Ted Weiss Federal Building
The Ted Weiss Federal Building, also known as the Foley Square Federal Building, is a 34-story United States federal building at 290 Broadway in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1994, the building was developed by Linpro New York Realty and designed by Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum, with Raquel Ramati Associates as the design consultant and Tishman Construction as the general contractor. The building is named for Ted Weiss, a U.S. representative from New York.
The building is divided into two parts: an office tower and a three-story special function facility. The base of the Weiss Federal Building contains a colonnade facing north toward Duane Street, as well as several works of art that relate to the adjacent African Burial Ground National Monument. The facade of the structure is enclosed with Deer Isle granite. The 3rd through 29th floors are typical office floors, which contain offices for the Internal Revenue Service, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Government Accountability Office. Additionally, the National Park Service manages a visitor center for the African Burial Ground National Monument at the base of the building.
In December 1987, the General Services Administration was authorized to construct the Moynihan U.S. Courthouse and the Weiss Federal Building on two sites owned by the government of New York City. The GSA and the New York City government signed an agreement in March 1988, but the plans were delayed for several years. The GSA finally awarded $700 million in contracts for the two projects in March 1991, and construction began shortly afterward. After human remains were found at the site during an excavation in October 1991, the building's construction was temporarily halted, and a proposed four-story pavilion was eliminated from the plans. The building opened in 1994 as the Federal Office Building and was renamed for Weiss in 2003.
Site
The Ted Weiss Federal Building is at 290 Broadway in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It occupies the western section of block 154, a city block bounded by Broadway to the west, Duane Street to the north, Elk Street to the east, and Reade Street to the south. The land lot is L-shaped, running along Broadway and Duane Street. Covering a total area of, the lot measures along Broadway and along Duane Street. The city block was formerly bisected by Manhattan and Republican alleys.The sidewalks along the perimeter of the building are made of colored admixture concrete that aligns with the building module. Exterior landscaping consists of tree plantings along the curb line on Duane and Reade streets, with custom-designed tree grates.
Nearby buildings and locations include the Broadway–Chambers Building and 287 Broadway to the southwest; the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building to the north; the African Burial Ground National Monument to the east; the Surrogate's Courthouse to the southeast; and 49 Chambers and 280 Broadway to the south. The building is also located within two historic districts. It is part of the African Burial Ground and the Commons Historic District, which the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated as a city landmark district in 1993. The building is also part of the African Burial Ground Historic District, a National Historic Landmark District.
Previous uses
Prior to the settlement of New Amsterdam in the 17th century, the site was largely a ravine that drained into Collect Pond in the northeast. The surrounding area contains evidence of the interments of individuals, mostly of African descent. Interments may have begun as early as the 17th century. These corpses were part of a cemetery called the Negros Burial Ground, which operated until the 1790s. During the next two centuries, historians were aware of the burial ground's existence but had believed that the corpses were destroyed. The section of the Negros Burial Ground between Duane and Reade streets, east of Broadway, was initially lower than the surrounding ground. The land was raised by up to, and subsequent buildings' foundations were relatively shallow, thus preserving this section of the cemetery.Much of the block had been developed with wood-and-brick houses in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These structures were gradually converted for commercial use in the 1820s and 1830s, and larger commercial buildings had been built on the site by the 1850s. The Broadway portion of the site had contained several 10- to 16-story buildings, which were built in the late 1890s and demolished in the 1960s and 1970s. The commercial buildings on Reade Street were also razed around 1970. All of the structures on Broadway and Reade Street had been demolished to make way for a large municipal building that was never built. Some of the commercial buildings on Duane Street remained until 1991, when they were demolished to make way for the current edifice.
Architecture
The Ted Weiss Federal Building was designed by Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum, with Raquel Ramati Associates as the design consultant. In addition, Tishman Construction was the general contractor. John T. Livingston of the Linpro Company developed the building for the General Services Administration. The Ted Weiss Federal Building is designed in a modernized Federal style with postmodern elements. It measures 34 stories tall and reaches above ground level.Form and facade
The building is divided into two parts: an office tower and a three-story special function facility. The office building contains 30 office stories, two mechanical penthouse levels above grade, and two parking levels below grade.The base of the Weiss Federal Building was planned with a four-story, colonnade on Duane Street, facing north toward the Javits Federal Building. The design of the colonnade was simplified during the design process. Daniel Dolan of HOK, the primary architect, objected to the modification, saying that the simplified colonnade would resemble a "shopping mall skylight". The high-rise structure is enclosed with Deer Isle granite and a pre-fabricated, panelized, cladding system with punched aluminum windows. There is a curved colonnade on the facade below the roof. Above the roof is an open barrel-vaulted cage, placed atop a granite-sheathed, box-shaped penthouse housing the mechanical systems for the building.
Interior
As built, the building contains a double-height lobby covering. In addition, there is a restaurant with an attached dining terrace. The underground garage is variously cited as containing 163 or 260 parking spots. The structure contains 16 passenger elevators and two service elevators.The mezzanine level of the office building includes a fitness center and central mechanical room. The mechanical room contains three chillers that each are capable of 1,300 tons of air conditioning. The 3rd through 29th floors are typical office floors complete with access flooring and nine foot ceilings. A conference center is located on the 30th floor with multi-story meeting and conference facilities.
Artwork
A rule for all new Federal buildings stipulated that 0.5 percent of the building's estimated construction cost be set aside for "Art-in-Architecture" projects. The building houses several works of art, many of which relate to the neighboring African Burial Ground National Monument.An untitled mosaic by Roger Brown, next to the African Burial Ground's Outdoor Memorial, was installed on the facade in 1994. The work is a glass mosaic measuring high and wide. The top of the mosaic contains depictions of the Brooklyn Bridge, the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, and the Empire State Building. Below these structures is a grid of human faces, which become skulls toward the bottom of the mosaic. Brown painted the image on canvas, which Italian artisans then used to create glass mosaics. Also on the facade is Clyde Lynds's sculpture America Song, installed in 1995 just outside the building's entrance. America Song measures tall, wide, and deep; it is made of cast concrete with fiber-optic cables that are illuminated at night. Sandblasted on stone below the sculpture is a poem by an anonymous African poet: "I want to be free/Want to be free,/Rainbow' round my shoulder/Wings on my feet". The GSA gave Lynds a design award for the artwork in 1997.
The building's lobby contains Africa Rising by Barbara Chase-Riboud, a bronze sculpture installed in 1998. The sculpture is themed to the struggles of slaves in the U.S. and measures tall, wide, and deep. The lobby also contains Renewal, a silk-screened mural created in 1998 by Tomie Arai, which measures wide. It contains overlapping images relating to 18th- and early 19th-century American history, designed in a style that is intended to evoke the process of archeological excavation. The New Ring Shout, by the team of sculptor Houston Conwill, architect Joseph De Pace, and poet Estella Conwill Majozo, was installed in 1994 on the floor of the rotunda. This artwork, named after the historical ring shout dance, consists of a terrazzo-and-polished brass circle with various patterns, symbols, texts, and languages.
History
A skyscraper for the eastern side of Broadway, between Duane and Reade streets, had been proposed in 1931 but was never built. By September 1987, the New York City government was planning to build a high-rise structure on the site, which was being used as a parking lot. The city government was contemplating developing the site for use by a private tenant or the United States federal government. To make way for such a development, the New York City Planning Commission was considering closing Manhattan and Republican alleys.Planning
The GSA was authorized to construct two structures near Foley Square, Manhattan, as part of an omnibus spending bill signed by U.S. president Ronald Reagan in December 1987. The GSA would erect a courthouse east of the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, as well as an office building five blocks away at 290 Broadway, south of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building. The structures would have a combined, providing space for overcrowded federal agencies in Lower Manhattan. Private developers would construct both buildings, and the GSA would lease the buildings for 30 years, after which it would take ownership. The United States Congress provided no funding for either development; instead, the developers would have to raise money on their own. The New York City government, which owned both sites, would lease at 290 Broadway at a reduced rate in exchange for giving the land to the federal government.The GSA and the New York City government signed an agreement in March 1988, allowing the development to proceed. In June 1988, the GSA issued a request for proposals, sending brochures with the project's specifications to over 100 developers worldwide. Both structures would be developed under design–build contracts, wherein the same firm was responsible for design and construction. Additionally, the designs of both buildings had to complement other structures in the neighborhood. Several GSA committees reviewed the first sets of designs in detail. The GSA had planned to select developers for both projects in January 1989, but it had not made a selection for either site by that February. U.S. senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a supporter of the new development, criticized the delays. By the middle of 1989, the GSA had selected three development teams as finalists for the two projects. The finalists sent their designs to a GSA advisory group, which only provided general feedback on whether the designs met the GSA's requirements.
To expedite the construction process, the federal government proposed acquiring the land through a "friendly condemnation", in which the city would not object to its property being acquired through eminent domain. The alternative, wherein the city government would sell the sites for a nominal fee, would require review by various agencies and would take up to a year. In November 1989, U.S. president George H. W. Bush signed a modified agreement to allow the condemnation of the sites. Under the agreement, the developers of the respective buildings would compensate the city government. At two hearings in September 1990, residents of the nearby Lower East Side neighborhood expressed their opposition to the project. The next month, the GSA received a $797 million loan from the Federal Financing Bank for the two projects. The GSA was legally required to seek new bids because it had significantly changed the terms of financing, but then-GSA chief Richard Austin did not seek new bids, citing an "emergency" need for the two structures. The city government received $104 million for the two sites in December 1990.