32 Old Slip Building vs 200 Vesey Street Building

Comparing the 32 Old Slip Building and the 200 Vesey Street Building is interesting because they both stand in New York, NY, and were completed just one year apart, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

These two towers present an interesting contrast in their proportions. The 32 Old Slip Building rises higher at 574ft (175m), while the 200 Vesey Street Building reaches 0ft (m). However, the 200 Vesey Street Building accommodates more floors with 51 levels above ground, compared to 36 floors in the 32 Old Slip Building.

This suggests different approaches to interior space design. The 32 Old Slip Building has an average floor-to-floor height of approximately 4.9m, while the 200 Vesey Street Building has more compact floors averaging around 0m each. The taller building's more generous floor heights might indicate grander interior spaces, higher ceilings, or different programmatic requirements.

These different proportions likely reflect the specific needs each building was designed to serve, whether driven by zoning regulations, client requirements, or the intended use of the spaces within. The contrast shows how architects can achieve different spatial experiences even when working with similar overall building scales.

Both the 32 Old Slip Building and the 200 Vesey Street Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Postmodernism style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Edward Durell Stone & Associates and Cesar Pelli & Associates followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

Both the 32 Old Slip Building and the 200 Vesey Street Building were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

Both towers provide significant parking capacity, with 32 Old Slip Building offering 104 spaces and the 200 Vesey Street Building offering 800.

The two towers rely on different structural systems, reflecting distinct engineering strategies.

The 32 Old Slip Building uses a Trussed Frame structural system, which uses diagonal bracing in addition to beams and columns for stability, while the 200 Vesey Street Building uses a Frame system, that relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight.

Yet, when it comes to their facade, they both employed the same solution, a Curtain Wall facade.

A curtain wall is a non-load-bearing facade hung from the structural frame. It is anchored to floor slabs and transfers only its own weight and wind loads, allowing for sleek, glassy exteriors.