Coalition Pushes to Protect 60 Wall Street
A coalition of Lower Manhattan leaders, elected officials, and preservationists are coalescing around a push to grant landmark status to 60 Wall Street, a postmodernist office tower designed by Kevin Roche of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates that opened in 1989, and is noted for its fusion of contemporary, neoclassical, and Greek Revival design idioms.
At the February 28 meeting of Community Board 1, Liz Waytkus, the executive director of Docomomo US (a group that seeks to foster appreciation for modern architecture and advocate for its preservation), said, “60 Wall Street is and should be a landmark. The design is one of the best examples of postmodernism. It synthesizes modern technology with a classical design.”
“You may not like it,” she continued. “But its architectural significance is not based on taste cycles. Like Art Deco, Victorian, and even Modern, all styles go through a 30-year valley where they are no longer liked.” She noted that the building’s owner, the Paramount Group, is planning a renovation for the 55-story structure, but recently abandoned plans to alter its facade, after a sustained barrage of criticism from the architectural and preservation communities. But she said plans that would significantly alter the building’s soaring lobby remain in effect.
While the building is not yet a legally protected landmark, modifications to 60 Wall Street nonetheless fall under the jurisdiction of the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), because the tower’s original developers received permission to build higher than zoning regulations would ordinarily have allowed, in exchange for designing the newer building to have a “harmonious relationship” with a landmarked structure directly across the street, at 55 Wall Street. Any change to the facade at 60 Wall Street must be shown to preserve this relationship.
At its February 28, CB1 enacted a resolution calling on the LPC to schedule a hearing to consider designating both the exterior and the lobby of 60 Wall Street as landmarks. This technical move triggers a legally required response by CB1, in which the Board either urges the LPC to approve such a measure, or recommends that it reject conferring legally protected status on 60 Wall Street.
On March 6, City Council member Christopher Marte sent a letter to the LPC noting that, “60 Wall Street is already recognized as an unofficial landmark and we ask the Landmarks Preservation Commission to now consider making that official. As your research department stated more than five months ago, the LPC staff has determined 60 Wall Street and the interior privately owned public space merit further study within the context of Postmodern commercial architecture and interiors.”
“As the current owner considers plans to significantly alter the interior, this is a pressing matter, and we ask you not to delay,” he continued. “We urge the LPC to move forward now on the designation process before this outstanding example of architecture and history is lost.”