200 Vesey Street, formerly known as Three World Financial Center and also known as the American Express Tower, is one of four towers that comprise the
Brookfield Place complex in the
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
of
Lower Manhattan in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. Rising 51 floors and , it is situated between the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
and the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
. The building opened in 1986 as part of the World Financial Center and was designed by
Haines Lundberg Waehler and
Cesar Pelli & Associates.
Description
The building is an example of
postmodern architecture, as designed by
Cesar Pelli Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol
* ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt
* César Award, a French film award
Places
* Cesar, Portugal
* Ces ...
& Associates, and contains over 2.1 million square feet (195,000 m
2) of rentable office area. It connects to the rest of the
World Financial Center complex through a courtyard leading to the
Winter Garden
A winter garden is a kind of garden maintained in wintertime.
History
The origin of the winter garden dates back to the 17th to 19th centuries where European nobility would construct large conservatories that would house tropical and subtro ...
, a dramatic glass-and-steel public space with a 120 ft (37 m) vaulted ceiling under which there is an assortment of trees and plants, including sixteen 40 ft (12 m) palm trees from the
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
. It is notably similar in design to
One Canada Square
One Canada Square is a skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London. It was completed in 1991 and is the third tallest building in the United Kingdom at above ground levelAviation charts issued by the Civil Aviation Authority containing 50 storeys.
On ...
in London's
Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lon ...
development. Canary Wharf was, like the World Financial Center, a project by Canadian developers
Olympia & York, and One Canada Square was designed by the same principal architect.
Due to its status as the tallest tower in the complex, the building was subject to scathing criticism at the time of its construction. In 1985, the New York Times published an article lambasting the tower. ‟Not too long ago, it was possible to gaze all the way from mid-Manhattan to the skies over the harbor. Now, that vista has been pierced by the American Express tower being built in the World Financial Center at Battery Park City. At the moment, the skyscraper resembles a gigantic, upended, rectilinear fish skeleton. As construction proceeds, however, and the floors fill in, there will be a solid wall where there was once a generous slice of sky."
![American Express Tower 9-11](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/American_Express_Tower_9-11.jpg)
Three World Financial Center was severely damaged by the falling debris when the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
towers collapsed on
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
. The building's southeast corner took heavy structural damage, though the effects were not enough to create a threat of collapse. The building had to be closed for repairs from September 11, 2001 until May 2002 as a result of damage sustained in the terrorist attacks. A memorial was constructed to honor the 11 employees of American Express who were victims of the September 11 attacks, it is named the Eleven Tears Memorial.
3 World Financial Center is today the world headquarters of
American Express, and was once World Headquarters of
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...
Holdings Inc. It was renamed 200 Vesey Street when the rest of the complex became
Brookfield Place in 2014.
See also
*
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
*
Brookfield Place (New York City)
Brookfield Place (previously named and still commonly referred to as the World Financial Center) is a shopping center and office building complex in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located in the Battery Park City neighborhood, acr ...
*
List of tallest buildings in New York City
New York City, the most populous city in the United States, is home to over 7,000 completed high-rise buildings of at least , of which at least 95 are taller than . The tallest building in New York is One World Trade Center, which rises ...
*
List of tallest buildings in the United States
The world's first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1885. Since then, the United States has been home to some of the world's tallest skyscrapers. New York City, specifically the borough of Manhattan, notably has the tallest skyline in the cou ...
References
External links
Official websiteEmporis - Three World Financial CenterSkyscraperpage - Three World Financial Center* ()
{{American Express
Office buildings completed in 1986
Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan
American Express
Lehman Brothers
Brookfield Place (New York City)
Brookfield Properties buildings
Battery Park City
West Side Highway