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55 Water Street

55 Water Street is a 687-foot-tall (209 m) skyscraper on the East River in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 53-story, 3.5-million-square-foot (325,000 m2) structure was completed in 1972. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the building was developed by the Uris brothers. At the time of completion, it was the world's largest privately owned office building by floor area. 55 Water Street is built on a superblock bounded by Coenties Slip to the southwest, Water Street to the northwest, Old Slip to the northeast, and South Street and FDR Drive to the southeast. It is owned by the pension fund Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA).

This article is about the building in Manhattan, New York. For the building in Brooklyn, New York, see 55 Water Street (Brooklyn).

55 Water Street

Completed

Office

55 Water Street
Manhattan, New York, U.S.

1969

1972

687 ft (209 m)

53

3.5 million square feet (325,000 m2)

59

James Ruderman

55 Water Street is composed of two sections: a 53-story tower to the south and a 15-story wing to the north. The building's facade is made of masonry and glass. The south building is rectangular, while the north building contains sloped walls and runs parallel to the northwestern boundary of the site. The foundations are made of reinforced concrete-slab walls and the superstructure is made of steel. The upper stories each contain 55,000 sq ft (5,100 m2) of space, while the lower stories are almost double that size. There is an elevated public plaza on the eastern part of the site, known as Elevated Acre. Another public space to the southwest, Jeannette Park (now Vietnam Veterans Plaza), was expanded when 55 Water Street was constructed.


The Uris Buildings Corporation proposed erecting a 53-story building on the site in October 1968, and work began the next year. The building was topped out with a ceremony on June 18, 1971, and tenants began moving into the structure at the beginning of 1972. Initially, several financial firms occupied space at 55 Water Street, including the Chemical Bank of New York, which leased roughly a third of the space and owned 15 percent of the building. National Kinney Corporation bought a majority stake in the Uris properties by late 1973, and it sold 55 Water Street to Olympia and York in 1976. RSA bought the building in 1993 after Olympia and York had difficulties paying off the mortgage. The building was renovated in the 1990s and again in the 2010s.

Site[edit]

55 Water Street is in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City.[1][2] The land lot covers an entire city block bounded by Coenties Slip to the southwest, Water Street to the northwest, Old Slip to the northeast, and South Street and the FDR Drive to the southeast. The site covers 160,692 sq ft (14,928.8 m2), with a frontage of 415 ft (126 m) on Water and South Streets and a depth of 355 ft (108 m). The Fraunces Tavern block is to the northwest; the New York City Police Museum and 32 Old Slip are directly to the northeast; and 25 Water Street and 2 New York Plaza are to the west. Two blocks west of the building is the South Ferry transportation hub, consisting of the New York City Subway's South Ferry/Whitehall Street station and the Staten Island Ferry's Whitehall Terminal. In addition, the building is directly across FDR Drive from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport.[2] The building is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10041; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes as of 2019.[3]


55 Water Street occupies a superblock, which was created by combining four small city blocks.[4][5] Prior to the construction of the current office building, the site had contained the headquarters of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey, designed by Warren and Wetmore.[5] Cuylers Alley crossed the site from northwest to southeast, while Front Street bisected the site from southwest to northeast. Both streets were closed to make way for the building's construction.[5][6] The entire site is reclaimed land; prior to the expansion of Lower Manhattan in the 18th and 19th centuries, the site was part of the East River.[7]

Impact[edit]

When the building was completed, architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable called the building "a significant demonstration of how to stop worrying and love the boom" in office development.[19] Huxtable also wrote that the building's elevated plaza was "a skillful job in urban design".[144] By contrast, in 1981, Paul Goldberger described 55 Water Street, along with many skyscrapers on Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, as having been "designed by commercial architectural firms which admitted to few interests beyond the quick and efficient creation of rentable space".[145] According to Goldberger, these types of buildings used common materials such as concrete and glass, creating edifices that "added little either visually or socially to the life of the city".[145] The AIA Guide to New York City described the north building as resembling "a complicated cell phone tower".[39]


The building's construction was chronicled in 55 Water Street, a collection of short stories by Marjorie Iseman, which was published in 1982. The collection is divided into two parts, which Iseman said are respectively about "wreckers and wrecking" and "excavation".[146] In addition, the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada, contains a 36-story replica of 55 Water Street.[147] This replica is placed next to copies of other large New York City buildings.[147][148]

List of tallest buildings in New York City

(PDF) (Report). Jaros, Baum and Bolles. February 2018.

55 Water Street

(PDF) (Report). Trane. November 2020.

55 Water Street Case Study

Fagan, Mark (2019). Alabama's Public Pension Fund Growth and Economic Expansion Since 1973.  978-1-54396-431-8.

ISBN

Stern, Robert A. M.; Mellins, Thomas; Fishman, David (1995). . New York: Monacelli Press. ISBN 1-885254-02-4. OCLC 32159240. OL 1130718M.

New York 1960: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Second World War and the Bicentennial

(PDF) (Report). 55 Water. October 2018.

Technical Specifications

; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.

White, Norval

Official website

Emporis