Wikipedia (
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"One Wall Street, originally the Irving Trust Company Building, then the Bank of New York Building (after 1988), and after 2007 the BNY Mellon Building, is a bank headquarters building which remains one of the finest Art-Deco-style skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan, New York City. It is located in the Financial District on the prominent corner of Wall Street and Broadway. Today, it serves as the global headquarters of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation.
History
"Architect Ralph Walker conceived his zig-zag Art Deco skyscraper for the Irving Trust Company as a "curtain wall", not the typical sheet of glass hanging from a steel cage, but a limestone wall rippling like a curtain descending on a Broadway stage."
Because of the curves in the wall, the bank does not completely occupy its full building lot, and by law the unoccupied and unmarked land reverts to the public, but for a number of small markers embedded in the sidewalk asserting the limits of the building's lot.
Construction on the building began in 1929 and was completed in 1931,to the designs of the architectural firm of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker. It is fifty stories and is 654 feet (199 meters) tall, and measures 1,165,659 rentable square feet.
The Wall Street entrance leads into a two-story banking hall whose ceiling is decorated with red and gold mosaics designed by Hildreth Meiere, comparable to the mosaics in the Golden Hall of Stockholm City Hall, and manufactured by the same company, the Ravenna Mosaic Company in Berlin.
In 1963-1965, a 36-floor addition to the site was constructed to the south of the tower to provide extra office space. This site had been occupied by the eighteen-story Manhattan Life Insurance Building (1894), which was the title-holder as the tallest building in the world from 1894 until 1899, and the twentytwo-story Knickerbocker Trust Company Building (1909). Among other alterations was the chiseling out of "Irving Trust" name from the cornerstone and replacement with "Bank of New York."
The building has a steel skeleton, and is covered in limestone. The building has had numerous problems with the limestone exterior and in 2001, the building's owners decided to bring in Hoffmann Architects to conduct a survey of the exterior and provide a five year masterplan which consists of mortar repair and window replacements."
There is also a plaque near the entranceway that reads:
"Landmarks of New York
Site of the Wall of New Amsterdam
In 1653 the City of New Amsterdam erected a wall along the nothern edge of town to protect the inhabitants from attack. This wall, five to six feet high, was contstructed of heavy planks laid horizontally and ran from the Hudson River to the East River on the line of present-day Wall Street. Frequently in need of repair, the wall had been abandoned by 1699.
Plaque erected 1963 by The New York Community Trust"