One Wall Street Condominium (New York City, New York)

 office building, bank, skyscraper, Art Deco (architecture), 1931_construction

654-foot, 50-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1931. Designed by Voorhees, Gmelin & Ralph Walker, it was originally called the Irving Trust Company Building (the original owner), then the Bank of New York Building (after 1988), and now the BNY Mellon Building (after 2007). The building is situated at what was considered the "most expensive real estate in New York", the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway. At 1 Wall Street, architect Ralph Walker employed a smooth limestone skin arranged in a series of undulating surfaces to simulate a fluted column, or the effect of draped material hanging from the sky, varying the rhythm of curves throughout the building.

Subtle setbacks lead to a narrow tower enhanced by large window openings near the top. The faceted, chamfered corners and pointed tops of the fluted bays create a crystalline effect at the crown of the building. The lower floors are accentuated by narrow window openings with decorative mullions, shallow incised designs, and theatrically-inspired entranceways. At each of the three main facades, the walls are composed of projecting vertical piers that rise from ground level without interruption to the top of each setback. At the next level, the piers begin again, following the same vertical lines, until the top of that section. These piers are triangular in plan, with smoothly sloping sides. The walls between each pier are concavely faceted, creating the fluting effect. The windows are recessed within the stone walls. In the spandrel between many windows is a narrow band of incised decoration.

At its base, the Wall Street facade is symmetrically arranged and seven bays wide. The center bay, where the entrance to the bank is located, comprises the width of two bays in the upper stories. The entrance is atop a short set of stairs, angled back at each end, with two revolving doors below a tall, bronze and glass transom. The double-height windows in each bay at the base have pointed tops. Above these tall windows and doorway, smaller windows begin on the 4th floor in the outer bays, and at the 5th floor at the two center bays.

The Broadway facade is much longer than the Wall Street one, stretching 17 non-symmetrical bays. The fenestration pattern of regularly spaced, squared windows, seen on most of the building, begins at the 2nd floor on the southernmost six bays of the original building, and on the 4th floor on the north part of the facade. The six southern bays contain what is now the deeply recessed main entrance to the building. The New Street facade serves as a secondary, service facade, but has many similarities to the long Broadway side.

Upon completion, the building enclosed almost 500,000 square-feet of floor space. Most was leased to other businesses, with the bank occupying the first ten floors, as well as the top four floors for meeting and dining rooms for officers and directors, and an observation lounge with huge windows overlooking the city.

A matching 30-story addition to the south was completed in 1965, to the designs of Smith Smith Haines Waehler & Lundberg, a successor firm to Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker. Clad in matching limestone, it harmonizes with the original structure, but is simpler, with less ornament at the base and top. It is set back two bays further back from the sidewalk. On the south and east elevations, there is a small setback at the 10th floor, and a larger one at the 13th floor. The main banking hall had a monumental mural designed by Hildreth Meière who was the most prominent muralist of her time.

Faced with numerous problems at the facades and roofs of this limestone-clad building, The Bank of New York commissioned Hoffmann Architects in 2001 to conduct an exterior condition survey and develop a master plan for the exterior restoration. The master plan delineates a five-year phased construction program of facade and mortar repair, roof replacements, and window replacements.

onewallstreet.com/
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2029.pdf
nycarchitecture.columbia.edu/0242_3/0242_3_fulltext.pdf
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