Building - One Wall Street

The Evolution of a Masterpiece

From its birth as Tower of Finance in 1930 to its new life as a Residential Tower, the ongoing story of One Wall Street has been over 90 years in the making.

AN ART DECO MASTERPIECE When we refer to One Wall Street as an “Art Deco masterpiece,” we’re quoting Ada Louise Huxtable, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for The New York Times, and curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art. Huxtable heralded One Wall Street for its multitude of “innovations whose artistic and architectural merit would dominate design for decades.”

“New York City’s triumvirate of great Art Deco buildings would consist of the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and One Wall Street.”

ADA LOUISE HUXTABLE, Architecture critic

Drawn to History

The extraordinary degree to which the original sketches for One Wall Street match the finished building, provide graphic testimony to the planning and perfectionism of the architect and builders.

Enter Anew

Stately and elegant, the fastidiously reconstructed Broadway entrance follows plans created in 1928 by Ralph Walker, the building’s original architect. The intricate patterns of the window metalwork are inspired by the stained-glass window designs of Trinity Church, just across the street.

A CERTIFIED NEW YORK CITY LANDMARK Our invitation to “Live in a Landmark” is a statement of fact: recognizing its impeccable architectural pedigree, in 2001 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated One Wall Street an “official city landmark.” In 2007, the building was admitted to the National Register of Historic Places.

A BANK WITH INTEREST Originally built in 1930 as the Irving Trust Company, One Wall Street represents one of the most ambitious examples of architectural repurposing in the city’s history, while leading the Financial District’s transformation into a world-class residential neighborhood.

THE ARCHITECT OF THE CENTURY Named “Architect of the Century” by the Architecture Institute of America, Ralph Walker’s design for One Wall Street expressed the unbound optimism and unfettered freedom of a new era, the Jazz Age, whose glamorous exuberance was best expressed architecturally through Art Deco. A pioneer of skyscraper design, Walker became one of the most highly sought architects in America, especially among Titans of Industry whose king-sized ambitions required ever taller buildings to house them.

“One Wall Street presents a series of rhythmic motifs of different sizes and shapes. This sense of rhythm becomes clear when one’s eye travels upward along the strongly vertical lines of the building.”

RALPH WALKER, Original architect of One Wall Street

A Façade for the Ages

One of the many hallmarks of One Wall Street is its hand-carved limestone façade. The massive stone blocks are so precisely joined that one critic exclaimed, “the building appears as if chiseled out of a single piece of stone!” Incised with chevrons that draw the eye upward, even the metal window frames follow the form of the curtain wall. Majestically elegant, the crown of the building has been repeatedly imitated but never bettered.

A WORLD UNTO ITSELF With 100,000-square-feet of amenities, One Wall Street offers a lifestyle experience unavailable anywhere else. The entire 38th and 39th floors are dedicated to The One Club, a concept inspired by the best social clubs of London and New York. Its amenities include a Sky Pool with wraparound Sun Lounge, a private bar and restaurant with an adjoining 4,500-square-foot terrace, a 6,500-square-foot co-working space, and a fitness and wellness center with treatment and recovery rooms.

A Work of Arts

From Italian ceramicists and Mexican weavers to journeymen woodworkers and stainless-steel fabricators, the artisans who contributed to the production and construction of the lobby span generations, countries and disciplines.

A NEW ANCIENT FLOOR Inspired by the mosaic floor of the Greco-Roman wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the marble tiles for the lobby were custom designed and fabricated in Modena, Italy, and feature a “broken teeth” style that intentionally allows imperfections to exist as part of the design.

A Lioness of Lines

A Geometric Abstractionist working in Paris in the 1920s, Sonia Delaunay is a source of inspiration for several decorative elements found in One Wall Street. Delaunay’s exacting use of line is one of the hallmarks of her decades long career painter and textile designer.

Designed and developed in collaboration with a collective of artisan weavers in Mexico, the tapestry in the lobby vestibule applies the line-and-form concepts pioneered by Sonia Delaunay.

The line reveals in wood panels in the elevator cabs are drawn from Geometric Abstractionism.

The centerpiece lobby table features a fluted stainless-steel edge and a Rosso Alicante marble sphere that weighs two thousand pounds.

Custom designed and built, the art deco-inspired chandelier sheds its light through fluted, frosted glass that echo the building’s fluted façade.

The Red Room

One of the most spectacular spaces anywhere in New York City is the Red Room at One Wall Street. The handywork of muralist and mosaicist Hildreth Meière, every square inch of the space is pure art. Of her red-and-gold tiled masterwork, the New York Evening Post declared it “one of the most costly and beautiful pieces of mural decoration ever realized in the United States.”

PIÈCES DE RÉSISTANCE This detail of the Red Room mosaic demonstrates the intricacy and artistry the covers every square-inch of the space.

A MODERN ADDITION An all-new, six-story glass curtain wall addition runs along the corner of Broadway and Exchange Street. A multilevel Whole Foods and a 75,000-square-foot Life Time flagship occupy the lower levels, while the modern open layout residences of The Loft Collection fill out the upper floors.

“There is only one Broadway. Only one Wall Street. And only one One Wall Street on earth!”

LORENZO E. ANDERSON, Broker who negotiated the sale of the lot upon which One Wall Street was built in 1928