The Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building is a U.S. governmental office building at 26 Federal Plaza on

Foley Square Foley Square, also called Federal Plaza, is a street intersection in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, which contains a small triangular park named Thomas Paine Park. The space is bordered by Worth Street to the ...

in the

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains of one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, ...

neighborhood 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 ...

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 ...

. At 41 stories, it is the tallest federal building in the United States. It was built in 1963–69 and was designed by

Alfred Easton Poor Alfred Easton Poor (May 24, 1899 – January 13, 1988) was an American architect noted particularly for buildings and projects in New York City and in Washington, D.C., for the U.S. government. A son of Charles Lane Poor, Alfred Poor served in t ...

and Kahn & Jacobs, with

Eggers & Higgins Eggers & Higgins was a New York architectural firm partnered by Otto Reinhold Eggers (August 4, 1882 – April 23, 1964) and Daniel Paul Higgins (September 12, 1886 – December 26, 1953). The architects were responsible for the construction phas ...

as associate architects. A western addition, first announced on "inadvertently acquired land" in 1965, was built in 1975–77 and was designed by Kahn & Jacobs, The Eggers Partnership and Poor & Swanke. The building is named for Jacob K. Javits, who served as a

United States Senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

from New York for 24 years, from 1957 to 1981. The building is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10278; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes . The building falls under the jurisdiction of the United States Federal Protective Service for any and all law enforcement and protection issues. To the east of the main building is the James L. Watson Court of International Trade Building.

History of the site

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

Masonic hall A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting. Development and history I ...

was located at this site between Reade and Pearl Streets from 1826 to 1856, directly across from the original site of the

New York Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center (; previously known as New York Hospital, Old New York Hospital, and City Hospital) is a research hospital in New York City. It is the teaching hospital for Cornell University's medical school and is part of NewYork-P ...

. This served as the home of the Grand Lodge of New York until its demolition.

Occupants

Agencies located in the building include the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...

, the

Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of the US people and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

, the

Social Security Administration The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government that administers Social Security (United ...

, the

Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the secretary of housing and u ...

, and the Federal Executive Board. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' New York field office is on the 7th floor, the Brooklyn field office is on the 8th floor and the Queens field office is on the 9th floor. The

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

's New York field office is on the 23rd floor. Former President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

rented a federal office in the building from 1980 to 1988.

Artworks

A controversy developed over the artwork by

Richard Serra Richard Serra (November 2, 1938 – March 26, 2024) was an American artist known for his large-scale Abstract art, abstract sculptures made for Site-specific art, site-specific landscape, urban, and Architecture, architectural settings, a ...

commissioned for the plaza in front of the building, ''

Tilted Arc ''Tilted Arc'' was a controversial public art installation by Richard Serra, displayed in Foley Federal Plaza in Manhattan from 1981 to 1989. It consisted of a , solid, unfinished plate of rust-covered COR-TEN steel. Advocates characterized ...

''. Commissioned in 1979 and built in 1981, it was criticized both for its aesthetic values and for security reasons. It was removed in 1989, which resulted in a lawsuit and a trial. The piece remains in storage, as the artwork was site-specific, and the artist does not want it displayed in any other location. The removal and trial led to the creation of the

Visual Artists Rights Act The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA; title VI, ), is a United States law granting certain rights to artists. VARA was the first federal copyright legislation to grant protection to ''moral rights''. Under VARA, works of art that meet cer ...

of 1990. After the removal of ''Tilted Arc'', landscape artist Martha Schwartz re-designed the plaza."Jacob Javits Federal Building & James Watson Court of International Trade, New York, NY"
on the

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. G ...

website Other artworks connected with building include ''A Study in Five Planes/Peace'' (1965) by

Alexander Calder Alexander "Sandy" Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobile (sculpture), mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, hi ...

and the ''Manhattan Sentinels'' (1996) by Beverly Pepper. In the James L. Watson Court of International Trade can be found ''Metropolis'' (1967) by Seymour Fogel and ''Eagle/Justice Above All Else'' (1970) by Theodore Roszak.

References

External links

* {{Civic Center, Manhattan 1969 establishments in New York City Buildings of the United States government in New York (state) Civic Center, Manhattan Federal buildings in the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation field offices Government buildings completed in 1969 Government buildings in Manhattan Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan United States Citizenship and Immigration Services United States Department of Health and Human Services United States Department of Homeland Security United States Department of Housing and Urban Development United States Office of Personnel Management

History of the site

Occupants

Artworks

See also

References

External links