JPMorgan's New HQ Is a 'Mountainous Lump' Along NYC Skyline

Oliver Wainwright is out with a harsh review of JPMorgan Chase's new headquarters in Manhattan. Writing for the Guardian, Wainwright's take is unrelenting from the start, describing the 60-story building as a "mountainous lump" that "galumphs its way up above the others, climbing in bulky steps with the look of several towers strapped together, forming a dark, looming mass." In his view, the structure is a "brawny, bronzed behemoth that now lords it over the city with a brutish swagger." The building is the work of Foster + Partners, led by Norman Foster, and it reportedly cost about $4 billion.

Wainwright's central beef with the 1,388-foot-tall building located at 270 Park Ave., which Business Chief calls "the workplace of the future," is its extravagance—not just in scale, but in its materials. It uses an "obscene" amount of steel, per the Guardian: nearly 105,000 tons, which is 60% more steel than the Empire State Building, despite having fewer floors. The design also features massive steel columns at street level and what Wainwright describes as "privately owned" public spaces that don't exactly feel welcoming.

Inside, the building is similarly "colossal," with a nearly 80-foot-high lobby, a food court with 19 restaurants, and amenities ranging from a hair salon to a medical clinic. JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon is determined to end hybrid work, and the building is seen as a tool to make that happen. Wainwright notes that the new tower replaced the Union Carbide Building, a 52-story structure that had been renovated for energy efficiency as recently as 2012.

A change in zoning rules allowed JPMorgan to buy up air rights and build bigger than ever. Similar skyscrapers are likely to follow, with this building "merely the first of a whole new breed of steroidal supertalls," per the Guardian. Not everyone is totally repulsed by the enormous structure. "I wouldn't call it an eyesore. It just looks very different," one local who can see the building from his apartment in Queens tells the New York Times. He concedes, however, that "if you're looking at the New York City skyline, it looks totally out of place."