YIMBY went on a hard hat tour of One Wall Street, a historic, 51-story Art Deco tower designed by Ralph Walker and completed in 1931. Formerly the headquarters of the Bank of New York and Irving Trust Company, the Financial District icon is currently undergoing a $1.5 billion residential conversion and expansion. A five-story addition is underway and being constructed above the adjoining mid-century annex. This will be designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects with SLCE Architects as the architect of record. Harry Macklowe of Macklowe Properties is the developer while CORE is handling sales and marketing of the planned 566 housing units.
The bottom portion of the complex is temporarily covered in a perimeter of green-colored sidewalk scaffolding while the address and developer’s name and flags stand high above the street. The future 44,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market is making swift progress with the cantilevering steel floors fully assembled and awaiting the metal clips that will be attached to the edge facing Broadway. They will mount tall transparent glass panels, which will rise in a stepped pattern with the upper portions of this protruding addition creating outdoor spaces for several units. The edges of the steel decking are grooved and etched with an architectural language that complements the exterior envelope of the annex and the original tower.
Removal of the curtain wall has revealed the steel columns and beams that have been stripped of the old sheathing, while sections are taken apart to make way for large atrium spaces.
Standing on the new floors reveal perfect vantage points of Trinity Church and Bowling Green.
The double-height spaces show the scale of the construction and how extensive the 174,000-square-foot retail portion will be. A Life Time fitness and health club will also come to the building, and several portions of the floor slabs have been cut to make way for future escalators and retail circulation.
The two sets of elevator hoists are both located on New Street along the western elevation.
Lower levels of the building will offer clear views of the New York Stock Exchange.
The upper floors of One Wall Street will provide residents with views of the World Trade Center and the rest of the Financial District. The property sits right along Broadway, which runs directly through the middle of the tip of Manhattan. This location places the building at a great enough distance from the clusters of stone and glass skyscrapers to give it some prominence, but is still close enough to admire the eclectic architectural mix of the famous New York skyline.
The upper half of the building also has vistas of the New York Harbor all the way out to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
Work on the five-story addition can be seen in the photo above, as construction workers were getting the formwork ready to lay down steel rebar and begin the next set of concrete slab pouring. The new section will have an indoor swimming pool with a surrounding outdoor terrace, and will sit underneath a rooftop space for residents.
The photo above shows part of the southern wall cut open. The floor here will eventually extend into the new wing, which should top out sometime this summer.
Sales of One Wall Street are expected to begin this fall, while full completion is expected sometime next year.