388 Greenwich Street, originally called the Shearson Lehman Plaza and more recently the Travelers Building, is an office

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

in the

Tribeca Tribeca ( ), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Str ...

neighborhood of

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The building is located at

Greenwich Street Greenwich Street is a north–south street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. It extends from the intersection of Ninth Avenue (Manhattan), Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, Manha ...

, with

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 ...

s on North Moore and

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

Streets. 388 Greenwich Street forms a complex with the neighboring 10-story 390 Greenwich Street near the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

. Currently, the two buildings comprise the global

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

corporation

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services company based in New York City. The company was formed in 1998 by the merger of Citicorp, t ...

. 388 Greenwich stands about ten blocks north of the

World Trade Center site The World Trade Center site, often referred to as " Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north ...

and is among TriBeCa's tallest. Like many other office buildings in Manhattan, 388 Greenwich Street contains a fitness center, full-service dining facilities, a medical center, a conference center, a day care center, and an outdoor park. The building is one of the few in New York with double-deck elevators. In the aftermath of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, the building's courtyard was used as a triage center.

History

In December 2007, 388 Greenwich Street and 390 Greenwich Street were sold by

in order to reduce real estate exposure on its balance sheet. The complex was acquired by a joint venture consisting of SL Green Realty and SITQ for US$1.58 billion. Citigroup, however, maintained their primary presence in the complex through a 15-year

leaseback Leaseback, short for "sale-and-leaseback", is a financial transaction in which one sells an asset and leases it back for the long term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it. The transaction is generally done fo ...

arrangement. In 2016, the bank repurchased the complex and relocated the company's headquarters from 399 Park Avenue. In 2016, CitiGroup committed to staying in the building and announced a renovation. The exterior makeover, led by

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by engineer ...

, included the addition of a glass curtain wall to the lower floors of the tower and all of 390 Greenwich Street on the west side of the complex.

Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. It is the largest architecture firm in the world by revenue and number of architects. In 2022, Gensler generated $1.785 billion in revenue, the most o ...

provided interior renovations, including a new lobby.

Umbrella icon

The building had a , 4-story neon sign near the top of its northern elevation, which depicted a red umbrella. The sign was erected in May 1997; some observers found it emblematic, while others considered it to be distracting. Complementing this neon sign, an iconic, steel , red umbrella sculpture also stood outside 388 Greenwich St at street-level. Both have been removed from the building, the latter in the summer of 2007, as part of a deal between

and St. Paul Travelers Companies which acquired the logo.

References

External links

* {{Tribeca, Manhattan 1988 establishments in New York City Bank company headquarters in the United States Citigroup buildings Office buildings completed in 1988 Privately owned public spaces Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan The Travelers Companies Tribeca West Side Highway