crown. Its gentle, shifting light patterns morph from abstract colors into images including the American flag.
Wind Dance, by Lord Norman Foster, is a giant American flag on a smooth bronze flagpole in the center of the main lobby. Powered by AI, the internal HVAC system switches its airflow so the flag will wave in the same direction as the exterior flags. Pedestrians walking by or people entering from Park Avenue will experience Color Chase One and Color Chase Two, by Gerhard Richter. These colorful companion metallic murals straddle the lobby’ s grand staircase and nicely frame Wind Dance breezing between.
The fifth new artwork is called Living Building, by Refik Anadol. The Turkishborn artist is well-known for creating stunning AI-based light displays for civic and corporate organizations around the world. The Refik Anadol Studio describes the piece as“ a site-specific AI Data Sculpture that transforms the building into a living canvas of memory, environment and imagination,” which is placed in the lobby elevator bank and depicts imagery of JPMorgan Chase’ s long history of financing New York City and its infrastructure.
Early New York City Bank Buildings
Less than two miles away in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art stands the façade of the Second Branch Bank of The United States, built in 1822. The mid-18th century English Palladian architectural style was intended to be a statement of the financial and political independence of the newly established United States. American architect Martin Euclid Thompson was tasked with building the new bank, which was located near Federal Hall on Wall Street.
According to an 1829 article in the New York Mirror,“ the building is constructed in the most substantial manner, and is fireproof throughout.” The article describes the“ 30-foot-high banking room surrounded by a gallery, vestibule and portico that add much to the beauty of the structure.”
The American banking vision did not last long. The Bank War, a political battle about US banking philosophy begun in the late 1820s, led to the bank’ s charter renewal being vetoed by populist President Andrew Jackson, who viewed the federally controlled bank as unconstitutional. He transferred United States funds
The House of Morgan building at 23 Wall Street, New York City, shown here the year it opened, 1914.
to various state banks and the Bank of the United States eventually ceased to exist.
In the 1850s, that building became the US Assay Office, where gold and silver from the American western expansion to the West Coast were evaluated for purity before being sold. By 1915, the former Second Branch Bank had outlived any practical use by the US government and was demolished. Fortunately, Robert W. de Forest and his wife Emily Johnston, who had strong ties to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, were able to save the front façade. It was kept in storage until 1924, when it became the entrance to the newly constructed American Wing of the Met. By 1980, it was enclosed by the Charles Engelhard Court, forever protecting it from the elements.
After a century of financial turmoil precipitated by the American Civil War and the Industrial Revolution, the US government chartered the Federal Reserve banking system in 1913. The New York branch opened in 1924 and to this day houses the largest gold depository in the world 80 feet below street level.
Also in 1913 and 1914, J. P. Morgan built“ The House of Morgan” at 23 Wall Street for the banking business of J. P. Morgan & Company. The unobtrusive structure, which survives today, was constructed from the same pink marble he used to build his library on Fifth Avenue. It was a simple neoclassical design and sustained damage from the unsolved 1920 Wall Street bombing, presumably by a group hostile to American capitalism. Famously, the bank did not repair the exterior damage caused by blast debris as a statement of defiance against the unknown attackers.
One Chase Manhattan Plaza
By the mid-1950s, Chase National Bank and the Bank of Manhattan had merged and needed a centralized headquarters for its fragmented workforce. David Rockefeller, the new bank’ s executive vice president for planning and development, tasked architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill( SOM) to design a new tower and public plaza. According to SOM,“ The tower was not only the first International Style building in Lower Manhattan, but also one of the first major buildings to be erected in the Financial District since the Great Depression.”
In 1961, One Chase Manhattan Plaza opened to acclaim. The boxy tower stood out and permanently changed the Lower Manhattan skyline. The new plaza was a
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34 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2026 | www. MoAF. org