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Foster + Partners' 270 Park Avenue replacement tops out in Manhattan

2023-11-21T20:00:00-05:00

A celebration was held this week to mark the official topping out of the new 60-story JPMorgan Chase headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in Manhattan.

Designed by Foster + Partners to feature the latest approaches ascendant in post-pandemic workplace design, the building is beset with flexible office configurations and wellness spaces.

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

The project was undertaken with a fair amount of controversy, as several preservation groups and AIANY had lobbied heavily in favor of preserving its SOM-designed predecessor, known by its original title, the Union Carbide Building.

Foster + Partners hopes the new building will follow its lead to become an equally revolutionary contribution to American office design.

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

Norman Foster said: “In 1811, when this site was countryside, the city commissioners created a master plan for New York. It was bold, innovative, and reflected an optimism for the future. Today, over two hundred years later, th...

Foster + Partners unveils renderings for contested new JPMorgan Chase headquarters in Manhattan

2022-04-15T17:32:00-04:00

Four years after the project’s initial announcement, Foster + Partners has finally revealed designs for JPMorgan Chase’s new headquarters in Manhattan.

At 60 stories, the 1,388-foot-tall tower will be the largest such development in the city and promises to feature an array of high-tech building systems with space for up to 14,000 employees in what is billed as a renaissance of traditional offices under the new Midtown East rezoning plan.

Rendering © DBOX for Foster + Partners

Announcing the new design, Norman Foster said the building would rise “to the challenge of respecting the rhythm and distinctive streetscape of Park Avenue, while accommodating the vital transport infrastructure of the city below.” He added: “The result is an elegant solution where the architecture is the structure, and the structure is the architecture, embracing a new vision that will serve JPMorgan Chase now and well into the future.”

Rendering © DBOX for Foster + Partners

The controversial project is part o...

NY City Council approves JPMorgan Chase's new HQ by Foster + Partners

2019-05-09T19:31:00-04:00

The City Council approved JP Morgan Chase’s plans Wednesday for a soaring 70-story tower to replace the Union Carbide Building in East Midtown. [...] The new tower will consolidate all of JPMorgan Chase’s employees in one building and will come with a 10,000 square-foot privately owned public space after Community Board 5 and elected officials pushed for more square footage.

Despite environmental concerns, demolition of the historic 270 Park Avenue tower in East Midtown, New York has already started to make way for JPMorgan Chase's new 70-story headquarters, which Foster + Partners was selected to design. Construction of the new tower is currently scheduled to begin in January 2021.

JPMorgan Chase HQ: permits filed for largest planned demolition in history

2019-01-22T14:26:00-05:00

[...] a demolition application was filed for 270 Park Avenue, the current, but not for long headquarters of JPMorgan Chase. The filing is a pivotal step for the bank, which plans to replace the 1.5 million-square-foot Modernist tower with a 2.5 million square foot supertall skyscraper designed by Lord Norman Foster.

The clock is ticking for the midcentury modernist HQ of banking giant JPMorgan Chase: despite preservationist and environmental concerns, the fate of 270 Park Avenue appears sealed, and the 50-story structure is likely to become the world's tallest building ever to be intentionally demolished.

"Full demolition work is slated to begin in early 2019, and a construction elevator has already been erected alongside the building," reports CityRealty. "Once the new 270 Park is completed in 2024, it will become one of the tallest buildings in NYC and the hemisphere's tallest office building by roof height."

Two options for a Foster + Partners-designed replacement tower were revealed in November.

JPMorgan Chase reveals two options for Foster-designed supertall HQ

2018-11-14T14:14:00-05:00

[...] the second supertall to result from the Midtown East rezoning is moving forward, with JPMorgan Chase filing a text amendment with City Planning for a 1,400-foot tower on the site of 270 Park Avenue. Designed by Foster + Partners Architects, the plans also come with the first renderings of the 2.4 million square foot supertall, and massing diagrams that offer a look at what’s in store for New York City’s most central business district.

After announcing Foster + Partners as design architect for its new 270 Park Avenue HQ tower a few days ago, JPMorgan Chase has now filed a zoning text amendment with NYC's City Planning department.

The document shows two options for a massive supertall tower to replace the current building from 1961; one option rising an impressive 1,566 feet and 8 inches above ground, and the other version standing 'merely' 1,400 feet to its rooftop.

"Either option would make a very substantial impact on the Midtown East skyline," reports YIMBY.

270 Park Avenue: proposed No-Action and With-Action options. Image: New York Department of City Planning.

JPMorgan Chase picks Foster + Partners to design new HQ

2018-11-01T13:52:00-04:00

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon has said he wants to build a new world-class headquarters for the 21st century. Now he’s hiring the architect behind Apple Inc.’s futuristic offices to design the new Park Avenue tower. Foster + Partners will serve as the lead architect on the project[...]. It also designed 425 Park Ave., under construction a few blocks to the north. The bank didn’t disclose details of the design.

Banking giant JPMorgan Chase initially floated plans to demolish its current New York City home at 270 Park Avenue back in February, and this week's selection of Norman Foster as the design architect of the replacement building appears to seal the fate of the old tower.

Completed in 1961 and designed by SOM's Natalie de Blois as Union Carbide Building, the 50-story midcentury modernist high-rise does not enjoy landmark status and will likely be demolished next year—despite preservationist and environmental concerns.

Citing environmental concern, AIANY expresses worry over the demolition of SOM's 270 Park Avenue

2018-04-02T14:45:00-04:00

270 Park Avenue, also known as the Union Carbide Building, is slated for demolition. Designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill partner, Natalie Griffin de Blois, and completed in the early 60s, the mid-century office tower will be town down in order for the building's owner, JPMorgan Chase, to erect a 70-story one, now allowed by the area's recent rezoning.

At 52 floors, the razing of 270 Park Avenue will be the world's largest voluntary demolition of a building. Due to its location in a crowded urban area, the process will involve a top-down, systematic deconstruction of the building that will take roughly a year, according to demolition experts.

Public reaction to the announcement has been predictably critical, with preservationists and other members of the architecture community pushing for the building to get in front of the Landmarks Preservation Committee ahead of its erasure. While much of the criticism has centered around the obscene loss of the superlative modernist skyscrape...

Planned demolition of SOM-designed JPMorgan Chase HQ draws criticism

2018-02-22T13:48:00-05:00

Earlier today, news broke that the De Blasio administration has hashed out a deal with JPMorgan Chase to demolish its existing headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, and replace the structure with a shiny new 70-story building. The deal was negotiated in the wake of the Midtown East rezoning, which loosened zoning regulations for the area in exchange for developers providing street-level and infrastructure improvements.

Not so fast! said architecture critics and preservationists when news broke that the midcentury 270 Park Avenue tower in Manhattan's East Midtown, currently home of banking giant JPMorgan Chase, had quietly been selected—not for landmark designation—but for the chopping block.

Designed by SOM's Natalie de Blois as Union Carbide Building, the 50-story skyscraper was completed in 1961 and is considered an important example of female-led midcentury corporate architecture.