[2][3] 8 Spruce Street was the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere at the time of opening in February 2011.

[2] The building includes a school, a hospital, retail stores, and a parking garage on its lower levels.

Prior to 8 Spruce Street's construction, the lot was used as parking for the NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital immediately to the east.

[5] The building is just east of City Hall Park and south of Pace University and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The building consists of a six-story podium with a brick facade, housing a public school, medical offices, and residential amenities.

[11] Gehry modified the curtain wall to accommodate the window-washing rigs, and the panels were buffed during manufacturing to minimize glare.

[4] The building's structural frame is reinforced concrete, common for high-rise residential towers in Manhattan.

397, is a public school located on the first 4 floors of the skyscraper serving 440 students from pre-K to eighth grade.

The interior features include brushed stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops, vertical-grain Douglas fir cabinets, solar shades on windows, and nine-foot ceilings in all units.

The seventh floor contains an indoor swimming pool, a fitness center, social areas, and a spa suite.

The eighth floor houses additional fitness facilities, a library, screening room, and spaces for children and tweens.

[17] Bloomberg reported in late 2021 that Blackstone Inc. would likely purchase the property for $930 million, and multiple sources have confirmed the sale.

"[22] CityRealty architecture critic Carter Horsley hailed the project, saying "the building would have been an unquestioned architectural masterpiece if the south façade had continued the crinkling and if the base had continued the stainless-steel cladding" but that it was still comparable to the Woolworth Building.