388 Greenwich Street
also 230 West Street | Tribeca | built 1987
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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.
- 1988
Kohn Pedersen Fox's Shearson Lehman Plaza is completed in Tribeca
Work began in 1985 on what was first called Shearson Lehman Plaza, an office tower designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox with structural engineering by Severud Associates. It was finished in 1988 and is one of the few New York buildings with double-deck elevators. It later became the Travelers Building and then, with neighboring 390 Greenwich, a Citigroup headquarters.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1990
The tower's precast facade earns an honorable mention at the 1990 PCI Design Awards
Kohn Pedersen Fox designed the 39-story tower for the clients Shearson Lehman Brothers and American Express, cladding its north and south sides in articulated precast concrete and gray marble. The project received an honorable mention at the 1990 PCI Design Awards, and in 1991 the New York Associates of Consulting Engineers gave it a certificate of engineering excellence. The firm describes the tower as a gateway to the Financial District.
Source: kpf.com
- 1997
A four-story neon red umbrella goes up on the north face of the tower
In May 1997 a neon sign of a red umbrella, 50 feet on each side and four stories tall, was erected near the top of the building's northern elevation. Observers split over it: some found it emblematic of the tower, while others thought it distracting. At street level a 16-foot steel red umbrella sculpture weighing 5,300 pounds also stood outside the building.
“The sign was erected in May 1997; some observers found it emblematic, while others considered it to be distracting.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1998
Tribeca fights to take down Travelers' four-story red neon umbrella
Travelers put a four-story red neon umbrella on the north face of its 39-story tower, and Tribeca residents spent over a year trying to get it down; Councilwoman Kathryn Freed called it tacky. The Buildings Department had ruled the umbrella a logo rather than a sign, so it stayed. With the Travelers-Citicorp merger pending, a Citicorp spokesman said it might seek a similar umbrella for Citicorp Center.
Source: The New York Times
- 1998
Travelers agrees to switch off the neon umbrella for hours each night
After negotiations with the TriBeCa Community Association, a deal was reached in May 1998 to shut off Travelers' 50-by-50-foot umbrella for four hours after sunset and dim it overnight. Association president Carole DeSaram said the group wished the sign were gone but accepted the deal over the risk of years of bureaucracy and litigation against a company that had just reached a $70 billion merger agreement. She also stressed that the logo would not be grandfathered.
Source: The New York Times
- 2001
Volunteers improvise a mobile hospital in the courtyard on September 11
By early afternoon on September 11, 2001, volunteers were putting together a mobile hospital in the courtyard of the Salomon Smith Barney building, meant as a stabilization platform where badly injured people would be treated before transfer to hospitals. Only two patients arrived, both on oxygen masks, and they soon left. The actor Matthew Modine turned up in jeans and a baseball hat, also hoping to volunteer.
Source: The New York Times
- 2007
Citigroup sells the complex for $1.58 billion and its red umbrella leaves
In December 2007 Citigroup sold the 388 and 390 Greenwich Street complex for US$1.58 billion to a venture of SL Green Realty and SITQ, hoping to lower its real estate exposure, and leased back its space for 15 years. The steel street-level umbrella sculpture had been removed that summer, under a deal with St. Paul Travelers, which had acquired the logo.
“In December 2007, 388 Greenwich Street and 390 Greenwich Street were sold by Citigroup in order to reduce real estate exposure on its balance sheet.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2016
Citigroup exercises its option to buy its Tribeca headquarters back for $2 billion
On January 27, 2016, SL Green announced that Citigroup was buying back the 2.7-million-square-foot complex at 388-390 Greenwich Street for $2 billion. The bank had sold it for nearly $1.6 billion in 2007, and a $1 billion lease renewal in 2013 carried the buyback option. The building was then undergoing a curtain-wall renovation.
Source: therealdeal.com
Further reading
- 388 Greenwich StreetWikipedia
Nearby
- 399 Greenwich Street1 entry
- 397 Washington Street5 entries
- 385 Greenwich Street2 entries
- 250 West Street2 entries
- 387 Greenwich Street3 entries
- 401 Greenwich Street3 entries