140 Broadway

140 Broadway (formerly known as the Marine Midland Building or the HSBC Bank Building) is a 51-story International Style office building on the east side of Broadway between Cedar and Liberty streets in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft, of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and consists of a mostly smooth black facade on a trapezoidal plot. It is approximately tall, with approximately . It is known for the distinctive sculpture at its entrance, Isamu Noguchi's ''Cube''.

The developer Erwin S. Wolfson acquired the site in several stages between 1952 and 1961. Initial plans called for a 36-story monolith, but when Wolfson died, the architects modified their plans to a 51-story tower, which occupied only two-fifths of the block and conformed to the 1961 Zoning Resolution. The building was erected between late 1964 and 1967 and was originally known for its main tenant, the Marine Midland Corporation (later part of HSBC). Several early tenants were affiliated with the financial industry, including banking and accounting firms. In 1998, the building was sold to Silverstein Properties, which undertook a major renovation.

The primary tenant of the building since 2002 is Brown Brothers Harriman, filling a vacancy left after HSBC relocated in 2001. The building has been owned by Union Investment since 2004, and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as a city landmark in 2013. Reviews of the building among architecture critics have been largely positive, with several praising the structure's smooth black facade.

Site

140 Broadway is located on an entire city block bounded to the west by Broadway, to the north by Liberty Street, to the east by Nassau Street, and to the south by Cedar Street. The block is an irregular trapezoid, with all of its frontages being of different lengths. The block measures along Broadway, along Liberty Street, along Nassau Street, and along Cedar Street. The building occupies two-fifths of the block, with dimensions of between . Its footprint is rhomboid, matching the shape of the block. Roger N. Radford, the leader of the team that designed 140 Broadway, stated that many of the tenants he knew were unaware of the building's "funny shape".

Within 140 Broadway's immediate surroundings are One Liberty Plaza to the northwest; the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York and the Liberty Tower to the north; the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building to the northeast; 28 Liberty Street to the east; the Equitable Building to the south; the Trinity and United States Realty Buildings to the southwest; and Zuccotti Park to the west. Trinity Church and Wall Street are located two blocks south.

Architecture

140 Broadway was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in the International Style, with Gordon Bunshaft as the lead on the project. It was erected by the Diesel Construction Company, co-founded by prolific real-estate developer Erwin S. Wolfson, and led by Carl Morse at the time of the building's construction. Roger N. Radford was the design team's leader; Allan Labie was the project manager; Bradley B. Sullivan was the job captain; and James Ruderman was the structural engineer. Thomas Crimmins Construction Company were hired to excavate the site, and U.S. Steel provided the steel.

140 Broadway contains 51 stories and measures either or tall. It has about on each floor, or total. The structure uses a frame weighing . Because of 140 Broadway's energy efficiency, the U.S. Green Building Council has certified 140 Broadway as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold structure.

Form and facade

The New York City Department of City Planning passed the 1961 Zoning Resolution in October 1960, and the new zoning rules became effective in December 1961, superseding the 1916 Zoning Resolution. Rather than the inclusion of setbacks that the old zoning laws had encouraged, the new zoning laws allowed skyscrapers to have a bulky massing with additional floor area, in exchange for the inclusion of ground-level open spaces. 140 Broadway's design strictly adhered to the 1961 law; according to Radford, the law "force the mass of the building toward the center of the site".

Harry Helmsley, who took over the building's development after Wolfson's death, sought to emphasize the building's vertical axis. As a result, Radford decided to emphasize the vertical window-washing tracks along the black-aluminum facade. The facade is otherwise smooth, with dark glass panels as well as slightly textured aluminum window trim. The western facade has three vertical bays of six windows each, while the eastern facade has four bays of six windows. The northern and southern facades each have seven bays of six windows. Little else was attached to the facade, except for signs with the number 140 on both faces of either southern corner, as well as the name of the Marine Midland Bank on the Broadway and Cedar Street sides. There are numerous revolving doors on all four sides that provide access to the building.

Initial plans called for a rectangular building with a light-gray, grid-like facade made of concrete or aluminum. The building had been redesigned by 1965 to have a smooth facade that harmonized with the surrounding masonry buildings while standing out from its surroundings. One critic wrote that the previous design had 140 Broadway as "a little brother to 8 Liberty Streetin the same shiny finish", which he said "would have looked like a poor relation." Another compared the new plan to contemporary graphic design and Ad Reinhardt's "black" paintings. The design of 140 Broadway's facade was also patterned after the Equitable Life Assurance Building, designed by Pietro Belluschi in Portland, Oregon.

Plaza

140 Broadway is set back from the curb on Broadway, from Cedar Street's curb, and from Liberty Street's curb. A public plaza is located in this intermediate space and is made of tiled white travertine. An entrance to the New York City Subway's Broad Street station existed on the plaza's southeast corner but was removed by 1999. A granite monument to Harry Helmsley is located at the plaza's southwest corner. The sidewalks on all sides of 140 Broadway are wide and are maintained by the New York City Department of Transportation rather than the building's owners, but are sometimes considered part of the plaza.

''The Cube''

According to Radford, Bunshaft suggested that Isamu Noguchi be involved with the project. During the building's construction, Noguchi was commissioned to create a sculpture for the portion of the plaza facing Broadway. He had originally proposed a "megalith" or a "cluster of primitivisitic monoliths". However, Helmsley felt that the "megalith" would have cost too much. Subsequently, Bunshaft had suggested combining Noguchi's "series of rocks" into a single block.

Noguchi's final sculpture'','' titled ''The Cube'', was installed in 1968. It is a vermilion-hued rhombohedron with a cylindrical hole through its center, standing upon one corner and measuring tall. ''The Cube'' is located off-center, on the north side of the plaza, contrasting with 140 Broadway's dark facade while turning viewers' attention toward the surrounding plaza. Like 140 Broadway, it was detailed by SOM and has an aluminum frame. Bunshaft praised ''The Cube'' as "work ngbeautifully with the building nevery way", while Metropolitan Museum of Art director Thomas Hoving said that the cube was a sign of "change in public taste".

History

Planning and construction

In 1952, Wolfson began purchasing land on the city block bounded by Cedar, Liberty, and Nassau Streets, and Broadway. The six plots on the block had been owned by different entities immediately prior to Wolfson's purchase, including The Clearing House, the National Bank of Commerce, and the Guaranty Trust Company (later part of J.P. Morgan & Co.), and had five buildings between nine and nineteen stories tall. These entities eventually sold all of their properties to J.P. Morgan, and in August 1961, Wolfson bought all six plots from J.P. Morgan. At the time, Wolfson was planning a 32-story building on the site, a bulky mass that would conform with the 1961 Zoning Resolution, as well as allow for the widening of Liberty Street in conjunction with the construction of 28 Liberty Street, then known as One Chase Manhattan Plaza. Wolfson's building would have had masonry canopies protruding from the floor plates. Also in 1961, SOM was hired as the architecture firm for the proposed building.

Wolfson died suddenly in June 1962. Upon Morse's request, developer Harry Helmsley agreed to collaborate on the project, and Helmsley created the 140 Broadway Corporation. Lawrence A. Wien

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