Design Reserach Project
Page 5
Public Contribution in High-Rise Building Design
@ New York City
Citicorp Building
Address: 153 East 53 Street
Architect: Hugh Stubbins & Assocs. and Emery Roth & Sons
Background
Citicorp Building was built in 1974-1978 as the visually novel corporate headquarters for the Citicorp bank, the then-First National City Bank.
The project originated from an initiative by the Lutheran church of St. Peter's (the "jazz church", where the memorial service for Louis Armstrong was held), which was interested in selling its property on the western portion of the block. First National, which had its headquarters on the adjacent block right across Lexington Avenue and in need of expansion, set to acquire properties in 1968, including the church site, which was purchased in 1970
Five years later the needed individual sites were bagged for the fantastic total sum of $40 million ($9 million for the church plot) and the construction of the Citicorp Center began in 1974. (The only building left intact on the block was the 880 Third Avenue from 1965, at the south-eastern corner, due to its relatively young age.)
The 59-storey tower rises to 279 m, and when completed, it raised controversy because of its 50 m high sloping top-- originally designed to house apartments set back in a slope configuration, although the execution of a residential plan was eventually denied by the city officials. The top was then used to accommodate experimental solar panels connected to air-conditioning equipment; the ambitious installation was removed five years later (as another scheme of energy-consciousness, the elevators are double-decked, serving both even and odd-numbered floors simultaneously).
The tower top houses a Tuned Mass Damper -- in effect, a 360 metric ton, 9 times 9-meter concrete block on an oiled plate -- that lessens with its inertia the sway caused by strong winds to about half. Strong winds are a constant enemy of high buildings, especially those standing on stilts: there are four 10-storey pillars under the middle of each facade (22 m from the corners) and a large center core for elevators etc. The tower stands on its "feet" 40 m above the street level.
The, obviously, novel structural system consists, along with the bold support pillars, of diagonal X-braces on the outer walls -- which are totally unnoticeable from the outside.
The 165,430 mē building houses 93,000 mē of office space within.
Picture: View From Public Plaza looking up.
The seven-storey, 21,000 mē shopping center, " The Market" is located under the looming tower and has a 25 m high skylight-illuminated central atrium with surrounding shops and restaurants. One of the tower's support pillars rises from the patio of the atrium space and through the roof, flanked by the set-back balcony levels of the atrium's east wall.
The buildings of the center (except for the church), as well as the atrium interior, are clad in aluminium plating, also the bottom of the tower.
The new St. Peter's Church (619 Lexington Avenue) is located on the patio outside the Citicorp Center. The church is a polygonal design clad in granite and decorated by sculptor Louis Nevelson, and still continuing the tradition of regular free jazz concerts for public.
Next to the church, in the space vacated by the pillar-supported tower, is a sunken plaza, one of the last before the revised regulations. The regulations were, in fact, the impetus behind the choice of the novel support method for the tower, as well as the re-building of the church. See Forum thread. The plaza connects to the inside atrium and the church, as well as to the subway station.
After the merger with Travelers Group, the center was accordingly named the Citigroup Center.
Picture: Ground Floor Plan
Picture: Outdoor Street Furniture that address the existence of public space in Citicorp Center
Picture: Entrance to 53rd Street.