17 State Street

 office building, skyscraper, 1988_construction

542-foot, 42-story modernist office building completed in 1988 for the William Kaufman Organization. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons, it is most noted for its distinct curved facade. Shaped like a wedge to fit its distinct site, the curve follows the bend of State Street, with the straight sides lining up with the two shorter, older box-shaped building flanking the site. The flat sides are clad in silver aluminum and blue glass, and the curved facade is clad in a solid curtain wall of reflective blue glass. The skin of the straight sides wraps around to the front, framing the reflective glass wall.

The building sits 25 feet in the air on a forest of white aluminum-clad columns, interrupted only by a glass-enclosed rotunda, 30 feet in diameter, that serves as the lobby. From the rotunda, great trusses in the form of X's serve as gateways to two elevator lobbies. The elevator shafts are enclosed in glass until they reach the mass of the building proper, 25 feet above the street, which makes the cabs visible as they glide up and down.

The bottom floors of the skyscraper were home to New York Unearthed, an urban archeology museum with approximately two million artifacts from local excavation sites. The museum was originally included as a concession to the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, who had been unable to perform an archaeological survey of the site before construction began. They believed that the lot had contained artifacts from the early 18th century, although a lawyer for the construction firm claimed to be "absolutely certain that no archaeological material was lost". The museum shuttered in 2005.