55 Water Street

55 Water Street is a 687-foot-tall (209 m) skyscraper on the East River in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 53-story, 3.5-million-square-foot (325,000 m2) structure was completed in 1972. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the building was developed by the Uris brothers. At the time of completion, it was the world's largest privately owned office building by floor area. 55 Water Street is built on a superblock bounded by Coenties Slip to the southwest, Water Street to the northwest, Old Slip to the northeast, and South Street and FDR Drive to the southeast. It is owned by the pension fund Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA). 55 Water Street is composed of two sections: a 53-story tower to the south and a 15-story wing to the north. The building's facade is made of masonry and glass. The south building is rectangular, while the north building contains sloped walls and runs parallel to the northwestern boundary of the site. The foundations are made of reinforced concrete-slab walls and the superstructure is made of steel. The upper stories each contain 55,000 ft2 (5,100 m2) of space, while the lower stories are almost double that size. There is an elevated public plaza on the eastern part of the site, Elevated Acre, and another public space to the southwest, Jeannette Park (now Vietnam Veterans Plaza). The Uris Buildings Corporation proposed erecting a 53-story building on the site in October 1968, and work began the next year. The building was topped out with a ceremony on June 18, 1971, and tenants began moving into the structure at the beginning of 1972. Initially, several financial firms occupied space at 55 Water Street, including the Chemical Bank of New York, which leased roughly a third of the space and owned 15 percent of the building. National Kinney Corporation bought a majority stake in the Uris properties by late 1973, and it sold 55 Water Street to Olympia and York in 1976. RSA bought the building in 1993 after Olympia and York had difficulties paying off the mortgage. The building was renovated in the 1990s and again in the 2010s.