Citigroup Center and St. Peter's Church
601 Lexington Avenue | also 159 East 53rd Street, 140 East 54th Street, 157 East 53rd Street | East Midtown | built 1978
Open on the map15 entries
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1965
Reverend John Garcia Gensel starts a jazz ministry at St. Peter's
In 1965 Reverend John Garcia Gensel began a jazz ministry at St. Peter's Lutheran that continued after the congregation's move beneath Citicorp Center in 1977. The program has held memorial services for musicians including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk, and still offers free jazz performances at the building's base.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1968
Brokers quietly assemble a Midtown block as "Lexman Realty" for First National City Bank
In late 1968 First National City Bank senior vice president Bob Graham cautiously let the brokerage Julien J. Studley Inc. try to gather the block between Lexington and Third Avenues. The buyers worked under the name Lexman Realty, and it took more than five years to collect 31 parcels from 16 owners. The parcels held row houses, medical offices, a garage and an apartment house, and the biggest single piece was the lot of St. Peter's Lutheran Church.
“…under the name Lexman Realty ... to acquire the 31 parcels from 16 owners…”
- 1969
St. Peter's Lutheran agrees to make way for the tower
In 1969 St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church agreed to demolish its Gothic sanctuary at 54th Street and Lexington Avenue and let developers build a skyscraper on the site, in exchange for a new church built into the tower's base with partial ownership. Ground broke on the combined project in 1974.
Source: Ephemeral New York
- 1973
The bank unveils its tower plan with the rooftop apartments dropped
First National City Bank had hoped to put terraced apartments at the top of its new tower to earn a larger floor-area bonus, but the Department of City Planning refused. When the plan went public in July 1973 the housing was gone and the sloped roof still faced west. A year later the slope was turned to face south, and some experts thought it could serve as a platform for solar collectors.
- 1976
Workers raise the last steel beam of Citicorp Center, draped in two flags
In October 1976 the tower's final beam was hoisted up wearing a U.S. flag and the blue-and-white Citicorp banner. As many as 3,000 workers had been employed on the project during hard economic years. Chairman Walter Wriston used the occasion to credit the "plain hard work" of the people who built it, saying the day belonged to them.
- 1977
Citicorp's tower rises on stilts over a new St. Peter's Church
St. Peter's Lutheran Church sold its 1905 building on the condition that a new, structurally separate church be built on the corner. Hugh Stubbins's 915-foot tower, finished in 1977, stands on four stilts set at the middle of each side, leaving 72-foot cantilevered corners. The new church, clad in granite and lit by a diagonal skylight, was also completed in 1977.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1977
Citicorp Center is dedicated with Governor Carey and Mayor Beame in attendance
On October 12, 1977, the finished tower was dedicated before bank and church officials, Governor Hugh Carey and Mayor Abraham Beame. Architect Hugh Stubbins called it a "skyscraper for the people." The sunken plaza at its foot did not open until July 1978, and the project was said to have been finished on schedule and within budget.
- 1977
Hugh Stubbins's new sanctuary opens with art by Nevelson and Pomodoro
The freestanding granite church that architect Hugh Stubbins tucked beneath the tower's corner opened in December 1977, two months after the skyscraper itself. Sculptor Louise Nevelson designed its Chapel of the Good Shepherd, and Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro created the unconventional Cross of the Resurrection on the exterior.
Source: Ephemeral New York
- 1978
Night crews secretly reinforce the tower after a student's question
In June 1978, questions from engineering student Diane Hartley led structural engineer William LeMessurier to recheck the tower. He found that bolted joints had been used instead of welded ones and that strong diagonal winds could topple it. Starting in August 1978, crews welded steel plates over the joints at night. The public learned of it only in 1995, from The New Yorker.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1982
Thelonious Monk's funeral is held in the sanctuary of St. Peter's Church
Pianist Thelonious Monk died at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey on February 17, 1982, of a stroke. His funeral took place in the sanctuary of St. Peter's Church in Manhattan, the church beneath the Citicorp tower. He was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. A New York Times headline from the occasion described friends paying tribute to him with his own music.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1983
Con Edison and Citibank test solar panels on the tower's sloped roof
The bank had briefly considered using the angled roof for solar panels but dropped the idea in February 1976. In 1983 it revived the notion with Consolidated Edison as a four-year experiment. Six photovoltaic panels holding 5,000 cells were set up temporarily on part of the roof, and they powered a modest exhibit in the atrium.
- 1987
Citicorp sells most of the tower's office floors to Daiichi Life for $670 million
In October 1987 Citicorp sold a 61.55 percent stake in the office condominium, covering the 23rd through 59th floors, to Daiichi Life, along with a one-third share of its old 399 Park Avenue headquarters. The $670 million helped offset losses of $2.32 billion in the first half of that year. Citicorp kept the lower floors and was developing One Court Square in Queens, one subway stop away.
“Citicorp sold the 61.55 percent ownership stake (consisting of the 23rd through 59th floors)…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1995
The New Yorker reveals the secret 1978 repairs to Citicorp Center
Because the tower never failed, the night-time welding of its wind braces in 1978 stayed largely unknown for years. The repairs coincided with a newspaper strike in the city that year, and hardly anyone was told about them. The full story reached the public on May 25, 1995, when Joseph Morgenstern's "The Fifty-Nine-Story Crisis" appeared in The New Yorker.
“…the extent of the engineering crisis was only publicly revealed in a lengthy article in The New Yorker in 1995…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
Boston Properties and Allied Partners buy the whole building for $755 million
Richard and Eric Hadar bid $725 million for Dai-Ichi's stake in January 2001, but Boston Properties then made its own offer and delayed the sale. In April, Boston Properties and Eric Hadar's Allied Partners together closed on both condominium shares, paying $755 million including closing costs and taxes. Citigroup, the namesake tenant, then moved to 399 Park Avenue.
“Allied Partners, along with Boston Properties, ultimately finalized their purchase of both condominium shares that April. The price was $755 million…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2002
One of the tower's four stilts is armored with blast shields after September 11
Following the September 11 attacks, one of the tower's four 112-foot stilts was fitted in 2002 with steel-and-copper blast shields and extra steel bracing. Protective bollards were also placed along the sidewalk. The stilts sit at the center of each side rather than at the corners, carrying the 915-foot tower on supports that are 24 feet square.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Citigroup CenterWikipedia
- The sacred stone box of a church beneath a finance company’s 1970s Midtown skyscraperEphemeral New York
Nearby
- 136 East 55th Street2 entries
- 599 Lexington Avenue7 entries
- Selene100 East 53rd Street | 3 entries
- Lipstick Building885 3rd Avenue | 9 entries
- Central Synagogue652 Lexington Avenue | 13 entries
- 399 Park Avenue7 entries