It was developed by Larry Silverstein, who held a ground lease for the site from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and designed by Emery Roth & Sons.

The original 7 World Trade Center was 47 stories tall, clad in red granite masonry, and occupied a trapezoidal footprint.

On September 11, 2001, the structure was substantially damaged by debris when the nearby North Tower (1 World Trade Center) collapsed.

The debris ignited fires on multiple lower floors of the building, which continued to burn uncontrolled throughout the afternoon.

The original 7 World Trade Center was a 47-story building, designed by Emery Roth & Sons, with a red granite facade.

[9] However, the final design for 7 World Trade Center was for a much larger building than originally planned when the substation was built.

[15] In June 1986, before construction was completed, developer Larry Silverstein signed Drexel Burnham Lambert as a tenant to lease the entire 7 World Trade Center building for $3 billion over a term of 30 years.

[16] In December 1986, after the Boesky insider-trading scandal, Drexel Burnham Lambert canceled the lease, leaving Silverstein to find other tenants.

[18] In November 1988, Salomon Brothers withdrew from plans to build a large new complex at Columbus Circle in Midtown, instead agreeing to a 20-year lease for the top 19 floors of 7 World Trade Center.

[21][22]: 2 At the time of the September 11 attacks, Salomon Smith Barney was by far the largest tenant in 7 World Trade Center, occupying 1,202,900 sq ft (111,750 m2) (64 percent of the building) which included floors 28–45.

[28]: 9 The total amount of space occupied by each tenant was:[28]: 9 [26][29] As the North Tower (1 World Trade Center) collapsed on September 11, 2001, heavy debris hit 7 World Trade Center, damaging the south face of the building[30]: 18 (PDF p. 22)  and starting fires that continued to burn throughout the afternoon.

[33] Over the course of the day, fires burned out of control on several floors of 7 World Trade Center, the flames visible on the east side of the building.

[3] At approximately 2:00 pm, firefighters noticed a bulge in the southwest corner of 7 World Trade Center between the 10th and 13th floors, a sign that the building was unstable and might collapse.

FEMA made preliminary findings that the collapse was not primarily caused by actual impact damage from the collapse of 1 WTC and 2 WTC but by fires on multiple stories ignited by debris from the other two towers that continued burning unabated due to lack of water for sprinklers or manual firefighting.

[43] In June 2007, Shyam Sunder explained, We are proceeding as quickly as possible while rigorously testing and evaluating a wide range of scenarios to reach the most definitive conclusion possible.

However, the current study does benefit greatly from the significant technological advances achieved and lessons learned from our work on the towers.

[2] This followed NIST's August 21, 2008, draft report, which included a period for public comments,[3] and was followed in 2012 by a peer-reviewed summary in the Journal of Structural Engineering.

[46]: 6–7  NIST determined that diesel fuel did not play an important role, nor did the structural damage from the collapse of the Twin Towers or the transfer elements (trusses, girders, and cantilever overhangs).

[2]: 21–22  At the time, this made the old 7 WTC the only steel skyscraper to have collapsed from fire, but not the last, with others including Edifício Wilton Paes de Almeida, the Plasco Building, and Windsor Tower.

"[48] Copies of emails in connection with the WorldCom scandal that were later requested by the SEC from Salomon Brothers, a subsidiary of Citigroup housed in the building, were also destroyed.

[49] The NIST report found no evidence supporting the conspiracy theories that 7 World Trade Center was brought down by controlled demolition.

[2]: 63–73  It urged immediate action on a further recommendation: that fire resistance should be evaluated under the assumption that sprinklers are unavailable;[2]: 65–66  and that the effects of thermal expansion on floor support systems be considered.

[2]: 63–73 The collapse of 7 WTC sent debris flying into the nearby Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall building, located at 30 West Broadway, damaging and contaminating it beyond repair.