New Yorkers have long been accustomed to the seemingly blink-of-an-eye shifts in the city's built environment. Storefronts go dark, old buildings vanish as skyscrapers and mega-developments go up. Call it the (dark) magic cycle of 21st century urban planning.
But in what might be the greatest sleight of hand yet, Chase is about to make an entire 707-foot-tall tower in the heart of Midtown disappear (albeit systematically, of course.) After applying for work permits last year, the company has been following through on the demolition on 270 Park Avenue, a 52-story black and silver-ribbed office building on Park Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets, also known as the old Union Carbide building.
Confirming what has been apparent to passersby for several weeks, Andrew Rudansky, a spokesperson for the Department of Buildings, told Gothamist on Tuesday, “The developers have fully appraised the Department of their plans to demolish the building in a safe and controlled manner."
From the start, the owner's desire to dismantle 270 Park, which is now on its way to becoming the tallest building in the world to be intentionally razed, strained credulity among architecture buffs and urban planners. Hailed as a monument to Modernism, the tower was no dusty relic. It had been renovated several times over the years, and in 2011, it earned a LEED Platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. But in the end, Chase, a modern banking giant, expressed an old-fashioned need for a centralized headquarters. The old building accommodated 6,000 of Chase's employees. Its planned 70-story replacement tower is expected to contain 15,000 workers and will be roughly twice the height of the old building, owing to the purchase of air rights from nearby properties permitted under the 2017 rezoning of East Midtown.
Over the last year, obituaries for 270 Park have poured in. New York Magazine's Justin Davidson called it "gracious and vibrant, the incarnation of white-collar America," while Curbed's Alexandra Lange noted that the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed building was among those that "define postwar New York style, a style that, when repackaged in television shows like Mad Men, seems plenty modern enough for these times."
But for all the praise it received from architecture critics, 270 Park lacked the recognition that mattered most: the longstanding request to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate it as a landmark was denied in 2018.
The latest and perhaps most scathing critique came last week from Roberta Gratz, an urban activist, journalist and author of several books, including the Battle For Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs.
"By no logic—design, environmental, planning, zoning, landfill capacity—does demolition of 270 Park make sense, especially when at least some in the architectural community are trying to advance sustainable design," she wrote in an essay for the New York Review of Books. "The planned destruction of 270 Park exemplifies how a vital aspect of the urbanism on which this city has evolved and excelled over decades is now being dangerously eroded."
She added: "I weep for my city; it is committing urban suicide."
In a telephone interview with Gothamist, Gratz said the piece—which attacks real estate interests for upending the relatively organic (and democratic) process by which New York City's neighborhoods were once created—speaks for itself.
But her ears seemed to prick up at the mention of the building's demolition process.
"Is any of it being recycled? If so what? This is not a wreck of a building," she said, adding, "This a clear environmental issue. There's no limit anymore and no sense from City Hall or the City Council or City Planning that any limit is desirable. It's open season."
A spokesperson for Chase initially declined to comment on the demolition, simply saying there was nothing new to report.
Late Thursday, the company issued a statement professing its commitment to sustainability, saying that "minimizing the environmental impact is a key priority for our company as we move forward with this project. As of the end of September last year, we diverted over 90 percent of the demolition material from landfills to be recycled or otherwise put to use. When finished, we expect to surpass LEED’s highest standard for demolition."
Earlier this year, the company said it expected to complete demolition sometime in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The DOB, sensitive to the public's concerns following the death of a woman from falling debris near Times Square last month, said in its statement that 270 Park Avenue "can expect multiple unannounced proactive safety inspections from the Department to ensure that ongoing demolition operations are complying with the approved plans, and all required safety measures are being implemented.”
In the end, the protests were too little too late. Although Gratz alarmingly noted that the redevelopment of 270 Park has fallen off the public's radar, Michele Bogart, an art professor at Stony Brook University, said that many mid-20th century buildings have over the years been torn down without as much resistance or commentary.
While the loss of certain iconic buildings and storefronts stir outrage among New Yorkers, "Most people don't really draw that many distinctions between glass skyscrapers, especially along Park Avenue," she observed, adding, "In general, people don't know that much."
Which suggests that, possibly aside from the moment when it opened, 270 Park has probably never been more famous and beloved than it is right now, like a forgotten celebrity whose full appreciation comes posthumously.
Through the course of the campaign to save 270 Park, one of the interesting facts unearthed is that it was one of a handful of tall buildings in New York City credited to a female architect, Natalie de Blois, who was considered the most prominent woman in her field during her time.
It was news to many, including Bogart.
"I didn't know it had been designed by a female architect," she said, but having seen it reported several times, she now figured, “It becomes a hook to save it.”
UPDATE: This story has been updated with a new statement from a Chase spokesperson.
