383 Madison Avenue - NYC, NY, USA
Posted by: 
Ariberna
N 40° 45.314 W 073° 58.652
18T E 586308 N 4512089
By Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill
Waymark Code: WM17K3W
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 03/02/2023
Views: 1
"Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, it is 755 ft (230 m) tall and has 47 stories. It was completed in 2001 and opened in 2002, when it was, according to some reports, the 88th tallest building in the world. The building is approximately 110,000 square meters (1,200,000 sq ft) rentable. Formerly known as the Bear Stearns Building, it housed the world headquarters of the now-defunct investment bank from the building's completion until Bear's fall and sale to JPMorgan Chase in 2008.
The building has an octagonal tower that rises from a rectangular base to a 70-foot (20-m) crown made of glass that is illuminated at night.
The visual decorative design of the building differs from the conventional functional style of neighboring office buildings, and has therefore proven unpopular with some critics. New York said, "This is a building you wouldn't want to get anywhere near at a cocktail party. Clad almost from top to bottom in austere granite, and geometrically correct, it is stark to the point of dullness. Out of character for the current work of SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), the design recalls the firm's unfortunate postmodernist interlude a decade ago."
A 72-story tower proposed by G Ware Travelstead for the site during the 1980s was not built. The building (also known as Travelstead Tower3) was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.
The building changed hands in 2008 during JPMorgan's takeover of Bear Stearns. In its Q2 2008 conference call, JP Morgan estimated the value of the building at $1.1–1.4 billion.
A nighttime photograph of the building taken from a steep angle at its base appears on the cover of William D. Cohan's book, House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street (2009)"
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