17 State Street is a 42-story office building along State Street and Battery Park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Completed in 1988, it was designed by Roy Gee for Emery Roth and Sons for developers William Kaufman Organization and JMB Realty. The building is shaped like a quarter round, with a curved glass facade facing New York Harbor. At ground level, large aluminum columns surround a lobby and elevator hall. Next to the lobby was a public exhibition space called "New York Unearthed", which was operated by the South Street Seaport Museum from 1990 to 2005. The building has a total floor area of ; each story was designed for small tenants. The building, a speculative development, replaced the 23-story headquarters of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey, which had been completed by 1969. Construction of the current skyscraper started in 1985, and the building was nearly empty when it was completed three years later. The exhibition space at the building's base was constructed following a controversy over the destruction of potential artifacts on the site. The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America bought 17 State Street in 1989 and sold it to Steve Witkoff in 1998. RFR Holding has owned the building since 1999. Site 17 State Street is in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The land lot covers the western end of a city block bounded by State Street to the west and south, Pearl Street to the north, and Whitehall Street to the east. The irregularly shaped site covers , with a frontage of on State Street and a depth of . On the same block, to the east, are the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, as well as the shrine's rectory, located within the James Watson House. Other nearby places include Battery Park to the west, the Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal on Peter Minuit Plaza to the south, 2 New York Plaza to the southeast, and 1 New York Plaza to the east. Due to its location near the southern tip of Manhattan Island, the building is visible from a distance. Previous buildings Prior to the expansion of Lower Manhattan in the 18th and 19th centuries, the site of 17 State Street was directly along the shore line of New York Harbor. By 1660, the site was