by German artist Gerhard Richter from the building's lobby. The work, valued at up to $30 million, was replaced by works from younger artists, including drawings by the Nigerian artist Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze. Paramount Group announced a $250 million renovation of the building in mid-2021, designed by KPF. The renovation was to begin in mid-2022 and included recladding the lower stories of the facade as well as redesigning the atrium. The quality of the atrium had declined since the 1980s: the trees had been replaced with plastic replicas, the waterfalls no longer worked, and some of the storefronts had been closed. In addition, the office stories' ventilation systems would be upgraded with MERV 15 filtration systems; this was included as a hygienic measure following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City during 2020. The bank's employees were being relocated by July 2021. 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. The LPC rejected KPF's plans for the redesign at a hearing in June 2022. The LPC requested that the developers revise their plans so the lower section of the facade would "harmonize" with that of 55 Wall Street. Paramount then proposed a design with a revised facade, but the LPC refused to approve this design in September 2022 because the lobby would still have been remodeled. Following the LPC's failure to approve either renovation proposal, it was unclear whether the project would proceed. Reception When the building was being planned, Paul Goldberger wrote for The New York Times that 60 Wall Street was among several modernist buildings simultaneously being developed with "a strong tendency to use historical form". Goldberger criticized Roche's design as "a site too squeezed, really, to properly accept any very large building" but said that, "at very large scale, it is difficult to imagine a much better scheme than Mr. Roche's". Carter Wiseman of New York magazine expressed even less confidence in the design, saying that Roche's "classical column" design is "just too obvious to be interesting for long". 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. Ada Louise Huxtable wrote that 60 Wall Street "securely challenges Loos's famous