55 Water Street is a skyscraper on the East River in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 53-story, structure was completed in 1972. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the building was developed by the Uris brothers. At the time of completion, it was the world's largest privately owned office building by floor area. 55 Water Street is built on a superblock bounded by Coenties Slip to the southwest, Water Street to the northwest, Old Slip to the northeast, and South Street and FDR Drive to the southeast. It is owned by the pension fund Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA).
55 Water Street is composed of two sections: a 53-story tower to the south and a 15-story wing to the north. The building's facade is made of masonry and glass. The south building is rectangular, while the north building contains sloped walls and runs parallel to the northwestern boundary of the site. The foundations are made of reinforced concrete-slab walls and the superstructure is made of steel. The upper stories each contain of space, while the lower stories are almost double that size. There is an elevated public plaza on the eastern part of the site, Elevated Acre, and another public space to the southwest, Jeannette Park (now Vietnam Veterans Plaza).
The Uris Buildings Corporation proposed erecting a 53-story building on the site in October 1968, and work began the next year. The building was topped out with a ceremony on June 18, 1971, and tenants began moving into the structure at the beginning of 1972. Initially, several financial firms occupied space at 55 Water Street, including the Chemical Bank of New York, which leased roughly a third of the space and owned 15 percent of the building. National Kinney Corporation bought a majority stake in the Uris properties by late 1973, and it sold 55 Water Street to Olympia and York in 1976. RSA bought the building in 1993 after Olympia and York had difficulties paying off the mortgage. The building was renovated in the 1990s and again in the 2010s.
Site 55 Water Street is in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The land lot covers an entire city block bounded by Coenties Slip to the southwest, Water Street to the northwest, Old Slip to the northeast, and South Street and the FDR Drive to the southeast. The site covers , with a frontage of on Water and South Streets and a depth of .
The Fraunces Tavern block is to the northwest; the New York City Police Museum and 32 Old Slip are directly to the northeast; and 25 Water Street and 2 New York Plaza are to the west. Two blocks west of the building is the South Ferry transportation hub, consisting of the New York City Subway's South Ferry/Whitehall Street station and the Staten Island Ferry's Whitehall Terminal. The building is directly across FDR Drive from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport. The building is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10041. It was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes .
55 Water Street occupies a superblock, which was created by combining four small city blocks. Prior to the construction of the current office building, the site had contained the headquarters of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey, designed by Warren and Wetmore. Cuylers Alley crossed the site from northwest to southeast, while Front Street bisected the site from southwest to northeast. Both streets were closed to make way for the building's construction. The entire site is reclaimed land; prior to the expansion of Lower Manhattan in the 18th and 19th centuries, the site was part of the East River.
Architecture The building was designed by the firm of Emery Roth & Sons for Uris Buildings Corporation. It is one of six buildings that Emery Roth and Sons designed in the immediate area. 55 Water Street is composed of two sections: a 53-story "south building" to the southwest (next to Jeannette Park) and a 15-story "north building" to the north, next to Water Street and Old Slip. There is an elevated plaza near the eastern section of the site, adjacent to Old Slip and South Street.
Form and facade The building's facade is made of masonry and glass. The south building is rectangular, with its longer axis running parallel to the southwestern boundary of the site. This was done to avoid obstructing views of the East River (next to 55 Water Street's southeastern boundary) from nearby buildings. The north building contains sloped walls and runs parallel to the northwestern boundary of the site. This gives the building an "L"-shape as seen from above. Between floors 2 and 14, the bronze glass windows are inset within the masonry curtain wall. The mullions of the windows are spaced apart.
The 53-story section is tall to its roof. Including rooftop dormers, the building measures tall to its pinnacle. The roof is made of a waterproof membrane finished with a layer of slag. Jaros, Baum & Bolles designed LED lighting for the parapet just below the building's roof.
Interior When 55 Water Street was completed, it was the largest building in New York City, with of rentable space. Including non-rentable space, the structure had a total area of . At the time, this made 55 Water Street the world's largest privately owned office building. The Merchandise Mart and the Pentagon both had more office space, but they were owned by a governmental entity. The next largest buildings in New York City were the MetLife Building (originally the Pan Am Building), with ; One New York Plaza, with ; and the Empire State Building, with . The main tower and its shorter wing are connected at each of the lowest 15 stories. The upper stories each contain of space, while the lower stories are almost double that size. 55 Water Street remained New York City's largest office building .
In exchange for constructing public plazas next to the building, Uris was allowed to increase the maximum floor area that was allowed under zoning regulations by an additional . Uris built an underground concourse with provisions for a connection to an unbuilt New York City Subway station. The concourse was built as part of a master plan for transportation in New York City.
The main lobby was originally clad in travertine. In the 1990s, this was replaced with Italian and French marble, with stainless-steel decorative fixtures and aluminum-leaf ceilings. In addition, an onyx panel measuring was installed behind the reception counter. Following another renovation in 2018, The main lobby contains a video wall, which is composed of two LED displays with 42 tiles each. The displays collectively measure high by wide, with each display being wide. The lobby also contains a pair of reception desks, a shoeshine stand, coffee bar, and lounge. There are also turnstiles through which tenants and guests must pass.
Structural features The foundations are made of reinforced concrete-slab walls. The foundation of the building includes a concrete cofferdam, which surrounds the site and descends to the underlying layer of bedrock. Workers first placed a retaining wall of corrugated sheet-metal panels, which were sunken below ground, then scooped out the entire site. The cofferdam was then poured behind the retaining wall, and a layer of earth was placed between the cofferdam and retaining wall. This contrasted with the foundations of other skyscrapers in Manhattan, which were typically sunken directly to the bedrock, but it provided space for underground offices, a parking lot, and a bank vault for Chemical Bank.
The superstructure is made of steel, with "Q"-deck floor slabs. The office stories can carry live loads of . The retail, plaza, basement, and mechanical spaces have higher live-load capacities, ranging up to for the plaza level. The building contains of modular galvanized steel flooring. Generally, the office floors have a slab-to-slab height of , although the height of the finished office space could be as small as . The sub-levels, concourse, and plaza level have a slab-to-slab height of as measured between the floor and ceiling, while the retail and mechanical spaces have a slab-to-slab height of .
Mechanical features Jaros, Baum & Bolles was the mechanical, engineering, and plumbing engineer for the building. Floor 14 contains the building's primary mechanical rooms, ventilation units, and electrical equipment. There is additional mechanical equipment in the basement, on the roof, and on floors 2 and 52. Electricity from the New York City power supply system flows to distribution boards on the concourse, the first sub-level, and floor 14. There are also six electrical closets on each story. In the 1990s, eleven electrical generators were installed on the roof, each with a capacity of ; these were powered by pumps in the basement levels. , there are 14 electrical generators, and the emergency power system can run for up to three days.
There are 71 passenger elevators throughout the building. The 60 passenger elevators in the south building are divided into ten banks of six cars; each elevator bank connects the lobby with five to eight stories. The north building has nine passenger elevators, all connecting the subterranean levels to floors 1–13; five descend to the basement while the other four descend to the sub-basement. The interiors of the elevator cabs were originally decorated in brown burlap but, during a 1990s renovation, the elevator cabs were redecorated in stainless steel and green marble. 55 Water Street also has six freight elevators: four in the south building and two in the north building. Each freight elevator travels from the basement to the highest level in that section of the building, except for a single elevator in the south building, which travels only from the basement to floor 18. None of the elevators travels above floor 52 in the south building.
The building's heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system is divided into several zones, each serving a different group of floors. 55 Water Street's chiller system was replaced in the 2010s. The new system consists of three chillers, which collectively emit 32.5 million fewer pounds of per year compared to the old system. The chillers each weighed and were so heavy that they had to be lifted into the building's facade at night, when there was less traffic in the area. There is also a thermal-energy storage plant with 134 ice tanks, which collectively can store 16,800 ton-hours of heat. The building has numerous water tanks and a surge tank. The tanks are fed by two water mains that connect to the New York City water supply system; the building's domestic water service is also fed by these mains. Two drainage pipes connect with the New York City sewer system.
Plazas
Ground-level plazas When 55 Water Street was built, Coenties Slip (which abutted the site to the southwest) was converted into a pedestrian plaza known as Jeannette Park. The space covers . The park had existed adjacent to Coenties Slip since 1884, when it was dedicated to the exploration vessel USS Jeannette, but Paul Friedberg expanded the park in 1971 as part of 55 Water Street's construction. Initially, 55 Water Street's owners were responsible for maintaining the park, which was paved in brick similar to the Elevated Acre plaza next to the building. Plans to redevelop the land into a memorial for Vietnam War veterans were announced in 1982, and it was rededicated as Vietnam Veterans Plaza in 1985. The plaza was renovated and redesigned by Lee S. Jablin of Harman Jablin Architects starting in 2000, and it was rededicated in 2001.
There is also an pedestrian arcade adjacent to Water Street and Vietnam Veterans Plaza. It effectively functions as an extension of the adjacent sidewalk. A sloped canopy was added in the 1990s.
Elevated Acre