Source: http://www.greatgridlock.net

Height: 687 ft/ 209 m
Floors: 53
Year: 1972
Architect: Emery Roth & Sons, Harman Jablin Architect (renovation)

was built in 1972 to the skyscraper concentration at the tip of Manhattan.
The 209.5 m tall building took the title of world's largest commercial office building from the Pan Am Building with its over 278,800 m² of rentable office space.

The development is built on a superblock created from four joint city blocks -- an arrangement made in co-operation with the Office of Lower Manhattan Development, which expected provision of public amenities in return.

The building is of basic International Style, contrasting with the neighbouring 2 N.Y. Plaza of the same era. The 56-storey facade of the tower slab uses variably vertical and horizontal striping for decoration, the grid pattern of the lower facade changing to vertical striping for the upper three-fourths.

To the north of the tower is a 14-storey wing with a sloping facade and terraces facing the river and, in front of it, a 4,000 m² elevated plaza on top of a 560-car parking garage, reachable by a high escalator ride. The 4,800 m ² plaza, by M. Paul Friedberg & Assocs. is clad in the same red brick tiles as his Jeannette Park to the south of the building.

The plaza was originally designed as a part of a series of high-level public spaces along East River, to be connected with walkways running above the street level. The elevated plaza and the sloping wing at 55 Water, however, were to remain the only examples of the futuristic urban plan.

The public amenities called for in the building site deal included re-working of the Jeannette Park, facing the Vietnam Veterans' Plaza next to the 2 N.Y. Plaza, the elevated plaza as well as provision for an entrance to the planned (and later discarded) subway line along East River.

The Whitney Museum of American Art established a branch museum in the building, space being rented for a token fee and operating costs paid by several Wall Street corporations.

The building, left as the second-largest privately-owned office building in the US after 9/11, has been the target of tenant interest, not least due to its 5,500 m² floors and its emergency powerplant of 31 megawatt output. In addition to a recent $156 million renovation, the owner, Retirement Systems of Alabama, will work anew on the the building, including the remodelling of the garage-top plaza.

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/rotpics02/55water01.jpeg

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/3180/24042004_0611Image0019-med.JPG

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/rotpics02/55water02.jpeg

I give it a 7 for it's vertical emphasis, and just sheer size. This is the largest building in New York City office space-wise, right?

The thing that ruins it is as you eyes travel down it hits those horizontal beams near the bottom throwing off the whole feeling of the top.

don't know why but i love it 9.5/10-> well not perfect ....:baaa:

7/10

7/10

still kind of boxy. 5/10

7.5/10

Striking colours and the differentiation between the base design and the top portion help create a soaring effect.

7/10 it's not bad

7/10

I like the color and the stripes, and it's really BIG!

Absolutely hideous in virtually every aspect. Even worse due to its' prominence. 3/10

The current plaza sums it all up;
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/finearts/nyc/seaport/image/55water_plaza3.JPG
"This carefully landscaped if unwelcoming public space was built in order to capitalize on the provisions of the 1961 zoning allowances. By investing minimal effort in the creation of public plazas such as this one, developers and owners could add up to 20% more space to their buildings, thereby increasing financial returns. The difficulty of accessing and using this space can be understood as a display of cynicism towards the public."

Thankfully a new plaza design is under construction. The building complex itself is still terminally ugly.
http://www.mas.org/ContentLibrary/55Water_from_old_slip.jpg

http://www.mas.org/ContentLibrary/55Water_from_water_street.jpg

http://www.mas.org/ContentLibrary/55Water_ice_rink.jpg

http://www.mas.org/ContentLibrary/55Water_looking_east.jpg

http://www.mas.org/ContentLibrary/55Water_escartment.jpg

It's a nice box :cool:It's lovely
7.5/10

9/10 awesome one.

6, ok

no words..only one number in my mind..a number in the category '3 and less'... I cant find anything good at this building really..

7.5/10

Uninspiring and clunky; the fact that it is not completely concrete is a redeeming feature though. 5.5

7/10

For an enormous, clunky stone-clad box, it's not bad. 7/10

6.0

Nice columns, nice glass, nice boxy windows, nice colors...Not!

7/10

It´s monumental and reminds me of ancient Egypt is some way or another.

7.5/10

6 box, and I don't like the color so much, but I like that verticales

Treating the top portion differently from the bottom and making no effort at transition was a fatal mistake imo.

5.0.

7/10...55 Water is OK. As a box fan though, this one isn't as great. The colors are interesting, but the attached portion at the base looks bad. Though, it does make it's presence felt in the skyline, it's very dominating.

It's tall, but ugly. The colours chosen in the design are not very appealing, and neither is the shape.

5/10

5.5/10 :)

Classic.....
7/10

7.5/10



interesting box

6/10

6.5/10

looks bland 6/10

This tower is as ugly as hell, 4.0

7/10

7,5/10 - Nice box

Fit well into the skyline, but the design is quite boring and typical. 7/10

5/10

the bottom and the top looks like 2 different building.....not my type of box

5/10

6/10

6!

8/10.

4.5/10 - It has good contrast between the dark glass and the concrete...

BUT

It's boxy, the heavy spandrels near the bottom kill the height, and I am getting SOOO tired of architects just sticking a bunch of machinery on top of flat roofs, like a wad of used gum, and not doing antyhing to hide it or at least tie it into the rest of the building. It looks like this architect ran out of imagination by the 53rd floor - or maybe, considering how uninspiring the whole thing is, right after the lobby...

7.0 not bad

Sizable, but not beautiful. I give it a 6.5/10.

nice, 6

6/10

6.0/10

what happened on the roof? :no: 6/10

7.

7/10

I actually like it....I wish we had pics of the sloping part of the building and the public plaza. It totally saves this building. The slope part really does look cool, almost like the agricultural terraces of the Incas. No, it's not the best or most innovative scraper, but it's massive and one of the better ones for that time era.

7.5

Cool box, looks clean and very decent. 8/10

7/10

Very nice box. 8/10

4/10

because its so boring

they should've given the bottom part of the tower the same design as the upper part. overall, it's very creative for an international style building, but it's just too bulky. they got more office space in this one than metlife dood...

7.5

8.0/10.00

6/10

7/10

Uninspired, yet bearable. 6

4/10

6/10

6/10

7/10

7.5/10.

I guess they just didn't build nice highrises in the seventies.. 4/10

Fat and chubby box, nice though with the sloping building. 8/10

7/10

7/10 Simply for its bulk. Its impressive to look at, but its plaza and everything around the base of it is virtually dead of life. It needs major reworking.

I gave it a 5. Not that special.

7/10

8/10

7/10

3,5/10

7/10

Terrible 70s block architecture. It's more suited to a suburban office park than Lower Manhattan.

3.5/10.

typical 70s architecture. 7

8/10 yeah nice building...really like it. It's a lot concrete and normally I wouldn't like a lot concrete, but with this building it's different...I think it is because of the top, it exists of a lot of glass.

6/10

7/10

7/10

8/10

not my taste 7/10

6.5/10

Ugly!

6/10

I know u watchin! :wave:

4/10 This one is only blocks the downtown classics. Typical of Emory Roth during the seventies. Unimaginative and bulky

5/10

6.5/10.

Not quite as bad as New Yorkers like to make it out to be

6.5/10

6/10

6/10

6/10

7.5/10

7/10, i like the colour

not too bad looking 7/10.

this building is huge in person
6.5/10

7.5 kinda nice.

6/10 boring

I've changed my mind. This buidling must have hung around with Belushi, cuz it gets a zero point zero (0.0)

5.5 / 10

the top ruined it.

7/10

7.5/10

A solid design in my opinion.

boring 6/10

4/10

the top is bad...
6/10.

7/10

4/10

4/10

Boxy, bulky and ugly.
Buildings like this one have destroyed NYC skyline.

0/10

4/10 too boxy and boring.

7/10

6/10

8/10

5/10

5/10.

10/10 :okay:

boring box type

3.5

eww 1

2/10

not bad 7/10

:redx:

:redx:

:redx:

7/10

5/10 not really bad

http://www.emporis.com/img/6/2004/05/265143.jpg

http://www.emporis.com/img/6/2006/04/451913.jpg

http://www.emporis.com/img/6/2009/03/687164.jpg

http://www.emporis.com/img/6/2008/10/654011.jpg

10/10

7/10

7.5/10

7/10