20 Exchange Place

New York, NY

In the business district of Lower Manhattan, the landmarked 800,000 square foot City Bank-Farmers Trust Company Building, by Cross & Cross, was originally designed in 1929 to be the tallest building in the world. Unfortunately, when the Depression hit, they had to tighten the budget, and settled for the 4th tallest. This idiosyncratic tower became the subject of a programmatic study for a proposed hotel, spa, nightclub, and restaurant. We explored various schemes that worked with the existing building envelope and respected the historical context, in order to repurpose this monument to the financial institutions of the past.