General Motors Building vs One Chase Manhattan Plaza Building

Comparing the General Motors 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, Edward Durell Stone & Associates and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than 7 years 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 General Motors Building reaches 705ft (215m) with 50 floors above ground.

One Chase Manhattan Plaza Building also offers more total built-up area, a total fo 2,240,000 sqf (208,103m²), which is about 415,185 sqf (38,572m²) more than what the General Motors Building offers.

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 General Motors Building and the One Chase Manhattan Plaza Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the International Style style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Edward Durell Stone & Associates and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 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 General Motors 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 General Motors Building also provides 136 parking spaces.

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

The General Motors 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.