55 Water Street Building vs One Chase Manhattan Plaza Building

Comparing the 55 Water Street Building and the One Chase Manhattan Plaza Building is interesting because they both rise in New York, NY, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Emery Roth & Sons and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than a decade apart.

This contrast within the same city allows us to see how different creative minds interpreted the evolving needs of New York across time.

Let's take a closer look!

The One Chase Manhattan Plaza Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 814ft (248m) with 60 floors above ground, while the 55 Water Street Building reaches 686ft (209m) with 53 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the 55 Water Street Building and the One Chase Manhattan Plaza Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the International Style style.

The 55 Water Street Building was designed at a moment when the International Style style was already in decline, making it more of a lingering expression of the movement. In contrast, the One Chase Manhattan Plaza Building style was already in decline, making it more of a lingering expression of the movement. In contrast, the One Chase Manhattan Plaza Building was built when the style still carried greater cultural weight.

Both the 55 Water Street Building and the One Chase Manhattan Plaza 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.

The 55 Water Street Building also provides 600 parking spaces.

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

The 55 Water Street Building uses a Frame structural system, which relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight, while the One Chase Manhattan Plaza Building uses a Framed Tube In Tube system, that combines a strong central core with a perimeter tube of columns.

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.