wall Street during construction, but the vault in the basement was emptied. A refrigeration plant was installed on the annex's roof to provide air-conditioning to both buildings,[168] and cooling machinery was also installed in the basement.[169] The project was finished by late 1965.[170]
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By 1980, Irving Trust had decided to relocate its operations center to another building near the World Trade Center.[112] Between 1987 and 1988, Irving Trust was negotiating to merge with the Bank of New York, which at the time was headquartered nearby at 48 Wall Street.[42] Irving Trust initially rejected buy-out offers from the Bank of New York because the latter had "undervalued" Irving Trust's assets such as 1 Wall Street.[171] By October 1988, with a merger imminent, Irving Trust placed 1 Wall Street for auction; at the time, the building was valued at $250 million.[172] The Bank of New York then acquired Irving Trust in December 1988.[173][174] BNY decided to sell its old headquarters at 48 Wall Street[174] and relocate its headquarters to 1 Wall Street.[175]
BNY Mellon opened a museum on the 10th floor in 1998, which was dedicated to the history of both banks. During the same time, BNY Mellon hired Hoffmann Architects to conduct mortar repair and window replacements.[53] While 1 Wall Street was not damaged following the September 11 attacks at the nearby World Trade Center in 2001, BNY Mellon's operations were disrupted, and 1 Wall Street had to be cleaned up.[176]
Sale and conversion
By January 2014, BNY Mellon was looking to sell its headquarters, as it was moving to a location with less space.[177] In May 2014, BNY Mellon sold the building to a joint venture led by Harry B. Macklowe's Macklowe Properties for $585 million,[178][179][180] though BNY Mellon continued to occupy the building until September 2015.[181] Macklowe wanted to add up to 174,000 square feet (16,200 m2) of retail space at the base.[48]
Renovation
Macklowe initially planned to make 1 Wall Street a mixed-use residential and office building,[182][183] and he planned to rent out 65 percent of the residences.[47] In early 2017, Macklowe changed these plans so that it would be almost entirely residential condominiums, since an all-residential building, owned by its tenants, would require less debt.[182][183] Macklowe Properties partnered with former Prime Minister of Qatar Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani in a bid to convert the office property into 566 condos with retail at the base.[184] The renovation was originally supposed to be undertaken by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, though it was replaced by the firm SLCE Architects.[48] Ashe Leandro, Deborah Berke Partners, and Moed de Armas and Shannon were also hired for the project.[85] Deutsche Bank provided a $750 million mortgage loan for the conversion.[184] At the time, the project was the largest conversion of office space to residential space in New York City, covering nearly 1.2 million square feet (110,000 m2).[185]
As part of the renovation, 34 elevators and 16 escalators were removed.[186] The original layout of the building included elevators near the perimeter wall, but this took up usable space near windows. As such, Macklowe removed 20 of the elevators that served upper floors and added 10 new elevators in the building core; new stairs were also constructed to replace the existing stairs.[45][48][181] The demolition of the interior was completed in November 2018.[187] In addition, the Red Room was restored between 2016 and 2018, in advance of its conversion into a retail space.[48][188] The Red Room's restoration used tiles that had been placed in storage and unused when the building was originally erected.[65][188] The facade was restored using stone from the quarry that had supplied the material for Walker's original building.[88] The third floor was demolished to make a higher ceiling for the retail space.[45] A new entrance was also constructed on Broadway, with a design based on one of Walker's unrealized plans for the building,[43] and five stories were added to the southern annex.[45]
Whole Foods Market leased a 44,000-square-foot (4,100 m2) storefront in 2016,[189][190] and Life Time Fitness signed a 74,000-square-foot (6,900 m2) lease for a gym on the lowest four floors in 2019.[191] Macklowe originally hired Core Real Estate to market the apartments. However, he replaced Core with Compass, Inc., in December 2020,[192] prompting Core to sue Macklowe for unpaid brokerage fees.[193] Sales of residential units were launched in September 2021.[194] By March 2022, Macklowe and Al Thani planned to refinance 1 Wall Street for $1.1 billion, using the proceeds to pay off construction costs and outstanding debt.[195][196] At that point, the renovation was projected to be completed by the end of 2022.[196] French retailer Printemps announced that September that it would open a store at 1 Wall Street,[197][198] covering 55,000 square feet (5,100 m2) on two floors.[199] The Printemps store was to use the Red Room.[200]
Post-renovation and sales struggles
The Whole Foods store at the building's base opened in January 2023.[201][202] The first residents were scheduled to move into the building that March,[203] and construction was officially completed that month.[87] Macklowe received a $300 million inventory loan for the building in October 2023 after sales underperformed expectations.[204][205] At the time, there were 479 unsold units out of 566 total apartments, and the project had cost $2.9 billion to date.[204] Sales remained lower than expected; by February 2024, only about 100 apartments had been sold.[206] Asian investors comprised about half of the condominium owners by that year, but such sales were slowing down due to new export controls in China.[207] Industry experts consulted by The Real Deal cited two other reasons for the lagging sales: the condos were overpriced (in that their prices were more akin to apartments in brand-new buildings rather than those in converted office buildings), and there was a general oversupply of vacant residential units in the Financial District.[207] In May 2024, as a cost-saving measure, Macklowe replaced Compass as the sales agent, appointing two brokers from Macklowe Properties to market the units.[207]
Critical reception
1 Wall Street received an accolade from the Broadway Association in 1931; the association designated the building as the "most worthy of civic endorsement" out of all structures erected around Broadway in 1930.[208][209] A writer for the New York Evening Post called Meière's lobby mural "one of the most costly and beautiful pieces of mural decoration ever attempted in the United States".[210][68] Eugene Clute of Metal Arts magazine described the walls as "a rich, free-hanging fabric" and "a cage set within the frame of the building and finished with a lining that has no more structural significance than the lining of my lady's work basket".[69]
Architectural critics of the mid-20th century generally ignored the building in favor of more widely renowned structures, such as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and 40 Wall Street.[53] Lewis Mumford criticized 1 Wall Street's facade for not accurately representing its internal design, saying: "Chaste though that exterior is, it is mere swank, and unconvincing swank at that".[211][212] Because of Irving Trust's role as a receiver for bankrupt companies, 1 Wall Street was called the "Central Repair Shop for Broken Businesses".[53] Architectural historian Robert A. M. Stern wrote in his 1987 book New York 1930 that 1 Wall Street's proximity to other skyscrapers including 70 Pine Street, 20 Exchange Place, 40 Wall Street, and the Downtown Athletic Club "had reduced the previous generation of skyscrapers to the status of foothills in a new mountain range".[213] Daniel Abramson wrote in 2001 that the "corner and tower treatments appear blocky and conventional" compared to 70 Pine Street, though 1 Wall Street was still distinguished in its massing and the curves in its facade.[14]
There was also praise for what Stern characterized as "Walker's only completed skyscraper".[214] Ada Louise Huxtable of The New York Times wrote in 1975 that 1 Wall Street was an "Art Deco masterpiece".[215] In a 2001 analysis, the Times characterized the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and 1 Wall Street as three great Art Deco buildings in New York City.[71] Stern stated that in 1 Wall Street's design, "structure became an unseen prop for poetry"; he further called the building's form "a natural precipice of stone shaped by erosion".[37][22] Architectural writer Eric P. Nash called 1 Wall Street "one of the most delicate, even feminine, skyscrapers ever built".[12] After the building's residential conversion was completed in 2023, a Daily Beast reporter wrote that the structure's conversion could be a model for other office-to-residence conversions,[88] and Adriane Quinlan of Curbed described the building as a contrast to Macklowe's ultra-luxury tower at 432 Park Avenue.[54] Ian Volner, writing for Curbed in 2024, described the Red Room as "an over-the-top dream of period pizzazz that makes Baz Luhrmann’s Gatsby look like a work of sober realism".[200]
Landmark designations
In 2001, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the original portion of 1 Wall Street as an official city landmark. The designation only included the exterior of the original building and did not extend to the southern annex.[43][71] The Red Room's interior was not given a separate interior-landmark designation because such designations at the time were reserved for publicly accessible spaces. Since the Red Room could only be used by BNY Mellon workers at the time of the exterior designation, it was legally considered to be closed to the public.[71] The LPC agreed in December 2023 to hold hearings on whether to designate the Red Room's interior as a landmark.[216] The Red Room was designated as an interior landmark on June 25, 2024.[217]
As a result of the exterior landmark designation's limited scope, most of the improvements made in the 2010s condominium conversion, such as the glass retail addition, were made to the annex. Changes to designated landmarks required the commission's approval, but the annex was out of the commission's scope.[43][45] Additionally, in 2007, the building was designated as a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District,[218] a National Register of Historic Places district.[4]
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