20 Exchange Place (formerly the City Bank–Farmers Trust Building) is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Completed in 1931, it was designed by Cross and Cross in the Art Deco style as the headquarters of the City Bank–Farmers Trust Company, predecessor of Citigroup. The building, standing at approximately 741 feet (226 m) with 57 usable stories, was one of the city's tallest buildings and the world's tallest stone-clad building at the time of its completion. While 20 Exchange Place was intended to be the world's tallest building at the time of its construction, the Great Depression resulted in the current scaled-back plan. The building has a granite and limestone facade, as well as internal superstructure is made of steel. The lower section of the facade fills an entire irregular city block, and contains giant piers supporting standalone figures depicting the "giants of finance", as well as decorations designed by David Evans. The main entrance on Exchange Place has a round arch with granite medallions representing the countries where City Bank Farmers Trust operated offices. The upper stories rise as a square tower with chamfered corners and is offset from the base.
The City Bank–Farmers Trust Building was built between 1930 and 1931, for the newly merged National City Bank of New York and the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company. It remained the company's headquarters until 1956 and was ultimately sold in 1979. The 16th through 57th floors of the building were converted from commercial to residential space by Metro Loft Management during the 1990s. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 20 Exchange Place as an official city landmark in 1996.
Site[]
20 Exchange Place occupies a full block along Exchange Place to the north, Hanover Street to the east, Beaver Street to the south, and William Street to the west. The surrounding street grid, built as part of the colony of New Amsterdam, remains mostly as documented in the 17th-century Castello Plan. As such, the block is irregular in shape. Nearby buildings include 55 Wall Street to the north; the Wall and Hanover Building to the northeast; the 1 Wall Street Court to the east; the Delmonico's Building and 1 William Streetto the southwest; and the 15 William and Broad Exchange Building to the west.
The first recorded structure on the site was the house of Dutch ship's carpenter Tymen Jansen, built in the 17th century. By the 1890s, the block was occupied by larger buildings. Just prior to 20 Exchange Place's construction, the block contained four structures: two 10-story buildings on William Street, one 9-story building on Hanover Street, and one 15-story building extending between Beaver Street and Exchange Place.
History[]
National City Bank and the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company were both longstanding New York City institutions, with the former being founded in 1812 and the latter in 1822. In subsequent years, other banks began moving to residential buildings on Wall Street, and by the 1820s, financial institutions made up the vast majority of tenants there. By the late 19th century, the site of 20 Exchange Place had become associated with the banking industry as well, with institutions such as the Canadian Bank of Commerce occupying the buildings on the block. In 1908, National City Bank moved its headquarters to 55 Wall Street, on the block directly to the north. The Farmers Loan and Trust Company, meanwhile, occupied one of the buildings on 20 Exchange Place's site. National City Bank and the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company merged in 1929. National City Bank took over the expanded bank's banking operations, while Farmers' Trust became the City Bank Farmers Trust Company, a subsidiary of National City Bank that took over the trust operations.
Construction[]
Approved architectural drawing of 20 Exchange Place by Lev Vladimir Goriansky, circa 1929
After the merger, City Bank Farmers Trust commissioned a new structure at 20 Exchange Place to house the operations of the expanded bank. At the time, several skyscrapers in New York City were competing to be the world's tallest building, including the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and 40 Wall Street, none of which were yet under construction. 20 Exchange Place was originally among those contenders for that title. In October 1929, City Bank Farmers Trust filed tentative plans for a structure of either 846.4 or 925 feet (258.0 or 281.9 m), with 71 stories and a budget of $9.5 million. This building would have consisted of an 80-by-80-foot (24 by 24 m) rising above the 28th floor and tapering at the 50th floor, with a 15-foot (4.6 m) globe-shaped lantern at the pinnacle supported by four eagles. The skyscraper as initially planned would have been the headquarters for a larger bank created by merging the City Bank Farmers Trust and the Corn Exchange Bank. At least three early architect's sketches were drawn. The merger between the City Bank Farmers Trust and the Corn Exchange Bank was scrapped in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and the building was cut back to its current height.
Steel construction started in late February 1930, with the first steel column being placed on February 25. The Fuller Company, the building's contractor, employed an average of 2,000 workers simultaneously, with up to 3,000 workers on-site at a time; a large proportion of the workforce, comprising over 600 workers, were hired for the stonework. The builders anticipated a total payroll of $7.5 million with 5,000 total workers. The stonework was completed in November 1930. Some of the construction workers involved in the project were honored in a January 1931 ceremony. By February 20, 1931, the bank had started moving into its quarters.
Office use[]
The building opened for City Bank Farmers Trust's use on February 24, 1931. On opening day, The New York Times stated that about 3,851 people per hour visited the building. At the time, the upper floors were not open for use because the elevators had not been completed. When it opened, 20 Exchange Place the tallest stone-clad building in the world; that record would be surpassed by the Empire State Building, which opened on May 1, 1931.
Construction was officially completed in mid-March 1931, one and a half months ahead of schedule. The same month, National City Bank conveyed a one-fourth interest in the building to the City Bank Farmers Trust Company in March 1931. City Bank Farmers Trust occupied almost all of the space on the first through 12th floors, as well as the basement stories. The Canadian Bank of Commerce also took some space on the Hanover Street side of the ground level. Other tenants took space in the upper floors, including law firms, as well as other banks such as BNY Mellon and First Boston. City Bank Farmers Trust remained the largest occupant of the building, occupying 75% of the floor area at its peak. Part of the interior was altered in 1945.
National City Bank merged with the First National Bank in 1955, becoming First National City Bank. Shortly afterward, in March 1958, City Bank Farmers Trust took over the construction of a skyscraper on 399 Park Avenue, which was to contain most of the operations of First National City Bank. In 1961, City Bank Farmers Trust moved to the newly completed 399 Park Avenue in 1961. The same year, the eastern wing was undergoing renovations; in late 1961, some of these materials caught fire, leading 25 people to be trapped in the elevators. First National City Bank was renamed Citibank in 1976, and the bank sold off 20 Exchange Place in 1979, while retaining space there. According to telephone interviews conducted by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, both Citibank and the Canadian Bank of Commerce moved out of 20 Exchange Place in 1989. The building was designated a city landmark in 1996.
Residential use[]
In late 1997, the building was sold to a joint venture between the Witkoff Group and Kamran Hakim. Witkoff and Hakim considered plans to convert 20 Exchange Place into a hotel or a residential building, or retain office uses, before they ultimately decided to renovate the building for $25 million and convert the upper floors into apartments. Some 130,000 square feet (12,000 m2) in the lowest eighteen floors was retained as commercial space; a third of this area was taken by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in 1999. During the renovation, some of the building's decorative elements were stolen. When DMJM Harris Arup took a 70,500-square-foot (6,550 m2) sublease at 20 Exchange Place in early 2002, it became one of the largest office leases in Lower Manhattan since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
By 2004, developers Yaron (Ronny) Bruckner and Nathan Berman had bought 20 Exchange Place. They proposed converting the building for nearly entirely residential use, with 250 condominiums in the tower and commercial space at the building's base. DTH Capital, a joint venture between the Bruckner family's Eastbridge Group and AG Real Estate, became the new developers of the building. The project received two mezzanine loans of a combined $135 million in 2004. Two years later, the joint venture received a $256.5 million construction loan from a group of several lenders; this loan was refinanced in 2009. These loans were used to convert some units to apartments. The first apartments were ready for occupancy by early 2008. Metro Loft Management, who oversaw the conversion, created 350 units between the 16th and 57th floors. In 2014, DTH Capital received an additional $240 million loan that allowed the firm to convert the 9th through 15th floors to 221 luxury units. DMJM Harris Arup had recently vacated the space at the time. The conversion was ultimately completed in 2015, spanning three phases of construction.
Gallery[]
