Photo credit: Max Touhey / Nigel Young for JPMorganChase, Foster + Partners
JPMorgan Chase’s new global headquarters in NYC, 270 Park Avenue, is a 1,388 foot copper-colored beast designed by Foster + Partners. This 60 story building was built on the foundation of the historic Union Carbide Building, and an engineering marvel that’s both environmentally conscious a well as human-centered, housing 10,000 people.
As you approach 270 Park Avenue, you’re struck by the base. Massive fan-flared columns rise 80 feet above street level, creating a plaza that feels like a gift to Midtown Manhattan. The bronze clad columns stand out against the city’s glass towers. When you walk in, the lobby sets the tone for the rest of your visit. Light pours in through triple glazed windows and the air is fresh, thanks to a ventilation system inspired by Harvard research that pumps in twice the fresh air required by building codes.
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The 2.5 million square feet are spread across 60 floors, all designed to get the job done and keep employees happy at work. Its eight large trading floors are constantly busy, and right in the heart of it all is the massive “Exchange” core, which comprises 16 dining and meeting rooms. These can handle everything from a simple lunch to a major town hall gathering. The higher levels include an executive and client center, as well as a luxury meeting room with a genuinely panoramic view. And because the floor plates have been spread out and the ceilings are higher than usual, it feels like you have a lot more place to breathe, with approximately 25% more room per person than a standard office. The outside patios with actual plants provide a touch of nature to the structure and make you forget you’re 1,000 feet high.
Photo credit: Nigel Young for Foster + Partners
270 Park is also New York’s largest all-electric skyscraper, drawing power from a New York state hydropower facility to reduce emissions to nearly nothing. And the fact that the windows are triple-glazed and there’s a mechanism that closes the blinds to limit sun and heat, combined with the heating/cooling system that’s almost as smart as the name implies, really helps to reduce the amount of power required. Then there’s the fact they didn’t waste water, using only 60% of the water the old structure did, and they were able to reuse or repurpose 97% of the old building’s materials that were demolished. This tower is aiming for LEED Platinum and WELL Health-Safety certificates, demonstrating that you can make a large building without trashing the planet.
Photo credit: Nigel Young for Foster + Partners
The site lies directly over a Metro-North Railroad track, therefore the previous Union Carbide Building had to be demolished during a two-year period. The actual destruction was quite spectacular, as it was both surgical and ambitious. Then Foster + Partners collaborated with Tishman Speyer and other big names like Gensler and SOM to create this beast of a building in which everything feels related, from architecture to engineering. The fan-column shape and all of the triangular supports allow it to, as the architects put it, “touch the ground softly,” making it feel much less vast than it is despite its scale.
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