Goldman Sachs Tower
200 West Street | also 240 Murray Street, 250 Murray Street, 220 Murray Street | Battery Park City | built 2006
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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.
- 2004
Goldman hires Pei Cobb Freed to design a West Street tower with a curved river face
Goldman Sachs engaged Pei Cobb Freed & Partners by April 2004 for the tower, with Henry N. Cobb as designer and Adamson Associates Architects as the other design firm. The west face toward the Hudson bends because zoning required a sightline to the river from the World Financial Center to stay open. Cobb argued to the bank that a curve would let the floors be laid out more efficiently than a diagonal cut would.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2005
Goldman abandons its West Street site over a proposed tunnel for the road outside
In late 2004 Governor George Pataki proposed rebuilding the nearby stretch of West Street as a tunnel beneath the World Financial Center. Goldman objected that the tunnel's north portal would open right in front of its planned entrance, and in April 2005 it dropped the project. The state soon scrapped the tunnel, and Goldman went on looking at other sites before returning to this one that August.
“Goldman Sachs objected that the northern portal would be directly in front of its entrance. ... Goldman Sachs abandoned plans for its West Street headquarters in April 2005.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2005
Ground is broken for Goldman's headquarters, with $3.5 million promised for a library branch
A groundbreaking ceremony took place on the West Street parking lot site on November 29, 2005. As part of the deal, Goldman pledged $3.5 million for a new New York Public Library branch planned one block west of the tower site, at North End Avenue and Murray Street. The following year it bought the neighboring Embassy Suites hotel, which it later planned to convert into a Conrad hotel.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2005
New York State approves over $1.7 billion in incentives for Goldman's tower
In August 2005, a state board approves $115 million in tax breaks and cash grants, plus $1.65 billion in Liberty Bonds, to help pay for Goldman Sachs's new headquarters. The project, designed by Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners with Adamson Associates Architects, is projected to cost about $2 billion. A groundbreaking ceremony follows on November 29, 2005.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2007
A failed crane sling drops a 7-ton load onto site trailers, crippling an architect
A crane's nylon sling gave way on December 14, 2007, and a seven-ton load fell to the ground at the construction site. It crushed two trailers and badly injured the legs of an architect who was inside one of them. Work stopped for several days while safety violations were corrected, and the city halted construction again in March 2008 after finding an unauthorized crane operator.
“…a nylon sling on a crane failed, sending a 7-ton load to the ground. It crushed two trailers and severely crippled the legs of an architect inside.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2008
A piece of steel falls 18 stories onto a children's ball field next door
On May 17, 2008, a steel piece about 30 by 30 inches fell eighteen stories from the rising tower. It landed on the ball field next door, where children were playing, and nobody was hurt. The city issued a stop-work order and cited general contractor Tishman Construction for five violations; Goldman asked for safety netting around the whole building, and CEO Lloyd Blankfein asked for regular construction reports.
“…a 30-by-30-inch piece of steel fell eighteen stories onto a neighboring baseball field where children were playing; no one was injured.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2008
A newspaper reveals the city and state would forfeit $321 million if the World Trade Center site lagged
In May 2008 the Daily News reported on a 2005 money-back guarantee tied to the tower. The state and city stood to give up a combined $321 million if rebuilding work around the World Trade Center, including West Street, the transit hub and a ferry landing, was not finished by 2009. The Port Authority, which was not a party to the deal, said most of those projects would run late, so officials began talks with Goldman to soften the penalty.
“The state and city governments would forfeit a combined $321 million if infrastructure improvements to the World Trade Center site were not completed by 2009.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2008
Goldman keeps its name off its Battery Park City tower and gives Henry Cobb his first Manhattan building
With the steel frame topped out at 739 feet in August 2008, Goldman Sachs let the Times peek inside a project it had barely discussed. The company's name would be absent from the tower, which is called simply 200 West Street. Lead architect Henry N. Cobb, 82, was finally designing a Manhattan building after nearly 60 years in the city, though his firm's website left it off its project list. Goldman's Timur Galen said the design group was chosen to mix experienced firms with newly developing ones.
Source: The New York Times
- 2009
A falling hammer breaks a cab window, then glass panes drop from the new tower
In April 2009 work halted again after a hammer dropped 18 stories and smashed the window of a taxi passing on the street. Soon after the first employees moved in that autumn, pieces of glass fell from upper floors, which closed nearby streets. The incidents added to a run of safety problems at a building whose owner had said little in public during construction.
“…a hammer fell 18 stories and broke the window of a taxicab passing by. ... glass pieces fell from the upper floors, forcing street closures…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
Julie Mehretu paints an 80-foot mural for the walkway to the elevators
Artist Julie Mehretu produced a $5 million painting titled Mural in 2009 for the lobby walkway of the tower. The work measures 80 by 23 feet and shows intersecting abstract forms in many colors. It hangs along a corridor about 400 feet long that links the West Street and Vesey Street entrance to the elevator bank, with tall windows along the opposite wall.
“…artist Julie Mehretu created a $5 million, 80-by-23-foot work in 2009, titled Mural and consisting of intersecting dynamic abstract forms in multiple colors.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
Goldman agrees to give the city $161 million in lease payments after the tower opens
Within weeks of the first employees moving in, Goldman Sachs decided in December 2009 to give New York City $161 million in lease payments. The payment was tied to the infrastructure guarantee for the World Trade Center site that the state and city had agreed to in 2005. The bank was still set to collect the $160 million held in escrow rather than pay that sum in taxes to the state.
“That December, Goldman Sachs decided to give the city $161 million in lease payments.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
Goldman Sachs opens its new 44-story headquarters at 200 West Street
The first of about 7,500 employees arrive in November 2009, and the 44-story, 749-foot tower officially opens on November 16. Construction ends up costing $2.1 billion, some $200 million below the firm's earlier projection. The last employees move in by December 2010.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
Vice presidents grumble about shared desks in the new headquarters
Not long after the building opened, some Goldman employees complained about the office layout. Several vice presidents objected to sitting at communal desks instead of in their own office suites, which they had enjoyed at the firm's old home at 85 Broad Street. Window offices on the tower floors had been mostly set aside for the elite partners.
“Several vice presidents objected that they were working at communal desks, rather than their own office suites, as they had at the 85 Broad Street.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
Paul Goldberger finds a tower designed to keep Goldman Sachs inconspicuous
Writing in The New Yorker in May 2010, Paul Goldberger noted that the firm's name appears nowhere on the exterior, in the lobby, or on the security guards' uniforms and visitors' badges. He likened the new headquarters to a well-tailored suit, with a flat glass-and-steel facade. Goldman had given the cafeteria to Office dA, the auditorium to SHoP, the fitness center to Architecture Research Office and the two top floors to a Toronto firm, a way of giving younger architects a chance.
Source: The New Yorker
- 2012
A Times critic praises the glass canopy over Goldman Alley
A covered pedestrian lane between the tower and the Conrad hotel, officially North End Way and nicknamed Goldman Alley, got a slanted glass-and-metal canopy of 11,000 square feet designed by Preston Scott Cohen. The passage is about 30 feet wide and holds stores and restaurants. In 2012 New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman praised the space as among the finest new architecture in the city.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2012
Goldman builds its own retail village behind the tower, from Shake Shack to a wine shop
By mid-2012 Goldman had turned the passage behind its headquarters into what locals called Goldman Alley, mostly by inviting the tenants it wanted. Danny Meyer opened three restaurants, including a Shake Shack on Murray Street, the Poulakakos family opened Vintry wine shop and Harry's, and pastry chef Francois Payard, a florist and an optometrist followed. Goldman also carved a driveway for its black cars and arranged two nearby lots for them to wait.
Source: The New York Times
Further reading
- 200 West StreetWikipedia
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