The tower sits on the waterfront overlooking the Hudson River and Lower Manhattan and is visible from all five of the New York City boroughs.

On a clear day, the building may be visible from Highlands, New Jersey to the south and from Bear Mountain, New York to the north, 40 miles (64 km) away.

[6] Originally the tower was meant to be the centerpiece of an entire Goldman Sachs campus at Exchange Place, which was to include a training center, a university, and a large hotel complex.

[citation needed] Many of the company's Manhattan-based equity traders refused to move away from Wall Street, delaying the occupation of the building's top 13 floors, which remained vacant until early 2008.

It is located at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan just north of Brookfield Place (originally the World Financial Center), almost directly across the water from 30 Hudson.