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383 Madison Avenue, formerly known as the Bear Stearns Building, is a , 47-story skyscraper in the
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...
neighborhood of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, United States. Built in 2002 for financial services firm
Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The com ...
, it was designed by architect
David Childs David Magie Childs (born April 1, 1941) is an American architect and chairman emeritus of the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He is the architect of the new One World Trade Center in New York City. Early life and education Chil ...
of
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
(SOM). It housed Bear Stearns's world headquarters until 2008, when Bear collapsed and was sold to
JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, t ...
. Since then, JPMorgan's investment banking division has occupied the building. 383 Madison Avenue occupies an entire city block bounded by
Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Str ...
, 47th Street,
Vanderbilt Avenue Vanderbilt Avenue is the name of three thoroughfares in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island. They were named after Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), the builder of Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. ...
and 46th Street. The eastern two-thirds of the building is erected over two stories of tracks leading to the nearby
Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
. Above the rectangular base, there are several setbacks tapering to an
octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, w ...
al tower. The facade is made of granite with glass panels, and the tower is topped by a glass crown. To accommodate the railroad tracks under the site, the foundation and
superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...
contain large sloped
girder A girder () is a support beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. Girders often have an I-beam cross section composed of two load-bearing ''flanges'' separated by a stabilizin ...
s and
truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...
es, and the elevators are placed on the west side of the building. The ground story also contains public spaces and an entrance to Grand Central Terminal. Above are seven trading floors, as well as office stories. The building has a usable floor area of ; including mechanical spaces, its total floor area is . G. Ware Travelstead, First Boston, and the al-Babtain family acquired the site in 1982 and tried to develop a building with more than 70 stories. That plan stalled after Travelstead could not acquire the required
air rights Air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by others. This lega ...
from Grand Central Terminal. HRO International then proposed redeveloping the site, but al-Babtain acquired full ownership in 1995 before HRO could obtain the lot. Bear Stearns agreed to develop the site in 1997 after several potential tenants declined to lease space there. Work started in 1999 and was completed in early 2002. When demolition of JPMorgan Chase's world headquarters at 270 Park Avenue commenced in 2019, the bank's headquarters temporarily relocated to 383 Madison Avenue until the JPMorgan Chase Tower is completed on the Park Avenue site.


Site

383 Madison Avenue is in the
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...
neighborhood of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It occupies an entire city block bounded by
Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Str ...
to the west, 47th Street to the north,
Vanderbilt Avenue Vanderbilt Avenue is the name of three thoroughfares in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island. They were named after Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), the builder of Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. ...
to the east, and 46th Street to the south. The land lot covers about with a
frontage Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...
of on either avenue and on either street. Nearby buildings include the old
New York Mercantile Library The Center for Fiction, originally called the New York Mercantile Library, is a not-for-profit organization in New York City, with offices at 15 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Prior to their move in early 2018, The Center for Ficti ...
and 400 Madison Avenue to the northwest; 270 Park Avenue to the north;
277 Park Avenue 277 Park Avenue is an office building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It stands on the east side of Park Avenue between East 47th and 48th Streets, and is tall, with 50 floors. It is tied with two other buildings, 55 Wat ...
to the northeast;
245 Park Avenue 245 Park Avenue is a 648-ft (198 m) skyscraper in New York City, New York. It was completed in 1967, and contains on 48 floors. Shreve, Lamb and Harmon designed the structure, which is the 94th- tallest building in New York. The Building Owner ...
to the east; the
Helmsley Building The Helmsley Building is a 35-story skyscraper at 230 Park Avenue between East 45th and 46th Streets in New York City, just north of Grand Central Terminal, in Midtown Manhattan. It was built in 1929 as the New York Central Building and was d ...
and
MetLife Building The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed in the Internation ...
to the southeast; and the Roosevelt Hotel to the south. By the late 19th century, the Park Avenue railroad line ran in an open-cut in the middle of
Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Av ...
, one block east. The line was covered with the construction of Grand Central Terminal in the early 20th century, spurring development in the surrounding area, Terminal City. Among the developments were office buildings such as the
Chanin Building Chanin is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alabama Chanin, American fashion designer *Irwin Chanin (1891–1988), American architect *Jack Chanin (1907–1997), US-based Ukrainian magician *Jim Chanin (born 1947), American attor ...
, Bowery Savings Bank Building, and
New York Central Building The Helmsley Building is a 35-story skyscraper at 230 Park Avenue between East 45th and 46th Streets in New York City, just north of Grand Central Terminal, in Midtown Manhattan. It was built in 1929 as the New York Central Building and wa ...
, as well as hotels like the Biltmore,
Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...
,
Waldorf Astoria The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultze ...
, and Summit. By 1920, the area had become what ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called "a great civic centre". Largely commercial International Style skyscrapers replaced many of the residential structures on Park Avenue during the 1950s and 1960s.


Previous buildings

The original building at 383 Madison Avenue was the Knapp Building, an office structure designed by Cross & Cross and built in 1923 for real estate firm
Webb & Knapp Webb and Knapp was a real estate development firm. The company is most famous for developing the Roosevelt Airfield, which was the launching site of the transatlantic flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. It was also the firm at whic ...
. The limestone structure was 14 stories tall and contained . The northern half of the building was erected first; it was quickly rented, prompting Webb and Knapp to build the southern half in the same style. The Knapp Building then served as the headquarters of the Manhattan Savings Bank. By the 1980s, the building also contained offices for advertising firm
BBDO BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency originated in 1891 with the George Batten Company, and in 1928, through a merger with Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BDO), the agency became Batten, B ...
and CBS Educational and Professional Publishing. The building occupied the entire block. The facade resembled a simplified classical
palazzo A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...
. There were bronze-framed display windows at ground level, a
string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the fl ...
above the third floor, paired windows in the intermediate floors, and single windows on the top stories. There were swags between the upper-story windows and a flat
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
atop the building. The roof of the Knapp Building contained a modernist two-story penthouse designed by I. M. Pei and
William Lescaze William Edmond Lescaze, FAIA (March 27, 1896 – February 9, 1969), was a Swiss-born American architect, city planner and industrial designer. He is ranked among the pioneers of modernism in American architecture. Biography William Lescaze ...
in 1952. The penthouse's reception area alone occupied about one-third of the lower level. This penthouse included a circular office on the lower level, used by
William Zeckendorf William Zeckendorf Sr. (June 30, 1905 – September 30, 1976) was a prominent American real estate developer. Through his development company Webb and Knapp — for which he began working in 1938 and which he purchased in 1949 — he developed ...
of Webb & Knapp. Zeckendorf's office was covered in oak panels, and there was a private terrace adjacent to it. The offices of the firm's secretaries were arranged around the penthouse as well. On the upper level was a circular dining room accessed by a circular elevator and a rounded staircase. The penthouse was topped by a small cylindrical tower, cantilevered from the core.


Architecture

Designed by
David Childs David Magie Childs (born April 1, 1941) is an American architect and chairman emeritus of the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He is the architect of the new One World Trade Center in New York City. Early life and education Chil ...
of
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
(SOM) for defunct investment bank
Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The com ...
, 383 Madison Avenue is tall with 47 floors. Turner Construction was the
general contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...
; Jaros, Baum & Bolles and Robert Derector Associates were the main engineers, and Cantor Seinuk was the structural engineer.


Form and facade

The building consists of an
octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, w ...
al tower rising out of a rectangular base. The lowest nine stories occupy the entire site, measuring . Above a setback on the ninth story, the cross section of the 10th and 11th stories is rectangular, measuring . There is a further setback at the 12th story, where the building shrinks to an octagon measuring . The octagonal tower sets back again at the 18th story (numbered as floor 14), where the building rises straight to its crown. This design maximized the size of the perimeter wall, and it created eight corners for private offices on each story. The facade is made of granite with glass panels. The tower terminates at a glass crown, which is illuminated at night. The glass crown consists of panels, which can also reflect sunlight during the daytime. Childs described the crown as being made of "crinkled glass", which is laminated and rolled.


Mechanical and structural features


Foundation

About two-thirds of the building's foundation sits above two levels of
Metro-North Railroad Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connectic ...
tracks just north of
Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
, rather than being attached to the bedrock itself. The columns of the building's substructure had to be arranged to avoid the tracks, which descended as much as beneath ground level. There is also a utility tunnel below the lower track level, which was built in the early 20th century, with unreinforced concrete walls measuring thick. The footing subgrade has a
bearing capacity In geotechnical engineering, bearing capacity is the capacity of soil to support the loads applied to the ground. The bearing capacity of soil is the maximum average contact pressure between the foundation and the soil which should not produce sh ...
of . The general contractors reinforced many of the Knapp Building's existing columns and added new footings where necessary. Additionally, a new footing was placed atop the utility tunnel. During the building's construction, the tracks under the site were closed temporarily. The contractors removed most of the track beds for storage, though one track remained in place. The contractors then installed new foundation walls. Each of the new concrete walls is thick and can carry loads of . Steel grillages, measuring long by wide, are placed under the walls, distributing the loads to the bedrock.


Superstructure

The
superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...
of the first 18 stories is placed on an orthogonal grid. The elevator pits could not descend below the first story, due to the presence of the tracks on the eastern portion of the site. Thus, the structural engineers placed the elevators, as well as the structural core of the lower stories, on the western portion of the site. This created large floor areas but also decreased the effectiveness of the building's lateral bracing. North and south of the lower core are concrete
shear wall In structural engineering, a shear wall is a vertical element of a system that is designed to resist in-plane lateral forces, typically wind and seismic loads. In many jurisdictions, the International Building Code and International Residential Co ...
s, which run to the building's western
elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
. To compensate for the offset core, the building's eastern elevation contains a
Vierendeel truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembla ...
with columns spaced every . Above the double-height lobby are two
truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...
es, each measuring long. These trusses support all of the upper floors while allowing the lobby to be designed as a column-free space. At ground level, the building contains storefronts, with columns at each corner. Above the ground level, the corners of the building contain executive offices without any columns at the corners. This required the installation of slanted
girder A girder () is a support beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. Girders often have an I-beam cross section composed of two load-bearing ''flanges'' separated by a stabilizin ...
s at each corner, as well as
spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
beams that connect opposing corners. The trading floors, which are immediately above the lobby and storefronts, contain fewer columns than usual, requiring that the upper stories be supported by complex trusses. On the trading floors, the easternmost and the westernmost of each story do not have columns.
HVAC Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. ...
and mechanical equipment are placed on several intermediate stories, since there is not enough room in the basement. The building was designed to run for four days without exterior power through four emergency electrical generators, its own steam turbines, and tanks that can store of emergency water. The mechanical spaces are on the 14th through 17th stories (labeled as floors 10 through 13). The core of the upper stories is at the center of the site. Therefore, diagonal girders are installed within the mechanical levels to shift loads up to westward, between the upper and lower cores. The sloped girders measure up to across and can carry up to . The girders intersect at nodes, which each consist of several layers of steel plates. Each node connects up to four girders. Above the 18th story, the columns at the perimeter of the octagonal tower are placed apart, creating a rigid moment frame. Each corner of the octagon has no columns. Additionally, the perimeter columns are not aligned with the steel frame below, which required the use of a double-height ring truss wall on the 18th and 19th stories to distribute loads to the lower stories. The 18th and 19th stories contain technological equipment for the tenants. In total, the superstructure has of steel.


Interior

The building has a total floor area of . The usable floor area covers only , giving it a
floor area ratio Floor area ratio (FAR) is the ratio of a building's total floor area (gross floor area) to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built. It is often used as one of the regulations in city planning along with the building-to-land ratio. The ...
(FAR) of 21.6. At the time of the building's planning, this was the maximum FAR allowed in any building in New York City. This includes of space that the developers could build "as-of-right" without additional
zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...
provisions, as well as of air rights from above the terminal. About 26 percent of the building is mechanical space, which does not count toward FAR calculations. This was allowed since 383 Madison Avenue's zoning district does not specify any height limit. Under normal
zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...
regulations, the maximum FAR for any building on the tower's site was 15, but the developers received two bonuses of 20 percent each, bringing the FAR to 21.6. The developers had to include privately owned public space at the building's base for the first bonus, and they built a transit entrance for the second bonus.


Ground floor

There is a set of escalators and a staircase near the northwest corner of the building, which contains an entrance to Grand Central Terminal. Work on this entrance began in 1997 as part of the Grand Central North passageway system, which was completed in 1999. The Grand Central North entrance covers . Above the Grand Central North entrance is a mosaic panel showing Manhattan's skyline before the World Trade Center was built. The panel is one of three that were commissioned by the Manhattan Savings Bank around 1950; they were initially installed above the entrance to the Knapp Building. Each panel measured about wide. Before the mosaic panel was reinstalled in the Bear Stearns Building, it was restored and cleaned, and new mosaic pieces were fabricated to replace broken pieces. A new white background measuring was created and installed behind the skyline. There are also several recessed corner entrances totaling ; a mass-transit access point covering ; and a "through-block connection" covering . The through-block passageway connects 46th and 47th Streets along the eastern side of the building, providing access to Grand Central North from 46th Street. To comply with zoning regulations, there are also shops along the Madison Avenue side of the building. The lobby has a ceiling with pillars and a black security desk. The lobby has hosted Christmas parties, executive meetings, and even a wedding between employees.


Offices

When it opened, the building contained 23 elevators; , the building has 30 elevators. In addition, the building has a 450-seat auditorium, employee dining areas, a broadcast studio, and an employee fitness center. The auditorium and employee dining areas are within the lowest nine stories of the building. Floors 12 and 13 contain executive dining rooms. The offices also include multimedia rooms, electronic "data walls", and remote data centers. Each story also has three electrical closets and two telecom rooms. The interiors use of moldings, of terrazzo, of Maine granite, and ceilings made of medium-density fiberboard. When the building was being developed, the lowest portion of the building was to contain seven rectangular trading floors, which could accommodate 2,000 traders. As built, floors 3 through 11 served as Bear Stearns' trading floors. The trading floors originally spanned only four stories, two each for
equity Equity may refer to: Finance, accounting and ownership *Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them ** Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business ** Home equity, the diff ...
and
fixed income Fixed income refers to any type of investment under which the borrower or issuer is obliged to make payments of a fixed amount on a fixed schedule. For example, the borrower may have to pay interest at a fixed rate once a year and repay the prin ...
departments. Each floor is and can fit 285 traders. The trading floors each contain about of usable space. The placement of the concrete foundation walls between the railroad tracks mandated that the trading floors be divided into
bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...
, each measuring wide by long.


History


Travelstead plans


Early proposals

By the 1980s, Grand Central Terminal had about of unused
air rights Air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by others. This lega ...
, which its owners (a subsidiary of the former
Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and th ...
) sought to sell off. Since the terminal was a city landmark, its owners could not use the air rights to expand the terminal. In ''
Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City ''Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City'', 438 U.S. 104 (1978), was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision on compensation for regulatory takings. Events leading up to the case New York City Landmarks Law The New York City L ...
'' (1978), the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
had ruled that the city government had the right to designate the terminal as a landmark, even if the designation prevented Penn Central from using its air rights. Afterward, Penn Central planned to sell the air rights to other developers; however, many potential development sites could not receive Grand Central's air rights because they were too far away. Manhattan Savings Bank was also looking to sell the Knapp Building at 383 Madison Avenue in the early 1980s. Developer G. Ware Travelstead, who led First Boston Real Estate, acquired the old building from Manhattan Savings Bank in October 1982 for $77.75 million. Travelstead and First Boston were joined by a Saudi partner, the al-Babtain family. The developers hired SOM to design a replacement for the site. Initial plans reached up to and 140 stories, taller than
Sears Tower The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108- story, skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM ...
, the tallest building in the world at the time. At the time, all leases at the Knapp Building were set to lapse in three years. For this project, First Boston arranged to buy at least of air rights from Grand Central. By 1984, Travelstead planned to build a shorter tower of 50 to 70 stories, saying: "It's not clear to me that anybody wants to pay an $8, $10 or $12 premium to be in a very tall building." Subsequently, Travelstead hired
Kohn Pedersen Fox Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) is an American architecture firm that provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors. KPF is one of the largest architecture firms in ...
(KPF) to redesign the project. KPF created new plans for the building with assistance from structural engineer
William LeMessurier William "Bill" James LeMessurier, Jr. (; June 12, 1926 – June 14, 2007) was a prominent American structural engineer. Early life and education Born in Pontiac, Michigan, Bill was the youngest of four children of Bertha (Sherman) and Wil ...
. Travelstead proposed a tower of about 70 stories and over . The building would have been one of the tallest in New York City; it would have contained a floor area of . The office floors were to be arranged in a cross, with columns in the building's core to avoid underground tracks at Grand Central Terminal. The below-ground structure would have been made of steel because a concrete foundation could not fit between the tracks. To redistribute loads from the exterior to the core, diagonal beams would be installed at intervals of eight floors. There would have been trading floors made of concrete (corresponding to the first ten stories above ground), as well as a series of office stories capped by a shoulder truss. The top 20 stories would have been above the truss. To blend in with nearby buildings, the lower stories would have contained a granite facade, while the upper stories would have been made of metal and glass. The
Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...
lauded the proposal as one of the ten best designs in the 20th century. Architecture writer
Ada Louise Huxtable Ada Louise Huxtable (née Landman; March 14, 1921 – January 7, 2013) was an architecture critic and writer on architecture. Huxtable established architecture and urban design journalism in North America and raised the public's awareness of th ...
derided it as "a ski-slide tower of Brobdignagian scale and bulk in what might be called Mesopotamian-Motorola style".


Air rights dispute

By 1986, Travelstead planned to start work on its tower the next year. The site was only zoned for and Travelstead needed to purchase of air rights from Grand Central Terminal to attain his desired square footage. Without a zoning subdistrict across which air rights could be distributed, the terminal's air rights could typically only be transferred to adjacent sites with one exception. Penn Central could transfer air rights from Grand Central through adjacent buildings that it also owned, thus forming a "chain of ownership". Such a chain between Grand Central and 383 Madison Avenue no longer existed aboveground, since Penn Central had sold off the Biltmore and Roosevelt hotels, which would have connected the two sites. Travelstead and Penn Central claimed that there was a chain of ownership through the underground tracks, which Penn Central did own. City officials did not believe that underground property or railroad tracks were part of a chain of ownership, saying that, if such a chain was valid, air rights from Grand Central could be transferred up the Park Avenue line to the New York City border. Travelstead submitted a special-permit application and a draft environmental impact statement to the city government in 1986, but the city did not take any action on the matter for two years. Even as Travelstead continued to advocate for the 70-story plan, a scaled-down proposal called Scheme III was unveiled in 1987 (despite the name, there had been no Scheme II). This proposal called for a 48-story tower with a similar massing to KPF's 70-story proposal, though the pinnacle would contain multiple spires, evocative of Manhattan's older skyscrapers. The Knapp Building was empty by the late 1980s. Though Travelstead left First Boston in 1988, he continued to be involved in the project. He sued the city in early 1988, and a
State Supreme Court In the United States, a state supreme court (known by other names in some states) is the highest court in the state judiciary of a U.S. state. On matters of state law, the judgment of a state supreme court is considered final and binding in b ...
judge ruled that the city had to decide within 30 days on whether to allow the plans to proceed. A six-month public review process for the planned building began in April 1989. Travelstead encountered opposition in trying to transfer the air rights.
Manhattan Community Board 5 Manhattan Community Board 5 is a New York City community board, part of the local government apparatus of the city, with the responsibility for the neighborhoods of Midtown, Times Square, most of the Theater District, the Diamond District, t ...
voted unanimously to deny the transfer in June 1989. Following the Community Board's opposition, the New York City Planning Commission (CPC) also disapproved of the transfer that August. Travelstead then sued the city in the State Supreme Court. By late 1990, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
(MTA) sought to buy Grand Central and build 383 Madison on First Boston's behalf, as MTA officials believed the agency could qualify for a zoning exemption. Under that plan, the MTA would have built a driveway in the tower's base, connecting to a new truck-loading dock within Grand Central. Meanwhile, the CPC had suggested creating a zoning subdistrict in November 1989, wherein Grand Central's of air rights could be transferred to any building in the district. In 1991, the CPC issued a report on the proposed Grand Central Subdistrict, which would allow Penn Central to transfer air rights to any building in a seven-block area. Among those sites was 383 Madison Avenue, where Travelstead had to finalize his purchase of the air rights within a year of his State Supreme Court lawsuit being decided. In return, Penn Central and MTA proposed expanding the proposed district significantly. When the district was created that year, it covered 22 blocks. After the Supreme Court upheld the city's decision to deny the air rights transfer in 1991, Travelstead appealed the decision. By then, office demand in New York City had decreased significantly, and 383 Madison Avenue was put on hold, along with several other large office projects citywide. First Boston removed Travelstead from the project in 1992, and the Knapp Building remained empty for over a decade.


Ronson/HRO and al-Babtain plans

HRO International, led by British developer Howard Ronson, acquired an option in 1994 to buy the property from First Boston. HRO planned a 24-story, $200 million building named Park Avenue Place, with of space. These included column-less spaces for trading floors and workstations; high ceilings; and an electrical supply that was twice that of older buildings. HRO planned to reuse the old building's foundations and also solicited tax breaks from the city government. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' characterized the new plans as a symbol of the city's economic recovery. HRO intended for the building to be a speculative development. Ronson reportedly discussed with J.P. Morgan & Co. (a predecessor to JPMorgan Chase) and Swiss Re about anchoring the building. After half of the building was pre-leased, Ronson planned to apply for a $100 million construction loan. Ronson sought to charge rents of , but many prospective tenants balked at the high prices. HRO agreed in July 1994 to buy the site for $57 million; at the time, the tower was to be completed in 1996. HRO had intended to start clearing the site in 1995, after taking control. After First Boston postponed the sale, HRO pushed back the planned completion date to 1997. HRO ultimately never finalized its purchase. In January 1996, First Boston signed a contract to sell the land to Bear Stearns, whose lease at
245 Park Avenue 245 Park Avenue is a 648-ft (198 m) skyscraper in New York City, New York. It was completed in 1967, and contains on 48 floors. Shreve, Lamb and Harmon designed the structure, which is the 94th- tallest building in New York. The Building Owner ...
was expiring. Ronson disputed the sale, claiming that he had already spent $8 to $10 million on the site. The next month, the al-Babtain family announced it would be buying First Boston's stake, taking full control of the site for $55 million. Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne had bought an option for $10 million worth of air rights from the site, leading the al-Babtains' lawyers to accuse Cayne of tortious interference. Cayne then sold the option on the air rights to the al-Babtains for a
nominal fee A nominal fee refers to a sale of a good or service for far less than it is actually worth, when it cannot be given away for free. Typically, such a sale will be for the smallest full denomination of a currency (for example, one dollar). Nominal f ...
, and the family stopped communicating with him. Afterward, Bear Stearns negotiated for space at another building instead. Ronson hoped to attract Morgan Guaranty to 383 Madison, but the company indicated in mid-1996 that it was no longer considering that site.
Chase Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fin ...
, another predecessor of JPMorgan Chase, entered negotiations with the al-Babtain family in October 1996, hoping to develop a new tower next to its existing headquarters at 270 Park Avenue. Chase Bank ultimately canceled its plans in April 1997, supposedly after Chase CEO William B. Harrison Jr. failed to show up at a meeting with the al-Babtains. Despite this, observers expected that the planned building's proximity to Grand Central would attract a tenant before the end of the year.


Development and opening

By mid-1997, Bear Stearns was again negotiating for the site with the al-Babtain family. That August, the bank agreed to develop a new headquarters at 383 Madison Avenue. In exchange, the mayoral administration of Rudy Giuliani agreed to give Bear Stearns up to $75 million in sales tax exemptions, on the condition that Bear Stearns maintain 5,800 employees and create 13,300 new jobs in New York City over the next fifty years. The bank planned to move its headquarters and most of its 4,500 employees to the new building. The skyscraper was to have large trading floors to accommodate those functions. The developers acquired of air rights from Grand Central; they were the first developers to use air rights from the Grand Central subdistrict, which had just been created. The al-Babtain family agreed to hire Sterling Equities to develop the skyscraper for Bear Stearns, although
Hines Interests Hines Interests Limited Partnership is a privately held company that invests in and develops real estate. The company has developed, redeveloped or acquired 1,450 properties, comprising over 485 million square feet. The company currently manage ...
ended up managing the development process. The demolition of the old Knapp Building began in May 1998, with the old Manhattan Savings Bank mosaics being removed from that building's facade for preservation. Bear Stearns signed a 99-year lease for the land beneath the building in August 1998. Bear Stearns would control the building for the duration of the lease. Later the same year, a construction worker was killed when he was struck in the head by debris. By mid-1999, the building's structural steel was being constructed, and the building was planned to be complete in 2002. At the time, the city had a shortage of skilled construction workers. Due to the complexity of the site, Turner Construction hired 85 subcontractors (compared to 50 in comparable projects). Up to 1,500 workers were employed in the construction process at any time. Cayne also oversaw many of the smaller details of the project, hiring an inspector to check all invoices, then firing the inspector because he could not collaborate with the contractors. In mid-2001, before the
September 11 attacks 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 commer ...
, the bank reinstalled one of the Manhattan Savings Bank mosaics in its lobby. Despite the attacks, Bear Stearns began moving employees into the new building in October 2001. Near the building's completion, some of the wood in the crown developed mold after it was exposed to the rain. Though this problem was fixed, it led to a dispute between Cayne and his longtime associate Fred Wilpon; due to defects in the quality of the work, Wilpon refused to authorize a $20 million discretionary bonus for Cayne. The crown was first illuminated on April 4, 2002, at a ceremony attended by Cayne, U.S. senator
Chuck Schumer Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, an ...
, and New York governor
George Pataki George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...
. At the time, the building had 4,200 employees. The building had cost over $500 million to build, half of which was the cost of the equipment. As a tax-avoidance measure, the bank held a synthetic lease on the building, which was worth $570 million.


Operation

Four of the seven trading floors were in operation when the building opened, providing space for 1,250 traders. The haberdasher Charles Tyrwhitt was among the building's original retail tenants. Due to security concerns following the attacks, Bear Stearns initially prohibited visitors from going to the upper floors unless they were accompanied by an employee. Cayne had liked the building's location because he could walk to it from his apartment 13 blocks away. In 2007, just five years after the building had opened, Bear Stearns became involved in the
subprime mortgage crisis The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It was triggered by a large decline in US home prices after the col ...
when two of its subprime
hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as ...
s lost nearly all of their value. Following the hedge funds' collapse, Bear Stearns faced sudden bankruptcy in March 2008 during the
financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of ...
. JPMorgan Chase initially offered to buy Bear Stearns $2 a share, which would have valued the latter at $250 million. Real-estate experts estimated the building's value at $1.1 to $1.4 billion, so 383 Madison Avenue would have been worth five times as much as Bear Stearns itself. At the end of May 2008, JPMorgan Chase acquired Bear Stearns for $10 a share. Rather than sell 383 Madison Avenue, JPMorgan Chase planned to move its investment division there. The bank immediately started replacing Bear Stearns signage with a logo that resembled J.P. Morgan & Co., its predecessor investment bank. This allowed JPMorgan Chase to reduce the space it occupied at other buildings. By 2014, JPMorgan Chase was looking to develop a new corporate campus in the Hudson Yards development, relocating from 270 Park and 383 Madison. The bank dropped its plans after failing to secure tax exemptions from the city and state governments. In 2016, SL Green Realty proposed that JPMorgan Chase swap 270 Park and 383 Madison with
One Vanderbilt One Vanderbilt is a 93-story supertall skyscraper at the corner of 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, the building was proposed by developer SL Green Realt ...
, a skyscraper that SL Green was constructing five blocks south. Though JPMorgan Chase considered the proposal, the two firms never entered into formal negotiations. In February 2018, JPMorgan Chase announced it would demolish 270 Park to make way for the JPMorgan Chase Tower on the same site, which would be almost twice as tall. During the project, JPMorgan moved its headquarters temporarily to 383 Madison Avenue. Deconstruction of 270 Park was completed in mid-2021, and the new building was estimated to be completed in 2025.


Impact

The building's design generally received mixed to negative reviews. Joseph Giovannini of ''
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
'' said, "This is a building you wouldn't want to get anywhere near at a cocktail party. Dressed nearly head to toe in dour granite, and geometrically proper, it's stiff to the point of pass-out boredom." Giovannini summarized he building as being "lugubrious" and "predictable". Architectural critic Carter B. Horsley wrote that, compared to the pinnacles of the
Chrysler Building The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
and the
Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from " Empire State", the nickname of the ...
, "this beacon is not dainty and is very bright."
Herbert Muschamp Herbert Mitchell Muschamp (November 28, 1947 – October 2, 2007) was an American architecture critic. Early years Born in Philadelphia, Muschamp described his childhood home life as follows: "The living room was a secret. A forbidden zone. ...
of ''The New York Times'', in describing SOM's work, said: "Skidmore specializes in period pastiche versions of Art Deco skyscrapers, like the new Bear, Stearns building in Midtown Manhattan." In 2010, the ''
New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ...
'' ranked 383 Madison as one of New York City's ten ugliest buildings.


See also

*List of tallest buildings in New York City *List of tallest buildings in the United States


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * *


External links


Hines website
{{JPMorgan Chase 2002 establishments in New York City Bear Stearns Financial services company headquarters in the United States JPMorgan Chase buildings Madison Avenue Midtown Manhattan Office buildings completed in 2002 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill buildings Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan