10 Exchange Place

The 10 Exchange Place is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by Grad Partnership, with Harry B. Mahler as lead architect, and built between 1989 and 1990 in New Jersey, NJ.

10 Exchange Place is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Exchange Place Center.

Its precise street address is 10 Exchange Place, New Jersey, NJ. You can also find it on the map here.

The building underwent a major restoration between 2020 and 2021. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was MdeAS.

Grad Partnership, with Harry B. Mahler as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but at the very least we know that there was one other part involved, that was Turner Construction Company as the Main Contractor.

The 10 Exchange Place can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.

The 10 Exchange Place was completed in 1990. By 1990 the Postmodernism movement was experiencing a transition. Critics argued that Postmodernism, initially a rebellious and innovative style, had become formulaic and commercialized, and so the trend started moving away from blending historical styles, irony, and playful ornamentation, and begun to give way to emerging architectural trends concerned with more present matters such as technology, ecology or sustainability.

The 10 Exchange Place uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete and steel slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features light beige concrete panels cover the first six levels of the building, which correspond to the parking area. The rest of the building features a curtain wall with aluminum frames and light green tinted reflective insulating glass, that forms uninterrupted vertical window lines.

On the rounded front facing the river, the windows are separated by spandrels, with three setbacks as it rises, culminating in a distinctive triangular spire at the top.