1960s Lower Manhattan Tower Set To Receive Historic Designation

20 March 2008 - 12:00pm

New York City's 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in 1961, is likely to receive historic landmark status by The Landmarks Preservation Commission.

"The news may be that 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza — the towering silvery monolith that forever changed the Lower Manhattan skyline nearly a half century ago — has not been made a landmark already.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission now intends to make an official landmark out of the aluminum-and-glass-skinned tower, which was completed in 1961 as the bank’s headquarters and is still 70 percent occupied by JPMorgan Chase & Company.

'One Chase Manhattan Plaza is among New York City’s most important mid-20th-century skyscrapers,' the commission said in a statement released on Tuesday, when it voted unanimously to consider the designation, making it all but a foregone conclusion."

Source: The New York Times, March 19, 2008
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In the long term, removing major urban freeways should be part of a more comprehensive approach to reduce automobile dependency by promoting public transportation and transit-oriented development.