The building's four-story base was designed with columns resembling architectural arcades, while the upper stories are faced in glass and stone.

[5] Several of these structures, along with the neighboring 70 Pine Street, had contained part of the headquarters of oil company Cities Service in the mid-20th century.

[8] To save money, Cities Service demolished all the properties comprising the site (except 52 Wall Street) in 1974, when the firm moved its headquarters to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

[31] In 2021, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) was hired to redesign the building's base with a portico and triple-height windows overlooking the ground-story atrium.

[30] The notches are designed in a similar pattern to the columns on the base, with alternating strips of ribbon windows and curtain-wall panels to resemble banded pilasters.

[28][31] In January 2012, Deutsche Bank installed a 122.4 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) system on the roof of to decrease carbon emissions by 100 metric tons per year.

[1] Before 60 Wall Street was developed, the site was zoned to only allow a building of 804,900 sq ft (74,780 m2) "as of right", assuming a floor area ratio of 15.

For the building's construction, Park Tower Realty purchased over 363,000 sq ft (33,700 m2) of neighboring 55 Wall Street's air rights from Citibank.

[43] The space is divided by ten white octagonal columns topped by flared capitals, which support a latticed ceiling originally decorated with wood and mirrors.

Gensler's renovations involved demolishing some interior walls, replacing desks to allow better communication between workers, and relocating hallways to create better access to stairwells.

[50] Cities Service had completed the neighboring 70 Pine Street in 1932 and occupied it until 1975,[6] after which that building was acquired by American International Group (AIG).

[9] To reduce the cost of the new headquarters, BNY asked the city's Industrial Commercial Incentive Board for a $22 million tax abatement in January 1982.

[62][63][64] The denial was a change of routine for the board, which had previously distributed large tax breaks to AT&T and IBM for the development of new buildings to stimulate the city's economy.

[66][67] By April 1983, BNY had entered a contract to sell the site to George Klein, head of the Park Tower Realty Company.

[68] The site could accommodate 804,900 sq ft (74,780 m2) without any modifications,[37] but the developer could acquire air rights and conduct improvements to the surrounding subway station to increase the tower's size.

[56] Park Tower vice president Neil Klarfeld said: "Sixty Wall Street will be a building of the 21st century, but its design will be compatible with the landmark structures that surround it.

[29] They beat out the architect Helmut Jahn, who had submitted three designs for the proposed building: one each for an obelisk, a stone shaft, and a column reminiscent of Adolf Loos's entry in the Tribune Tower competition of 1922.

[37][39] By early 1985, the site had been completely empty for three years; Park Tower Realty blamed the delays on the city's construction permit process.

[88] Unlike many financial firms of the time, J.P. Morgan had support personnel working near executives and traders in the same building, namely 60 Wall Street.

[25] An operations center was opened on Staten Island to provide redundancy in case the 60 Wall Street trading rooms were damaged or destroyed.

[91] Though J.P. Morgan had data centers in Delaware and in 60 Wall Street's basement, it was not as technologically advanced compared to non-banking firms.

[98] For some time after the attacks, Deutsche Bank contemplated leasing 60 Wall Street to other companies[99] before committing to use the space as its headquarters in December 2002.

[36] By 2014, Deutsche Bank was considering moving to another building with at least 1×10^6 sq ft (93,000 m2), as well as remaining at 60 Wall Street and renovating that space.

[111] In May 2018, Deutsche Bank announced it would be vacating 60 Wall Street and moving to 1.1×10^6 sq ft (100,000 m2) at Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle within three years.

[117][118] After the renovation plans were announced, in mid-2022, preservation group Docomomo International requested that the LPC consider designating 60 Wall Street's facade and the atrium's interior as New York City landmarks.

[39][130] Both Goldberger and Wiseman regarded 60 Wall Street and the contemporary Park Avenue Tower, designed by the same developer, as faux-classical structures in the middle of their respective city blocks.

[129][131] Ada Louise Huxtable wrote that 60 Wall Street "securely challenges Loos's famous Tribune Tower column in its unconventional use of that eternal and indefatigable classical theme".

[48] The fifth edition of the AIA Guide to New York City described the building as "a hulk, out of step with the gracefully air-cooled slender-spired skyscrapers nearby".

[48] Jerold Kayden criticized the original design of the atrium, saying that the color and lighting system conveyed the feel of "an antiseptic pall" and that "If anything, the space has overtones of a New York City white-tiled subway station or a stage set for an English garden.

[122] New York Review of Architecture editor Samuel Medina said the original atrium "offers a glimpse of what true public luxury could look like", whereas the redesigned space was "bland, it's leafy, and it reeks of money".