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Public Contribution in
High-Rise Building Design
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@ New York City
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55 Water
Street
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55 Water Street was built in 1972
to the skyscraper concentration at the tip of Manhattan. The 209.5 m
tall building took the title of world's largest commercial office building
from the Pan Am Building with its over 278,800 mē of rentable office
space.
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| The development is built on a superblock created from four joint city blocks -- an arrangement made in co-operation with the Office of Lower Manhattan Development, which expected provision of public amenities in return. | ||||||||||||
| The building is of basic International Style, contrasting with the neighbouring 2 N.Y. Plaza of the same era. The 56-storey facade of the tower slab uses variably vertical and horizontal striping for decoration, the grid pattern of the lower facade changing to vertical striping for the upper three-fourths. To the north of the tower is a 15-storey wing with a sloping facade and terraces facing the river and, in front of it, an elevated plaza on top of a parking garage, reachable by a high escalator ride. | ||||||||||||
| The plaza, by M. Paul Friedberg & Assocs. is clad in the same red brick tiles as his Jeannette Park to the south of the building. The public amenities called for in the building site deal included re-working of the Jeannette Park, facing the Vietnam Veterans' Plaza next to the 2 N.Y. Plaza, the elevated plaza as well as provision for an entrance to the planned (and later discarded) subway line along East River. | ||||||||||||
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