JP Morgan Chase Building

With the passage of the Midtown East Zoning Plan, JP Morgan Chase was able to scoop up 680,000 sf of air rights from St Barts and Grand Central Terminal enabling it to build the tallest, greenest tower in New York to house 14,000 employees.  Chase established a plethora of amenities with biometric scanners to enter the building’, and whip out our phones to activate coffee machines with a QR code.  There are 19 restaurant food hall.  Emergency bathroom locks will instantaneously alert building security should anyone be acousted.  At Chase, lighting mimics our circadian rhythms.  Temperatures inside the rooms at Chase are smartly monitored, and fresh air is cleaned.   The building is all-electric and is carbon net neutral. 

Most of the gymnastics to even erect the JP Morgan tower take place underground, as the structure is threaded between the tracks leading to Grand Central Terminal. It turns out that there were at most 13 possible foundation points.  Even to use them required robust technical developments by the engineering team: concrete was made very dense and very strong.  Which is partially why the open space of the ground floor structural system is so ‘welcoming’.  The space above it hides the massive bracing trusses.  Those of us who are engineering buffs and night owls who didn't have weekend dates had the opportunity to witness the journey they took as they were carefully maneuvered from New Jersey to Park Avenue.