1 Wall Street Building

1 Wall Street Building
  1. About the 1 Wall Street Building in New York
    1. Building Catalogations
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectureal style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The 1 Wall Street Building is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker and built between 1929 and 1931 in New York, NY.

1 Wall Street Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The 1 Wall Street Building is also known, or has been known as, Irving Trust Company Building, Bank of New York Building, or BNY Mellon Building.

Its precise street address is 1 Wall Street, New York, NY. You can also find it on the map here.

The 1 Wall Street Building is a structure of significant importance both for the city of New York and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the Art Deco style. Because of that, the 1 Wall Street Building was officially included in the New York Register of Historic Places on March 6th 2001.

The building has been restored 2 times over the years to ensure its conservation and adaptation to the pass of time. The main restoration works happened in 1965 and 2021.

Building's timeline

Construction begins
1929
95
Construction completed
1931
93
a
Restoration
1965
59
Added to the New York RHP
2001
23
b
Restoration
2021
3
years ago
2024
  1. 1963 to 1965 - 36 floors were added to the original building. The architect in charge was Voorhees, Walker Smith Smith & Haines.
  2. 2018 to 2021 - The building was converted into residential units. The architect in charge was Robert A.M. Stern.

Architect and team

Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker was in charge of the architectural design, however, architecture is a complex discipline, which usually involves 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 here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the 1 Wall Street Building a reality:

  • Marc Eidlitz as the Main Contractor
  • Irving Trust as the Main Developer

Architectural Style

The 1 Wall Street Building can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The Art Deco movement flourished during the 1920s and 1930s, with many historians marking the outbreak of World War II as its final decline. Even though a couple of decades might not seem as much, the Art Deco movement had a great impact on architecture, and it's widely represented in many American cities due to the development boom that happened during that time.

Art Deco marked the abandonment of traditional historicism and the embracement of modern living and the age of the machine. In architecture, that meant leaving behind the ornaments of Beux-Arts and Neo-Gothic buildings and instead favoring simplicity and visual impact through geometric shapes, clean lines, and symmetrical designs. Ornaments were still an important part of the design, but they became bold and lavish, and were often inspired by ancient cultures or industrial imagery, instead of nature.

The 1 Wall Street Building was completed in 1931, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

Spaces & Uses

The 1 Wall Street Building reaches an architectural height of 653ft (199m). It has a total of 55 floors, 50 above ground and 5 basements, served by 10 elevators, which combined offer a total of 1,165,644 sqf (108,292m2) of usable space.

When it opened its doors to the public in 1931, the 1 Wall Street Building was primarily used as Commercial space. That however, is no longer the case, and today it mainly provides Residential space.

About the residences

The 1 Wall Street Building has a total of 566 residential units throughout its 50 floors. If you are interested in learning more about the residences and their availability, you can check the 1 Wall Street Building's website.

653ft (199m)
5 basements

Materials & Structure

The 1 Wall Street Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete 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.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features granite at the base of the building.

Sources

  • s-media.nyc.gov