American Express Tower
200 Vesey Street | also 3 World Financial Center | Battery Park City | built 1986
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1985
The New York Times blasts the rising tower for walling off the sky above the harbor
As the 51-story tower rose in 1985, the Times ran a piece criticizing it, comparing the half-finished steel frame to an upended fish skeleton. The writer warned that once the floors filled in, a solid wall would stand where midtown viewers had once seen open sky toward the harbor. The article gave a taste of the criticism aimed at the tallest tower in the complex.
“At the moment, the skyscraper resembles a gigantic, upended, rectilinear fish skeleton.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1986
Pelli's 51-story design is later reused at London's One Canada Square, with stone swapped for steel
The 739-foot tower holds more than 2.1 million square feet of office space. Cesar Pelli used its basic look again for One Canada Square at Canary Wharf, another project of the developer Olympia & York. The London tower differs mainly in its cladding, a stainless steel curtain wall instead of stone.
“Pelli used the building's basic aesthetic again for the One Canada Square tower in London's Canary Wharf development.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1986
The 51-story American Express Tower opens in Battery Park City
Haines Lundberg Waehler and Cesar Pelli & Associates design the 51-story, 739-foot postmodern tower, which opens in 1986 at a cost of $800 million. Known as the American Express Tower, it becomes the company's world headquarters, and Lehman Brothers is later headquartered there as well.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1994
American Express spins off Lehman Brothers, whose headquarters address was Three World Financial Center
Amex had bought Lehman in 1984 and, from 1993 under Harvey Golub, began shedding its banking and brokerage businesses. In 1994 it floated Lehman as an independent company, Lehman Brothers Holdings, with Dick Fuld as chief executive. Lehman's global headquarters were in Three World Financial Center, as this tower was then known.
“…in 1994 it spun off Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb in an initial public offering, as Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
Lehman Brothers, displaced from the tower, buys 745 Seventh Avenue for a reported $700 million
Falling debris on September 11 severely damaged Lehman's global headquarters here and displaced more than 6,500 employees. The firm spread across over 40 temporary locations, and in October it bought a 32-story Seventh Avenue building that Morgan Stanley had built. It began moving there in January 2002 and did not return to the tower.
“The firm did not return to Three World Financial Center as its structural integrity had not been given a clean bill of health…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
Falling debris from the towers' collapse damages the building's southeast corner
Debris from the collapsing World Trade Center towers strikes the tower's southeast corner, causing heavy structural damage without threatening collapse. The building is closed for repairs until May 2002. A memorial named the Eleven Tears Memorial honors the eleven American Express employees who died in the attacks, and the building is renamed 200 Vesey Street in 2014.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2002
American Express starts moving back into its repaired headquarters
The company had moved into the tower in April 1986 and had to leave after the attacks because the building stood opposite the World Trade Center. It began gradually returning to the rehabilitated building in 2002. In February 2026 Amex announced it would instead be sole occupant of a new 2 World Trade Center, due about 2031.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
Three World Financial Center becomes 200 Vesey Street when the complex is rebranded Brookfield Place
The 51-story tower opened in 1986 as Three World Financial Center, part of the complex developed by Olympia & York in Battery Park City. In 2014 the whole complex was renamed Brookfield Place, and the building took the address 200 Vesey Street. It remains the world headquarters of American Express and was once the home of Lehman Brothers Holdings.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2026
American Express signs for a new 55-floor headquarters at 2 World Trade Center
In 2026 American Express and Silverstein Properties finalized a deal making the company sole anchor tenant of a planned 2 World Trade Center, designed by Foster + Partners and scheduled for completion in 2031. Commercial Observer described the move as a relocation from 200 Vesey Street, where the company has been since 1986. The new tower will have 55 floors and room for 10,000 employees.
Source: commercialobserver.com
Further reading
- 200 Vesey StreetWikipedia
Nearby
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- Brookfield Place250 Vesey Street | 6 entries
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- One World Trade Center117 West Street | 14 entries
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- Two World Financial Center225 Liberty Street | 9 entries