"140 Broadway (formerly known as the Marine Midland Building or the HSBC Bank Building) is a 51-story International Style office building on the east side of Broadway between Cedar and Liberty streets in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft, of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and consists of a mostly smooth black facade on a trapezoidal plot. It is approximately 688 feet (210 m) tall, with approximately 1.17 million rentable square feet (109,000 m2). It is known for the distinctive sculpture at its entrance, Isamu Noguchi's Cube.
The developer Erwin S. Wolfson acquired the site in several stages between 1952 and 1961. Initial plans called for a 36-story monolith, but when Wolfson died, the architects modified their plans to a 51-story tower, which occupied only two-fifths of the block and conformed to the 1961 Zoning Resolution. The building was erected between late 1964 and 1967 and was originally known for its main tenant, the Marine Midland Corporation (later part of HSBC). Several early tenants were affiliated with the financial industry, including banking and accounting firms. In 1998, the building was sold to Silverstein Properties, which undertook a major renovation.
The primary tenant of the building since 2002 is Brown Brothers Harriman, filling a vacancy left after HSBC relocated in 2001. The building has been owned by Union Investment since 2004, and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as a city landmark in 2013. Reviews of the building among architecture critics have been largely positive, with several praising the structure's smooth black facade.
Site
140 Broadway is located on an entire city block bounded to the west by Broadway, to the north by Liberty Street, to the east by Nassau Street, and to the south by Cedar Street. The block is an irregular trapezoid, with all of its frontages being of different lengths. The block measures 144 feet (44 m) along Broadway, 318 feet (97 m) along Liberty Street, 184 feet (56 m) along Nassau Street, and 301 feet (92 m) along Cedar Street.[3] The building occupies two-fifths of the block, with dimensions of between 87 and 209 feet (27 and 64 m). Its footprint is rhomboid, matching the shape of the block. Roger N. Radford, the leader of the team that designed 140 Broadway, stated that many of the tenants he knew were unaware of the building's "funny shape".
Within 140 Broadway's immediate surroundings are One Liberty Plaza to the northwest; the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York and the Liberty Tower to the north; the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building to the northeast; 28 Liberty Street to the east; the Equitable Building to the south; the Trinity and United States Realty Buildings to the southwest; and Zuccotti Park to the west. Trinity Church and Wall Street are located two blocks south.
Architecture
140 Broadway was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in the International Style, with Gordon Bunshaft as the lead on the project. It was erected by the Diesel Construction Company, co-founded by prolific real-estate developer Erwin S. Wolfson, and led by Carl Morse at the time of the building's construction. Roger N. Radford was the design team's leader; Allan Labie was the project manager; Bradley B. Sullivan was the job captain; and James Ruderman was the structural engineer. Thomas Crimmins Construction Company were hired to excavate the site, and U.S. Steel provided the steel.
140 Broadway contains 51 stories and measures either 677 feet (206 m) or 688 feet (210 m) It has about 21,000 to 24,000 square feet (2,000 to 2,200 m2) on each floor, or 1.2 million square feet (110,000 m2) total. The structure uses a frame weighing 14,000 short tons (12,000 long tons; 13,000 t). Because of 140 Broadway's energy efficiency, the U.S. Green Building Council has certified 140 Broadway as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold structure.
Form and facade
The New York City Department of City Planning passed the 1961 Zoning Resolution in October 1960, and the new zoning rules became effective in December 1961, superseding the 1916 Zoning Resolution. Rather than the inclusion of setbacks that the old zoning laws had encouraged, the new zoning laws allowed skyscrapers to have a bulky massing with additional floor area, in exchange for the inclusion of ground-level open spaces. 140 Broadway's design strictly adhered to the 1961 law; according to Radford, the law "force the mass of the building toward the center of the site".
Harry Helmsley, who took over the building's development after Wolfson's death, sought to emphasize the building's vertical axis. As a result, Radford decided to emphasize the vertical window-washing tracks along the black-aluminum facade. The facade is otherwise smooth, with dark glass panels as well as slightly textured aluminum window trim. The western facade has three vertical bays of six windows each, while the eastern facade has four bays of six windows. The northern and southern facades each have seven bays of six windows. Little else was attached to the facade, except for signs with the number 140 on both faces of either southern corner, as well as the name of the Marine Midland Bank on the Broadway and Cedar Street sides. There are numerous revolving doors on all four sides that provide access to the building.
Initial plans called for a rectangular building with a light-gray, grid-like facade made of concrete or aluminum. The building had been redesigned by 1965 to have a smooth facade that harmonized with the surrounding masonry buildings while standing out from its surroundings. One critic wrote that the previous design had 140 Broadway as "a little brother to [28 Liberty Street] in the same shiny finish", which he said "would have looked like a poor relation." Another compared the new plan to contemporary graphic design and Ad Reinhardt's "black" paintings. The design of 140 Broadway's facade was also patterned after the Equitable Life Assurance Building, designed by Pietro Belluschi in Portland, Oregon.
[...]
[...]
(
visit link)
"Height
209.7 m / 688 ft
Floors
52
Official Name
The current legal building name.
140 Broadway
Other Names
HSBC Bank Building, Marine Midland Building
Type
Building
Status
Completed
Completion
1967
Country
United States
City
New York City
Address
140 Broadway
Function
Office
Structural Material
All-Steel"