The New York City landmarks law was signed 50 years ago this year. So, what better time to talk about some of its successes? Plenty of great structures, such as the Empire State Building, completed in 1931 as a multi-tenant office building, are easy to keep relevant and functioning. Others, however, become obsolete and can no longer perform their originally intended purpose. That’s where adaptive reuse comes in. If you haven’t heard the term, it’s when an old structure is adapted for a new use. It’s often how we are saving our great city…
Frank Mahan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is working on the conversion of the former One Chase Manhattan Plaza, built by SOM in 1964 and designated a landmark in 2009. JPMorgan Chase sold the building in 2013 and now the Chinese developer Fosun is redeveloping it from single-tenant into a multi-tenant office building. That includes the redevelopment of the two-acre plaza and the space below it, formerly bank branch and back of house space, into new retail.