Home to federal agencies such as the NYC branch of the FBI and GSA, this granite and glass checkerboard was once the backdrop to the highly controversial Richard Serra sculpture Tilted Arc and now boasts a new plaza redesign by landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. The original Landscape Architect was Martha Schwartz.
The building is named for Jacob K. Javits, who served as the United States Senator from New York for 24 years, from 1957 to 1981.
Worth Street station is directly under the building
Constructed, 1969
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The Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building at 26 Federal Plaza on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan houses many federal government agencies.
At over 41 stories, it is the tallest federal building in the United States.
Addition, 1977
A western addition, first announced on "inadvertently acquired land" in 1965, was built in 1975–77.
Renovation, 2013
By 2008, the roof membrane of the 40-year-old garage below the plaza was failing. To fix it, Schwartz's design had to be removed.
The vertical window slits of the glass walls are misaligned so that all the adjacent windows are at a different height,
2021
The facade forms an alternating zig-zag pattern
2006
At over 41 stories, it is the tallest federal building in the United States.
2006
A western addition, first announced on "inadvertently acquired land" in 1965, was built in 1975–77
2006
To the east of the main building is the James L. Watson Court of International Trade Building.
2006
Agencies located in the building include the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, and the General Services Administration.
2006
A 41-storey glass-walled slab facing east that is partly "wrapped" around a core that faces Broadway.
2001
Originally the facade facing Broadway was a windowless wall of exposed concrete
2021
In 1976 an extension by the same architects brought offices also to the western portion.
2021
The exterior is clad in gray Alabama limestone panels, black Minnesota granite panels, and glass
2021
The facade elements are arranged in an irregular checkerboard pattern.
2001
On the triangular plaza in front of the building is the eight-storey Customs Courthouse as a black glass cube that is elevated on two white vertical "plates" that slice through the cube.
2021
United States Court of International Trade
2021
Entrance canopy
2001
On the interior, the main entrance lobby is clad in marble, while the elevator lobbies are clad in Vermont marble and floors are covered with terrazzo.
2001
Marble and wood-panel walls in the courtrooms and mosaic-tile walls in the elevator lobbies.
2001
Courtroom interiors
2001
Marble and wood-panel walls in the courtrooms
2001
Seymour Fogel's colorful geometric mosaic Metropolis (1967) is in the lobby