American Express Tower (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / Hoboken / New York City, New York / Vesey Street, 200
 office building, skyscraper, 1985_construction, postmodern (architecture)
739-foot, 51-story postmodern office building completed in 1985. Designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates, 200 Vesey Street, formerly known as Three World Financial Center also known as American Express Tower, is the tallest of the four buildings in the World Financial Center complex. It was completed and opened in 1986.

The tower has a 4-story lower base, with a glassy, red-tinted, outward-curving entry intersecting the straight lines of the walls. This base also extends to connect 250 and 200 Vesey Street with a concourse lined with retail spaces. The lower ten floors are angled to follow West Street on the eastern facade, with the tower above parallel to Vesey Street. There are cascading setbacks at varying floor levels of each facade. The tower is clad in tan-grey granite and square punched windows of blue-tinted glass. As the building rises and steps back, the windows grow larger at each level, increasing the ratio of glass to granite. It is crowned by a copper pyramid roof.

The building was severely damaged by the falling debris when the World Trade Center towers collapsed on September 11, 2001. The building's southeast corner took heavy structural damage, though the effects were not enough to create a threat of collapse. The building had to be closed for repairs from September 11, 2001 until May 2002 as a result of damage sustained in the terrorist attacks.

200 Vesey Street is today World headquarters of American Express, and was once World Headquarters of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

In this building

  1. American Express Corporate Archives
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Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/200_Vesey_Street
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°42'48"N   74°0'53"W

Comments

  • Looks like Canary Wharf in London.
  • Inside this building is a nice memorial to 11 people who worked for American Express that died in the WTC North Tower in a meeting on the 104th floor. Fligth 11 hit the building between floors 93 to 100. Anybody above those floors either had to jump or wait to die in the building collapse and suffer with the smoke.
  • Backwards. Canary Wharf looks like the financial center. Margaret Thatcher was inspired by the development and sought to create a version of it in London.
This article was last modified 3 years ago