Epicgenius
St. Peter’ s Church at the base of Citicorp Center, on the corner of 3rd Avenue and 54th Street in Manhattan, April 2021.
Bank of America Tower in Midtown Manhattan was the first skyscraper to be certified LEED Platinum, the US Green Building Council’ s highest honor.
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for the prescribed stronger welds at critical steel joints, making the building even more vulnerable to high winds. Quietly and secretly, welders were brought in at night when the offices were closed to weld new steel reinforcement plates throughout the structure. This story has been the subject of many books, articles, documentaries, interviews and even lectures by LeMessurier. Thankfully, Citicorp Center was spared disaster and, though no longer a showplace for Citigroup, the innovations of the tower, church and subwaylinked plaza continue to leave their mark on a now thriving neighborhood nearly 50 years after construction.
Bank of America Tower
In addition to design and structural improvements over the years, corporate buildings of the 21st century have aspired to greater environmental standards. Since the launch of the US Green Building Council’ s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design( LEED) certification in 2000, buildings have been designed with focus and attention on a building’ s efficiency and environmental impact. In
2009, Bank of America Tower, or One Bryant Park, opened on West 42nd Street and 6th Avenue. This was the next largescale attempt to construct a building that was environmentally sustainable.
The Durst organization, with Bank of America as anchor tenant, hired architectural firm CookFox to design and build the new 55-story tower. This was the first skyscraper to be certified LEED Platinum, USGBC’ s highest honor. Having drawn inspiration from the New York Crystal Palace— built in what is now Bryant Park for a world exposition in 1853— Bank of America Tower represents a giant quartz crystal, from street to spire.
CookFox described the philosophy that informed their approach.“ Drawing on concepts of biophilia, people’ s innate need for connection to the natural environment, the vision was to create the highest quality modern workplace by emphasizing daylight, fresh air and an intrinsic relationship to the outdoors.” The outdoors in this case was Bryant Park, diagonally across the street, which after remaining true to the Manhattan grid at the base, the tower twists to face.
CookFox highlighted some of the features that helped certify the Bank of
America Tower as LEED Platinum.“ The building’ s floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall minimizes solar heat gain through low-e glass and heat-reflecting ceramic frit while simultaneously providing exquisite views.” Another feature of the building, which has become commonplace in new construction, is water conservation utilizing recycling, harvesting rainwater from the rooftops and waterless urinals.
The HVAC system cools the building’ s air with ice frozen in huge tanks below ground, overnight when energy is less expensive, then distributed during the workday through floor vents with individual controls. The building even contains its own mini-power plant that reduces the building’ s annual electricity usage. Rick Cook, lead architect for the project, wanted to make some physical connections between his new building and the environment. The interior lobby has Jerusalem stone blocks containing ancient fossils and the canopy over the sidewalk on Sixth Avenue has three astronomical cut-out notches that allow shafts of light directly into the lobby during each solstice and equinox. The ceiling of the lobby and canopy is finished with renewable
36 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2026 | www. MoAF. org