After the developer Harry Macklowe purchased the building, he renovated it from 2018 to 2023, converting the interior to residential units with some commercial space.

[8][9][10] Under municipal law, any private land that was adjacent to public property (but not clearly marked as such) would eventually revert to the government of New York City.

[11] Consequently, when 1 Wall Street was built, its main occupant Irving Trust embedded small metal plaques to delineate the boundaries of its lot,[8][9][10] thereby preventing the city government from seizing the land.

[17] Although author Daniel Abramson said 1 Wall Street was "Art Deco in many respects",[21] historian Anthony Robins characterized the building as being "Gothic Modern—a skyscraper reflection of Trinity Church".

[25][28] At the time of 1 Wall Street's construction, limestone was a relatively expensive material and was rarely used for a building's entire facade, with cheaper brick being used instead.

Though setbacks in New York City skyscrapers were mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution to allow light and air to reach the streets below,[23][30] they later became a defining feature of the Art Deco style.

[32] Walker said the building would "have 200 thousand people looking at it from all sides" in a single year, including workers and pedestrians, and he wanted them to have "mental relief and pleasure" when viewing it.

Walker and his associate Perry Coke Smith designed the room, while artist Hildreth Meière was hired as a "color consultant".

[72] Because the building was completed just after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Red Room's design included ornate materials to attract customers.

[79] The second floor originally contained Irving Trust's Wall Street office, which served businesses in the Financial District.

[83] These included brokerage house Bear Stearns, which hired H. J. Horvath & Company and designer W. A. Zwicke to subdivide its 10th-floor space into various offices and other rooms.

[36][86] The executive lounge also had a triple-height ceiling, fluted walls, teak floors, and a fireplace,[87] as well as four full-height windows that faced each of the cardinal directions.

[19][88] The upper three floors were converted into a three-story penthouse apartment with 12,965 square feet (1,204.5 m2), four bedrooms and four bathrooms, as well as a private library and chef's kitchen.

[89][90] The amenities include a 75-foot (23 m) indoor swimming pool, 39th-floor observation deck, library, golf simulator, dog spa, and playroom,[48][19][70] as well as a lounge and a private restaurant.

[64] The vault had three stories, of which the top level was used by safe-deposit customers, and the lower floors stored Irving Trust's own fortunes.

[96][99][101] Since the settlement of New Amsterdam in the 17th century, only three buildings on the northern portion of the current skyscraper's site had carried the address 1 Wall Street.

[120] The 22-story Knickerbocker Trust building at 60 Broadway was completed in 1909[121] and contained a ground-floor banking room, a private penthouse restaurant, and eight elevators.

[135] The company's board of directors founded a sub-committee for construction oversight, and several Irving Trust employees formed the One Wall Street Unit to coordinate logistical planning for the new skyscraper.

Among those were separate elevators for bank employees and rental tenants; the removal of retail spaces and luncheon clubs; and the addition of a common reception lobby.

[146] During December 1929, Ward sent engraved letters to 500 nearby property owners, apologizing for the noise created during the riveting process; this generated positive publicity for the building in both the local and national press.

Two hundred guards armed with machine guns moved the bank's $8 billion holdings[vi] from its former location at the Woolworth Building.

[viii][171] Renovations also took place in the original building; tenants continued to use 1 Wall Street during construction, but the vault in the basement was emptied.

[175] By October 1988, with a merger imminent, Irving Trust placed 1 Wall Street for auction; at the time, the building was valued at $250 million.

[19] Macklowe initially planned to make 1 Wall Street a mixed-use residential and office building,[187][188] and he wanted to rent out 65 percent of the residences.

[19] Ashe Leandro, Deborah Berke Partners, and Moed de Armas and Shannon also redesigned parts of the building,[88] and Deutsche Bank provided a $750 million mortgage loan for the conversion.

[199] By March 2022, Macklowe and Al Thani planned to refinance 1 Wall Street for $1.1 billion, using the proceeds to pay off construction costs and outstanding debt.

[212] Asian investors comprised about half of the condominium owners by that year, but such sales were slowing down due to new export controls in China.

[219][220] Because of Irving Trust's role as a receiver for bankrupt companies, 1 Wall Street was called the "Central Repair Shop for Broken Businesses".

[74] Stern stated that in 1 Wall Street's design, "structure became an unseen prop for poetry"; he further called the building's form "a natural precipice of stone shaped by erosion".

[57] Ian Volner, writing for Curbed in 2024, described the Red Room as "an over-the-top dream of period pizzazz that makes Baz Luhrmann's Gatsby look like a work of sober realism".