1 New York Plaza is an office building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of South and Whitehall Streets near South Ferry. The building, measuring tall with 50 floors, is the southernmost skyscraper in Lower Manhattan. It was designed by William Lescaze & Assocs. and Kahn & Jacobs, and developed by Sol Atlas and John P. McGrath. The facade was designed by Nevio Maggiora, consisting of a boxlike "beehive" pattern with the windows recessed within, made of aluminum-clad wall elements resembling a type of thermally activated elevator button popular at the time of construction. There is a retail concourse on the lower level. History Construction and early years In 1959, the City of New York attempted to acquire the land under this development through eminent domain as part of the Battery Park Urban Renewal Area. The plan involved consolidating several blocks into a "superblock" for public housing. When that plan fell through, the city hoped to entice the New York Stock Exchange to relocate to the property. However, the owner of the property—the firm of Atlas McGrath—successfully sued to retain their land, claiming they were more than willing to develop the site privately. Shortly after groundbreaking, Chase Manhattan Bank signed a 30-year, $200 million lease for of space across 22 floors in the building. Investment bank Salomon Brothers was another early tenant, moving into the building in 1970. On August 5, 1970, the building suffered a fire in which two people were killed and 35 injured. The cause of the fire was a faulty computer connection across from the office of the Townsend-Greenspan firm, which Alan Greenspan owned. The deaths were caused after an occupied elevator was "summoned" to the burning floor when one of the thermally-activated call buttons—designed to react to a warm finger tapping it—reacted instead to the heat of the fire on that floor. Insurance brokerage Thomson & McKinnon Auchincloss Kohlmeyer signed a lease for on the building's 47th through 49th floors in February 1975. At the time, the building was reportedly 95% occupied. In March 1978, investment bank First Boston signed a lease for in the building, relocating from nearby 20 Exchange Place. Chase ownership In 1989, Chase purchased the building for $140 million. However, in 1991 Chase moved much of its staff from the building to MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn and Salomon Brothers left for 7 World