55 Water Street is a 687-foot-tall (209 m) skyscraper on the East River in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States.

Another public space to the southwest, Jeannette Park (now Vietnam Veterans Plaza), was expanded when 55 Water Street was constructed.

National Kinney Corporation bought a majority stake in the Uris properties by late 1973, and it sold 55 Water Street to Olympia and York in 1976.

[4][5] Prior to the construction of the current office building, the site had contained the headquarters of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey, designed by Warren and Wetmore.

Workers first placed a retaining wall of corrugated sheet-metal panels, which were sunken 40 ft (12 m) below ground, then scooped out the entire site.

[25] Electricity from the New York City power supply system flows to distribution boards on the concourse, the first sub-level, and floor 14.

[25] In the 1990s, eleven electrical generators were installed on the roof, each with a capacity of 1,750 kW (2,350 hp);[20] these were powered by pumps in the basement levels.

[28] The building's heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system is divided into several zones, each serving a different group of floors.

[27] When 55 Water Street was built, Coenties Slip (which abutted the site to the southwest) was converted into a pedestrian plaza known as Jeannette Park.

[31] Initially, 55 Water Street's owners were responsible for maintaining the park, which was paved in brick similar to the Elevated Acre plaza next to the building.

[44] In exchange for permission to close Cuylers Alley and Front Street for the construction of the new building, Uris proposed improving the adjacent Jeannette Park and erecting a raised public plaza within the new development.

[14] The proposal required that the New York City Planning Commission enact a zoning amendment in 1968, since elevated plazas could not rise more than 5 ft (1.5 m) above the curb.

[32] In January 1969, the Board of Estimate approved Uris's proposal to construct an elevated pedestrian plaza alongside its building.

[14] The Chemical Bank of New York agreed in principle to lease 1.1×10^6 sq ft (100,000 m2) in January 1969, in exchange for a 15 percent stake in the building.

[60] 55 Water Street was completed in 1972 with 3,268,000 sq ft (303,600 m2) of rentable space,[61] and tenants began moving into the structure at the beginning of that year.

[63] Meanwhile, after Percy Uris had died in 1971, his brother Harold began negotiating to sell off all his company's assets, including 55 Water Street.

[64][65] National Kinney Corporation had bought a majority stake in the Uris properties by late 1973, upon which a large portion of the office space was still vacant.

[72] Samuel J. LeFrak expressed interest in buying 55 Water Street and most of the other Uris structures in 1976, as the buildings collectively contained four percent of Manhattan's office space.

[73] Simultaneously, Manufacturers Hanover planned to lease two additional floors and a mezzanine, provided that the city government approve a tunnel between 55 Water Street and the company's operations headquarters at the neighboring 4 New York Plaza.

[72] Olympia and York bought 55 Water Street in 1977 as part of a $50 million transaction involving several Uris properties.

[71][76] Of the properties Olympia & York bought from National Kinney, only 55 Water Street still had a significant amount of vacant space, with 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m2) still available for lease.

[82][83] At the time, the building housed the headquarters or offices of several large financial companies, including Lehman Brothers, L. F. Rothschild, Goldman Sachs, and Bear Stearns;[84] some of these firms had their own dining rooms.

[98] Olympia and York agreed in September 1992 to transfer ownership of the building to its bondholders in exchange for wiping out about $548 million in debt.

[107] RSA hired Kohn Pedersen Fox to design cosmetic remodeling plans, and the pension fund spent over $20 million to remove asbestos from the building and install a back-up electrical system.

[108] The building still had large amounts of vacant office space at the time,[109] despite offering relatively low rents of around $20/sq ft ($220/m2).

[110] During this time, major tenants at 55 Water Street included the Depository Trust Company[111] and the Securities Industry Automation Corporation.

[113] RSA upgraded 55 Water Street's communication and electrical systems to attract tenants, advertising the building as the "Tower of Power".

[116][110] In addition, several other financial firms such as Royal Bank of Canada and Goldman Sachs had expressed interest leasing space in the building.

[144] By contrast, in 1981, Paul Goldberger described 55 Water Street, along with many skyscrapers on Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, as having been "designed by commercial architectural firms which admitted to few interests beyond the quick and efficient creation of rentable space".

[145] According to Goldberger, these types of buildings used common materials such as concrete and glass, creating edifices that "added little either visually or socially to the life of the city".