First Look at JPMorgan Chase’s Future Supertall Headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, in Midtown East

Looking west at 270 Park Avenue

Demolition preparation at 270 Park Avenue in Midtown East continues to make headway, and today, YIMBY has the first renderings of Foster + Partners Architects’ planned headquarters for JPMorgan Chase. The supertall is apparently set to stand 1,425 feet to its rooftop, which would make it the third-tallest building by roof height in New York, at least ranked among current buildings. A tipster sent YIMBY images of the model for the project, alongside a rendering of what could be the final design for the highly anticipated supertall. Adamson Associates is listed as the architect of record.

A model of 270 Park Avenue, looking south with the MetLife Building and One Vanderbilt in the back

Screenshot by anonymous

Screenshot by anonymous

The featured rendering is a view of Midtown looking west at 270 Park Avenue and the surrounding supertalls such as One Vanderbilt, Tower Fifth, and the skinny residential towers of Billionaires’ Row. The eastern profile of the building appears as a flat elevation, but the tower has a totally different silhouette when looking at the northern and southern faces. Large diagonal beams that span a great amount of floors make up the architectural profile of the eastern and western sides of 270 Park Avenue.

The proposed diagram below shows the short ends of the structure, and further illuminates the staggered setback design with floor plates getting narrower with height, eventually culminating with a narrow top and roof parapet.

A diagram that shows the programs inside 270 Park Avenue

The color coding indicates that trading floors will occupy the lower and larger bulk of 270 Park Avenue, with a couple of multi-story atrium spaces near the middle of the floor plates. Above that are large mechanical floors, and from there are several landscaped, two-story amenity levels that are positioned around the first of the setbacks. Most of the regular office floors are in the center of the skyscraper, and are separated by more multi-level mechanical and amenity spaces with high ceilings. The setbacks proliferate further in the uppermost levels of the supertall, culminating in what appears to be a hollow crown.

270 Park Avenue is set to yield about 2.5 million gross square feet of newly built space, and the latest plans indicate an architectural peak 1,425 feet above ground. That would put it 24 feet above One Vanderbilt’s parapet, but about 125 feet below Macklowe’s Tower Fifth, which is featured to the right of 270 Park Avenue in the top rendering.

A completion date for 270 Park Avenue has not been announced yet.

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40 Comments on "First Look at JPMorgan Chase’s Future Supertall Headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, in Midtown East"

  1. First comment? I am honored. This looks ok, but gotta be honest, I expect a bit more from such an iconic firm and landmark location.

  2. David in Bushwick | October 14, 2019 at 8:54 am | Reply

    A hollow crown couldn’t be more accurate.
    The Greed Era continues forever crassly marking New York’s skyline.

    • The “Greed Era”? Exactly when NYC wasn’t greedy? It’s change. NYC needs change! From its infrastructure to its buildings, not evolving is whats making it a city of the past. Seems though people want to be stuck in 20th Century. All these new supertalls represent a step towards the future and leaving NYC’s dated skyline in the past.

      • Starrless and Ringo Black | October 14, 2019 at 12:39 pm | Reply

        I bet that exact comment, word for word, was written somewhere in 1930 talking about the empire state building and the chrysler building.

        Granted, I think this design is pretty disappointing

    • Get over it. Companies and people have been doing that since the beginning of time.

    • Greed is good. It’s what propel humans to succeed. It’s no coincidence that all communal share cultures are primitive and do not advance much beyond the stone age.

    • I am so happy that it got upped from 1322 feet to 1425. And it looks awesome!

    • My guy you do understand that them spending this money to construct this is markedly better for the local economy then for them to just hoard it.

    • Dave, you’re sounding like an embittered “Johnny One Note”. Sorry you didn’t become rich.

  3. Diamonds=Jamie Dimon=OMG

  4. Love it!! David, my love what do you discern from the details?

  5. There have been lots of recent images in the news of the Empire State Building with its redone observatory..nothing else can hold candle to its greatness, especially these ‘new’ buildings..I’m still waiting to be surprised.

  6. Ignored in the article is that the tearing down of the existing 270 Park will be the world’s largest demolished building. The soon-to-be-demolished 270 Park is an architecturally excellent Modern skyscraper, and significantly one of the very few major buildings designed by a female architect. This demolition is unnecessary and is about nothing more than ego and greed – there are no problems with the building that can’t be addressed with an intelligent rehab, and with a Midtown vacancy rate of almost 10% Chase could have expanded elsewhere. What a shame.

    • gurl, you are so dramatic! calm down please
      the current building is very unattractive and surrounded by similar boring pieces so why would anyone miss it? just walk in the area and look up, left or right.

    • The subject was not ignored, it’s been discussed exhaustively here and elsewhere. The demolition is a done deal, get over it. The existing structure is not Penn station, nor is it anywhere near as significant. If you’re an activist in search of a cause this one isn’t it.

    • Chemical bought the old building when they bought Manufacturers Hanover.Keeping the headquarters there when they bought chase (which had a taller building) and Morgan (which had a taller AND decades-newer building) was a step backward.The already-done “intelligent rehab” of 2012 was just running in place and within a few years they were looking at moving.
      This new supertall is a step forward and will be great for the bank and the city.

    • The old building was a pastiche of the clearly superior Seagram Building.

      The old building wasn’t fit for purpose. Having hundreds of employees having to leave the building to purchase lunch resulted in lines of people waiting 10 minutes for an elevator. This was a function of the Union Carbide building being built for the the “Mad Men” era of 25 execs and 25 secretaries occupying a floor and not 120 professionals in the same floor space. Hundreds of people waiting around not working is not good for business.

      Having 8 trading floors covering an entire city block is also something that cannot be replicated in any existing building in the city.

  7. Crazy idea to build more and more skyscrapers and mega buildings in such a tight space. Help!!

  8. Very bland design. I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular but hopefully the glass will be high quality.

    • Watts going to happen to 383 Madison?

      Wonder if the 270 – edifice has been insp. and meets all the requirements a giant core Corp should.?!? .

      In any event, I’m sure , You’ll Have spectacular view nonetheless of the red, white and blue lights.

  9. 1425′ puts it 124′ above 1 Vandy’s parapet and 24′ above its spire.

    Anyway, this is probably about as good as this one was going to get. I feel like we are still setting the stage for the eventual appearance of a megatall, and as such this is a welcome addition to the midtown skyline.

    • Would LOVE to finally see a Megatall in Manhattan! We’ve all heard of the old Midtown “plateau” of 700-800’tall buildings. Now we’ve got these new towers – which I’m glad to see – but they’re forming a new plateau of 1,300-1,500′. I’d like to see at least a 1,800′ tower – roof, not spire, height. But 2,000′ is better.

      • New York needs an observation deck higher up than the CN Tower’s 1465′ Skypod.
        Will any of the new supertalls provide one?

  10. Kind of like it,depending on the angle.. from the front it’s quite striking/unique. However when viewed from the side the diamond is a bit overbearing/simple. IDK

  11. Awesome post!

  12. It’s a brutal addition to the skyline. Just so meh.

  13. NY is in love with the 1950’s derivative modernist boxy tower. Another dull rectangular building with setbacks. Nothing special I’m afraid. When compared with what has been seen in China or Europe recently, the architecture looks very uninteresting and lacks creativity.

    • Nail, meet head….. ding, ding, ding! Sad, Uninspired design. You’ve done better Sir Norman.

    • There is a great need for efficiency and getting carried away with artistic touches interferes with that.The old 270 Park was of the 1950s box school,the new one less so.
      I just hope the space usage and environmental design can match the heroic scale,the diagram seems to show plenty of wasted space.

  14. How quickly people forget how the current JPM headquarters on Madison Avenue was the new building of Bear Stearns they got from the financial crisis and you know what happened to them…corporate greed and deception

  15. Compared to Macklowe’s hideous Tower Fifth, this looks like the Acropolis.

    • Are we sure that that’s Tower Fifth in the top rendering,and not the Vornado/Rudin 350 Park proposal?…they would be in about the same sightline and only one is shown.

  16. Looks Cool to this GlassTechGuy . com # GlassPossible

  17. A bland behemoth. Really, is this the best they can do? Foster and his office have really lost it. Pathetic.

  18. Now I know what sh*t my f’ing late fees are paying for.

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