Erected in 1929–1930 as the headquarters of the Manhattan Company, the building was originally known as the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building, and also as the Manhattan Company Building, until its founding tenant merged to form the Chase Manhattan Bank. It was designed by H. Craig Severance with Yasuo Matsui and Shreve & Lamb. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP); it is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, an NRHP district.
The building is on an L-shaped site. While the lower section has a facade of limestone, the upper stories incorporate a buff-brick facade and contain numerous setbacks. Other features of the facade include spandrels between the windows on each story, which are recessed behind the vertical piers on the facade. At the top of the building is a pyramid with a spire at its pinnacle. The Manhattan Company's main banking room and board room were on the lower floors, while the remaining stories were rented to tenants. The former banking room was converted into a Duane Reade store.
Plans for 40 Wall Street were revealed in April 1929, with the Manhattan Company as the primary tenant, and the structure was completed in May 1930. 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building were competing for the distinction of world's tallest building at the time of both buildings' construction, though the Chrysler Building ultimately won that title. In its early years, 40 Wall Street suffered from low tenancy rates, as well as a plane crash in 1946. Ownership of the building and the land underneath it, as well as the leasehold on the building, has changed several times throughout its history. Since 1982, the building has been owned by two German companies. The leasehold was once held by interests on behalf of former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, though in 1995, a company controlled by developer and later U.S.
Site
40 Wall Street is in the Financial District of Manhattan, in the middle of the block bounded by Pine Street to the north, William Street to the east, Wall Street to the south, and Nassau Street to the west. The site is L-shaped, with a longer facade on Pine Street than on Wall Street. The lot measures 209 feet (64 m) on Pine Street and 150 feet (46 m) on Wall Street. Originally, the site measured 194 feet (59 m) on Pine Street and 150 feet on Wall Street. The lot has a total area of 34,360 square feet (3,192 m2).
40 Wall Street is surrounded by numerous buildings, including Federal Hall National Memorial and 30 Wall Street to the west; 44 Wall Street and 48 Wall Street to the east; 28 Liberty Street to the north; and 23 Wall Street and 15 Broad Street to the south. The site slopes down southward, so that the Pine Street entrance is on the second floor while the Wall Street entrance is on the first floor. Prior to the current building's completion, the site had been occupied by numerous smaller office buildings. The southern part of the site contained the eight-story Gallatin Bank Building at 34–36 Wall Street, the nine-story Marshall Field Building at 38 Wall Street, the Bank of the Manhattan Company's original headquarters at 40 Wall Street, and a 13-story building to the east. The northern portion contained a 13-story building at 25 Pine Street, a 12-story building at 27–29 Pine Street, and the 13-story Redmond Building at 31–33 Pine Street.
Architecture
The building was designed by lead architect H. Craig Severance, associate architect Yasuo Matsui, and consulting architects Shreve & Lamb. Moran & Proctor were consulting engineers for the foundation, the Starrett Corporation was the builder, and Purdy and Henderson were the structural engineers. The interior was designed by Morrell Smith with Walker & Gillette. While 40 Wall Street's facade has "modernized French Gothic" features, its massing is designed more similarly to the Art Deco style, and there are also elements of classical architecture as well as abstract shapes.
40 Wall Street is 70 stories tall, with two additional basement stories. The building's pinnacle reaches 927 feet (283 m), briefly making it the world's tallest building upon its completion.
Form
40 Wall Street, like many other early-20th-century skyscrapers in New York City, is designed as if it were a standalone tower. It is one of several skyscrapers in the city that have pyramidal roofs. The floors at the six-story base cover the entire "L"-shaped lot, while the seventh through 35th stories (making up the middle section) are shaped in a "U", with two wings of different lengths facing west. The massing of the building on the seventh through 35th stories occupies nearly the entire lot. Above the 35th story, the building rises as a smaller, square tower through the 62nd story.
40 Wall Street incorporates several setbacks to conform with the 1916 Zoning Resolution. On the Wall Street side, the central portion of the facade is recessed through the 26th floor, while symmetrical pavilions project slightly on either side, with setbacks above the 17th, 19th, and 21st floors. The entire Wall Street facade has setbacks above the 26th, 33rd and 35th floors. The Pine Street facade is asymmetrical, with the western pavilion being much longer; it has a setback above the 12th floor. This side also contains setbacks above the 17th, 19th, 23rd, 26th, 28th, and 29th floors. The pairs of projecting pavilions on both sides are connected at the eighth floor by a dormer.
The building's west-facing wings are of different lengths; the northern wing is significantly longer and has cooling systems atop it, but both wings have minor setbacks above the 26th and 33rd floors, and rise only to the 35th floor. The eastern facade does not have any setbacks below the 35th story.
Facade
In general, the facade is composed of buff-colored brick, as well as decorative elements made of terracotta and brick. The vertical bays, which contain the building's windows, are separated by piers. The piers are flat, a characteristic of the Art Deco style. Spandrel panels, which separate the rows of windows on each floor, are generally recessed behind the piers; the spandrels are generally darker on upper stories.[22] The building's window openings, initially composed of one-over-one sash windows, were later replaced by numerous types of window-pane arrangements or by louvers.
Base
The first through sixth stories contain a limestone-and-granite facade. 40 Wall Street contains a granite facade on the first story, which faces Wall Street. The second-to fifth-floor facades on both sides consist of a colonnade with pilasters made of limestone.
On the Wall Street side, the first floor initially had a central entryway with three bronze-and-glass doors, flanked by numerous entrances to the elevator lobby and the lower banking room. Double-height bronze-and-glass windows spanned the second and third floors, while cast-iron windows were on the fourth through sixth floors. Above the central entrance was a doorway that was topped by Elie Nadelman's Oceanus sculpture (also called Aquarius); it had been removed by the late 20th century. Between 1961 and 1963, Carson, Lundin & Shaw, added the granite cladding and reconfigured the doorways on the first floor, as well as replaced the second- through sixth-floor windows.By 1995, the entrance had been configured with seven bronze rectangular doors and three revolving doors, recessed behind the main facade. Letters reading "The Trump Building" are above the first floor, while the fourth floor has a pair of flagpoles.
The Pine Street side was arranged similarly to the Wall Street side and was similarly redesigned in 1961–1963. A 6-foot-diameter (1.8 m) clock existed on the Pine Street facade from 1967 to 1993. This portion of the facade consists of 11 bays; at ground level, this includes an entrance to the main elevator lobby, a service entrance, and storefronts slightly above grade. As with the Wall Street side, the fourth floor contains a pair of flagpoles.
Upper stories
The eighth through 35th stories comprise the midsection of the building. There are eight flagpoles on the ninth floor of the Wall Street side, four on each pavilion. On the 19th floor of the Pine Street side, there are louvers in place of window openings. On the 36th through 62nd stories, there are brick spandrels between the windows on each story. The spandrels above the 52nd through 57th floors are made of terracotta; above the 58th through 60th floors, terracotta with buttresses; and above the 61st and 62nd floors, darker bricks with pediments and rhombus patterns.
The building contains a pyramidal roof originally made of lead-coated copper. There is a cornice surrounding the roof. On top is a spire that contains a flagpole as well as a crystal ball. The roof contains French Renaissance-style detail, a design element intended to make the building appear much older than it actually was.
Features
The building's frame is made of steel. The superstructure contains eight main columns, each of which weighs 22 short tons (20 long tons; 20 t) and can carry loads of up to 4.6 million pounds (2,100,000 kg). As originally arranged, 40 Wall Street hosted the Manhattan Company's banking facilities on the first through sixth floors; offices on its middle floors; and machinery, an observation deck, and recreation areas on the top floors. There were also 43 elevators inside the building when it opened; as of 2020, there are 36 elevators.
Lower stories
The Wall Street lobby contains escalators to the second floor, as well as stairs to the two basement levels, which contained the Manhattan Company's vault. Originally, there were two platforms for the officers of three Manhattan Company subsidiaries, separated by a large plaza with space for the receiving, paying and loan, and discount tellers. The modern design of the lobby dates to a 1999 renovation by Der Scutt. Following Scutt's renovation, the lobby contains many bronze and marble surfaces.
On the second floor was the main banking room, a double-height space measuring 150 by 185 feet (46 by 56 m). The banking room could be accessed directly from Pine Street, where there was a foyer with two pairs of octagonal black-marble Ionic columns. The room itself consisted of a main hall below five groin vaults; there are arcades on either side of the main hall, which lead to smaller vaulted spaces. The walls were once decorated with three murals by Ezra Winter, depicting various scenes from the history of the Financial District. Winter's murals have since been removed. As of 2011, the second floor is occupied by a Duane Reade convenience store. A pair of stairs on the south wall flanks the escalators and leads up to what was originally the officers' quarters, a rectangular room with five white-marble columns.This space had three doorways that led to private offices of Manhattan Company executives; the doorways to these offices contained round carvings with symbols of various economic sectors.
Under the main banking room were offices for messengers. Below that was a main vault that stored the Manhattan Company's securities and funds. A safe-deposit vault for members of the public, with a 85-short-ton (76-long-ton; 77 t) vault door, was below the Manhattan Company's vault.
Upper stories
On the fourth floor was the board room of the Manhattan Company, designed in the Georgian style as an imitation of Independence Hall's Signers' Room. The board room contains several elements of the Doric order, such as columns, pilasters, and a frieze. Wooden doors and fireplaces with segmental arches are on the eastern wall, while false windows are on the western wall. On the sixth floor was a trading floor for the International Manhattan Company, Inc.. The 55th floor was entirely occupied by an officers' club with a dining room. The Bank of Manhattan Building had an observation deck on the 69th and 70th floors, 836 feet (255 m) above the street; it could fit up to 100 people. The observation deck was closed to the public sometime after World War II.
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