NEW YORK | 60 Wall Street | Renovation | 745 FT | 55 FLOORS

[NYguy]

https://nypost.com/2021/05/16/60-wal...-makeover/amp/

60 Wall to exit the ’80s dated FiDi tower set for makeover






By Steve Cuozzo
May 16, 2021

Hello to a more public-friendly 60 Wall St. — and farewell to one of the least-loved public spaces of the boom-and-bust 1980s.

One of the Reagan Decade’s defining office skyscrapers is about to undergo a more than $250 million upgrade for the post-pandemic era. Changes to 60 Wall planned by owner Paramount Group at the soon-to-be-empty, 47-story, 1.6 million square-foot tower include a more open portico and heavily windowed façade treatment on lower floors to create transparency with the street, and an enhanced ventilation system that utilizes virus-blocking, MERV 15 filtration.

But the centerpiece will be a stunning new public atrium lobby to replace the badly dated one installed by original tower owner JP Morgan, which later sold it to Deutsche Bank. Deutsche, the only current tenant, will begin moving to Time Warner Center this year. Paramount will start work on the redesign when Deutsche’s lease expires in June of 2022.

The vast original lobby was never as popular as architects Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo hoped.

Flared-top columns were meant to echo the tower’s Postmodern, Greek Revival-inspired facade. But critic Paul Goldberger called it a “cloying mix of white marble, lots of trelliswork, mirrors and marble grids” that was “oddly frilly . . . Like an ice cream parlor blown up to monumental scale.” It’s temporarily closed due to Covid-19 concerns.

The new look by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox will be clean-lined and verdant with a 100-foot- tall, block-spanning “green wall” and a skylight cut through the tower podium. A grand staircase, subject to MTA review, will connect with the subway station below.

The atrium will “unite Pine and Wall streets” to help “bring the people of this neighborhood together,” said KPF design principal Hugh Trumbull. The redesign requires city approval because it’s a privately owned public space, or POPS.

A CBRE team led by Paul Amrich and Howard Fiddle will handle leasing. Tenants will likely be able to move in by mid-2023. But the tower must compete for new tenants with nearby FiDi addresses which also are vacant or about to be. Some 800,000 square feet will be available at 80 Pine St. and more than 900,000 square feet are currently empty at 111 Wall St.

Paramount CEO Albert Behler is confident that 60 Wall’s modern, column-free floor plates, panoramic views and the planned upgrades will carry the day. “With the reimagining of the building, 60 Wall will compete with the best in Manhattan, including new construction,” he said.