The interior of the building contained numerous amenities that were considered state-of-the-art at the time of its construction; the first three floors were used as Bankers Trust's headquarters, while the rest were rented to tenants.

[20] 14 Wall Street is approximately 540 feet (160 m) tall, with 32 usable above-ground floors[b] and a seven-story pyramidal roof at its top, which contains seven storage levels.

[14][28] The architects wrote that the style had been chosen for its "simplicity and grace, as well as its supreme dignity and seriousness", which fit both the site and the building's use.

[14][31] Trowbridge wanted to enhance "the beauty of the upper part of building by a loggia and a stone pyramid, in place of the usual flat or mansard roof.

"[14][32] This was one of the first times a pyramidal roof had been used in a skyscraper (after only the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower);[33] previous tall structures had been capped by a cupola, spire, or tempietto.

The Wall Street facade contains setbacks at lower stories, and the window arrangement is aligned with that of the original building.

[48] The annex facades contain carved ornament, curved piers at the base, wrought-iron gates and grilles, and an eagle sculpture above the entrance on Nassau Street.

[44][38] At the time of the building's opening, The Bankers Magazine observed that the offices used modular equipment that could be moved easily in case the company needed to expand.

[54] The main banking room was designed in a Greek style[56] and had 27-foot-high (8.2 m) ceilings;[57] the walls were clad in Tavernelle marble for their full height.

[30] There was a small room on the south side of the second floor, which was dedicated to Henry Pomeroy Davison of the bank's executive committee.

[44] The lobby contains a bronze gate with symbols of capitalist enterprises such as metallurgy, shipping, construction, power, agriculture, manufacturing, and mining.

[15][a] The new addition, with the address 16 Wall Street, contained a T-shaped banking room covering 10,000 square feet (930 m2), with "a forest of squared-off, trunk-like columns clad in Oregon myrtle".

He chose not to pursue the option due to antitrust proceedings ongoing against Bankers Trust at the time of the building's completion,[8][34] and the space was instead converted to an observation deck.

[74] The Bankers Trust ultimately acquired space in the Gillender Building,[75][76] having been induced to move there because of the proximity of the New York Stock Exchange.

[11] The next month, the Manhattan Trust Company acquired the Gillender Building for $1.5 million (equivalent to $50,867,000 in 2023), then a record amount for land in New York City.

[14][32] To "obtain the very best results" for the design, in 1909, Bankers Trust requested plans from four architects and architecture firms: Carrère and Hastings, Francis H. Kimball, Trowbridge and Livingston, and Warren and Wetmore.

[36] The basements and the three lower floors were to contain the headquarters of Bankers Trust, although its main operations would be housed elsewhere in less expensive offices.

[68] After Bankers Trust was investigated by the U.S. Congress's Pujo Committee for monopolistic practices, J.P. Morgan & Co. built another structure to the southeast at 23 Wall Street.

By that time, Bankers Trust owned the eastern half of the block bounded by Broadway and Wall, Pine, and Nassau Streets.

This damaged two nearby buildings near the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway, including the headquarters of the First National Bank of New York (now Citibank), which was demolished in late 1931.

[103] First National Bank sued Bankers Trust and the project's contractors for $881,500 in April 1932, alleging that the excavations had damaged its adjoining building at Broadway and Wall Street.

[15] As a sign of the company's financial stability, in 1943, Bankers Trust bought the land under 14 Wall Street from the Sampson family, whose Stevens Building had been demolished to make way for the original tower.

[15] The bank's second headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, at 280 Park Avenue, opened in 1962,[117] though Bankers Trust retained occupancy at 14 Wall Street.

[126] Initially, the new owners wanted to convert the entire building from offices into luxury condominiums but, in 2006, they dropped their plan for a residential conversion.

[128] Carlyle and Capstone sold majority control of the building in 2012 to Alexander Rovt, a Ukrainian fertilizer tycoon, for $303 million in cash.

[129] Rovt began renovating the building and increased its occupancy rate from 70 to 95 percent by 2014, mostly by leasing space for ten years to tenants such as office-space operator Regus.

[133] At the time of its completion, 14 Wall Street was the world's tallest bank building and the city's third- or fourth-tallest skyscraper.

[14] 14 Wall Street and the nearby Singer Tower, as viewed from Manhattan's waterfront, resembled "the posts of the gigantic 'Gateway of New York.

[24] During the early 20th century, Bankers Trust used imagery of 14 Wall Street in its advertising to depict it as a "tower of strength";[41][84][142] the bank used the icon and slogan until the 1980s.

[56] Charles Phelps Cushing wrote in 1929 that the building's stepped pyramidal roof was "the meeting place for the midnight frolics of modern jazz sprites".