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 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 ...

borough of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. It is located in the

Battery Park City Battery Park City is a mainly residential planned community and neighborhood on the west side of the southern tip of the island of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by the Hudson River on the west, the Hudson River shoreline on the nor ...

neighborhood, across West Street from the World Trade Center, and overlooks 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 ...

. The complex is currently owned and managed by Brookfield Properties, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management.

History

World Financial Center from the Windows on the World restaurant

Designed by architect César Pelli, with Adamson Associates, the World Financial Center complex was built by Olympia and York from 1983 to 1988 on the

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

used to build

. During 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 ...

, debris severely damaged the lobby and lower floors' granite cladding and glass. It has since been fully restored and significant repairs were made to the other buildings in the complex. The Winter Garden Atrium received major structural damage to its glass and steel frame, but ceremonially reopened on September 11, 2002. After the attacks, the World Financial Center underwent a $250 million renovation and expansion project, in conjunction with the construction of a new east–west passageway linking the complex with 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 ...

. The project included a transit pavilion to be built as an extension of the existing Winter Garden Atrium, on the West Street side. Preliminary plans called for the demolition of the Grand Staircase, which was the main focal entry point to Winter Garden and the waterfront, as it connected to the Vesey Street pedestrian bridge adjacent to the original World Trade Center. The Grand Staircase has also been used as an amphitheater; thus, the plans for demolition had outraged residents, who promptly appealed for its preservation in the latest redevelopment plans. The transit pavilion opened in 2013, and is located at 100 West Street. Leasable space on the lower floors of the office towers underwent conversions and expansion to accommodate new

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

. One notable example is 2 Brookfield Place: a European-style marketplace and dining terrace opened in 2013. The space between 3 and 4 Brookfield Place, at 225 Vesey Street, which contained retail, expanded to accommodate in‑line retail and high-end fashion retail, according to the plans and renderings. With some restaurants and retail temporarily closed due to construction, a food truck court was in operation beginning in early 2012 on North End Avenue. Various food trucks that operate around New York City, serving a variety of foods, service the Brookfield Place/Battery Park City area five days a week during lunch hours. A new 2,000-seat

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food Vendor, vendors and provides a common area for self-serve di ...

comprising existing restaurants, such as Le District and Hudson Eats, and new restaurants, opened in stages between November 2014 and March 2015; the food area is projected to generate about $120 million of revenue annually. Le District includes the

Michelin Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...

-starred restaurant L'Appart. Overall, the intent is to drive more tourism in the area with the retail and the new access to the passageway under West Street. It is also being developed as a catalyst to integrate and drive development in the adjacent largely residential

area. An inland harbor called the North Cove Marina is also part of the complex and between all the buildings. Brookfield Properties bought the adjacent

One North End Avenue One North End Avenue, also known as the New York Mercantile Exchange Building, is an office building at the Brookfield Place (World Financial Center) complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is located on the coast of Battery Park City and ...

building, headquarters of the

New York Mercantile Exchange The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is a commodity futures exchange owned and operated by CME Group of Chicago. NYMEX is located at One North End Avenue in Brookfield Place in the Battery Park City section of Manhattan, New York City. ...

, in 2013, for , and integrated it into the complex. Following expansion, the entire World Financial Center complex was renamed Brookfield Place, in conjunction with similar complexes in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, and

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

owned by Brookfield. The name change took place in 2014.

Ownership

Brookfield Place is owned by

-based Brookfield Asset Management, except for the space occupied by

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

, which is owned by the American Express Company. 250 Vesey Street serves as the United States headquarters for Brookfield Asset Management. Brookfield Place has its own zip code, 10281. The buildings' original developer was Olympia and York, also based in Toronto.

Notable tenants

Brookfield Place has been home to offices of various companies including

Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1850. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merril ...

, Oppenheimer & Co.,

RBC Capital Markets RBC Capital Markets is a global investment bank providing services in banking, finance, and capital markets to corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, and governments globally. Locations span 58 offices in 14 countries across North ...

Nomura Group is a financial holding company and a principal member of the Nomura Group, which is Japan's largest investment bank and brokerage group. It, along with its broker-dealer, banking and other financial services subsidiaries, provides investment, fin ...

Institute of Culinary Education The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) is a private for-profit culinary school with locations in New York City and Los Angeles, accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC). It offers career training, dip ...

, Bank of New York Mellon, Jane Street Capital, Time Inc. 95.5 K-LOVE, 96.7 Air1, and Brookfield Asset Management. In 2014, the complex was given its current name following the completion of extensive renovations. Brookfield Place is also the home of

College Board The College Board, styled as CollegeBoard, is an American not-for-profit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an asso ...

, the nonprofit managing both

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board. AP offers undergraduate university-level curricula and examinations to high school students. Colleges and universities in the US and elsewhere ...

and the

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...

List of buildings and amenities

The Winter Garden Atrium is a glass domed pavilion housing various plants, trees and flowers, also shopping areas, cafes (located between buildings 2 and 3), rebuilt 2002 after terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The pavilion also exhibits a range of contemporary artists including Reyna Noriega, Julia Whitney Barnes, Tatiana Arocha, Anne Beffel, Jane Benson, Curtis Cuffie, Charles Goldman, Elke Lehmann, Pia Lindman, Brian P. McGrath, Andrea Ray, and Alex Villar.

Gallery

File:World Financial Center at Night.jpg, World Financial Center at night (2006) File:3 World Financial Center.jpg, 200 Vesey Street File:World trade center new york city from hudson august 26 2000.jpg, Standing alongside the World Trade Center, as it appeared in August 2000 File:September 11 2001 just collapsed.jpg, Picture taken just after the Twin Towers collapsed as a result of the September 11th attacks in 2001 File:World Financial Center Sept. 14, 2001.jpg, Entrance of one of the World Financial Center buildings on September 14, 2001, three days after being damaged following the 9/11 attacks File:World Financial Center Winter Garden 200706.jpg, The Winter Garden Atrium, as it appeared in June 2007 File:US Navy 091102-N-2147L-001(1) Marines assigned to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force 26 fire a 21-gun salute as the amphibious transport dock ship Pre-commissioning Unit (PCU) New York (LPD 21) passes Ground Zero.jpg, As seen from on board the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

amphibious transport dock ship, the USS ''New York'' (LPD-21), in November 2009 File:World Financial Center Evening.jpg, World Financial Center in the evening (2007)

References

External links

* {{Authority control American Express Battery Park City Brookfield Properties buildings César Pelli buildings Office buildings completed in 1988 Office buildings in Manhattan Shopping malls in New York City World Financial Centers Postmodern architecture in New York City