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

 office building, 1973_construction

421-foot, 33-story office building completed in 1973. Designed by James Freed of I.M. Pei & Partners, it is clad in white aluminum and glass. The white color was elected to stand out among other, darker towers downtown, and to complement historic sailing vessels moored at South Street Seaport. The white finish was achieved by "painting" the curtain wall with baked-on silicone-reinforced acrylic enamel, the first such large-scale application. Each 28-foot bay frames a continuous window comprising three large panes; the absence of mullions preserves the building's simplicity and suggests its interior flexibility. The wider Water and Front Street elevations are divided into seven bays, while the other two each have three. The building is set back behind a narrow plaza on Water Street.