Renovation work is moving along on 383 Madison Avenue, a 47-story office skyscraper in Midtown East, Manhattan. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill along with Foster + Partners and Gensler, the project will re-clad the 755-foot-tall structure’s façade and revamp its 1.2 million square feet of office space to serve the banking investment division of JPMorgan Chase. Formerly known as the Bear Stearns Building, the tower was originally designed by David Childs of SOM and completed in 2001. The property is bounded by Madison and Vanderbilt Avenues and East 46th and East 47th Streets, and stands directly south of the financial institution’s recently completed headquarters at 270 Park Avenue.
A hoist has been assembled on the eastern elevation of the skyscraper facing Vanderbilt Avenue, which has been gated off to vehicular traffic. Façade removal is underway, with the top two floors of the multi-story podium stripped of their windows and beige granite paneling.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
The wraparound sidewalk shed is decorated with the art piece Bonus, a series of colorful works by Jeanette Mundt through the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs’s City Canvas initiative.
383 Madison Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
The rendering in the main photo looks west at 383 Madison Avenue and 270 Park Avenue, previewing the new façade that will match the aesthetic of the two skyscrapers. The exterior will be composed of a glass curtain wall with a bronze-hued metal framework, creating cohesion with the adjacent 1,389-foot JPMorgan Tower, also from Foster + Partners. Green terraces are visible atop the podium setbacks.
The following street-level perspective of the northeast corner of the property shows the new public plaza that will span between the properties, as well as the modifications to 383 Madison Avenue’s lower levels. The lobby will be pushed back 19 feet from Vanderbilt Avenue, set within a corner cutout with a coffered ceiling.
383 Madison Avenue’s northeastern entrance. Rendering courtesy of JPMorgan.
Foster + Partners is also redesigning the building’s interiors, which will include a modernized food hall and remodeled lobby. The latter will require city approval due to the presence of a privately owned public space (POPS) for the entrance to Grand Central Madison.
JPMorgan Chase acquired 383 Madison Avenue in 2008 following the collapse of hedge fund Bear Sterns. The street-level entrance to Grand Central Madison at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 47th Street will remain accessible to the public.
383 Madison Avenue’s transformation is slated for completion in the winter of 2027.
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More money than they know what to do with..
Getting 25 years of service life out of a building facade seems very short. Maybe the original design was performing so poorly that LL97 is going to sock them with excessive fines. Or maybe this is conspicuous consumption on an immense scale?
This recladding has nothing to do with failure or performance. It’s being done to update the architecture and to compliment 270 Park, turning the two into a sort of campus with a unifying design and aesthetic feel.
Whether that’s conspicuous or wasteful is in the eye of beholder… and Jamie Dimon’s pocketbook.
But it’s not Jamie Dimon’s pocketbook. It’s the shareholders money. I think he’s enjoying this too much and if was his own money he would not make this investment
Really?
I’m sure the inside needs renovating, but the outside was better and more sophisticated before.
A. Not “banking investment division”; “investment banking division.” B. Not “Bear Sterns”; “Bear Stearns.” C. Bear Stearns was not a “hedge fund”; it was a major investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that famously collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis becoming the first major institution to fail, leading to a government-backed emergency sale to JPMorgan Chase in March 2008. How quickly people forget.
While the existing exterior is not my personal aesthetic it does seem to be executed quite nicely. I hope this project isn’t just about looks…
Call this what you want, but an aesthetic improvement it is not!
There is no need for cohesion with 270–its Manhattan, full of different skyscraper designs. Not that the original facade was anything special, but more glass is lame.
A simple question not clearly answered: Why?
Tweedledee and Tweedledum..maybe a sky bridge between the two buildings would help, but since that would entail closing off the street for a chunk of time, it would never happen.
Exterior facade looked better before with stone.. I understand they’re trying to make a campus though and opening up the bottom.
a refined stone facade was a lot better than a non descriptvive generic glass standard facade…..glass glass glass only glass again ….poor world
The very wealthy keep ruining stuff.
That could be a headline summing up this entire century.
A campus, like what Comcast has created in Phila.
Completely unnecessary downgrade.
This just feels wrong on so many levels.
Interesting how it’s going to match 270 Park Avenue’s facade. We’ll see how this turns out.
Love IT! Great improvement over the old dated design, look ’80’s not 2000’s. Happy all the interest and banking fees are going towards something worth wild.
Kind of hilarious how apoplectic everybody’s getting over losing an okayish but pretty mundane pomo facade. I have no doubt the new cladding will look fantastic. Focus on something more important.
I’m pretty sure the “more important” in this case is the profligacy.
Who gives a rip? It’s Jamie Dimon’s wallet. If he wants to “waste” money, let him.
This project will employ hundreds of construction workers, so this “unnecessary aesthetic uograde” at the very least will put income in the pockets of all working people and businesses involved.
As for the current facade, people need to realize the cladding isn’t just going to be hauled off and slid into a landfill. There’s a great deal of value in the facade elements coming down and there’s no doubt value will be reclaimed from them. This much stone will be salvaged and sold. Same for the high-end glazing. And the metal will be sold for scrap.
So this explains what happens for a “RECLADDING”… the entire building is vacated of thousands of employees and a gut renovation of the interiors… just to install NEW WINDOWS?!
Frankly, I’m surprised and mildly shocked by the negativity of a majority of replies so far. The new facade enhances 270’s aesthetic. Todays architectural glass is more than just plain old single pane window glass – the invoice(s) would shock you. I think the end result will look and feel value added.
agree.
most of these losers are clueless keyboard warriors
I wonder if the stone could be recycled, even has paving?
Foster, SOM and Gensler could have suggested a multiuse solution. Retail , office at the base. Hotel/ condo on top. But that’s a developer thinking not a wealth management corporate banking company.
There are a lot of clunkers out there, this was not one of them. What a waste.
WHYYYYY smh…I liked this building as it was. Did not need a dang revamp! Ridiculous
They’ve already confirmed they are closing the public entrance to the train PERMANENTLY MARCH 2nd. So they lied to get their way of course.
This building was performing very poorly from day 1. It seems like Bear Stearns did everything on a scrappy basis. Poor noise insulation, poor quality materials, high building sway in high winds. poor heating and cooling, budget carpeting. Everything was cheap. I say this as one of the many who spent time across the old 270 Park and the much newer 383.