4 New York Plaza / Manufacturers Hanover Operations Center (now SoMA at 25 Water Street)
Joseph helped build a 408,000-brick banking-computer fortress whose original 1966 DOB plans still survive in the Municipal Archives; today the same structure has been transformed into 1,320 homes.
The former Manufacturers Hanover operations center during its 2023 conversion to housing as SoMA at 25 Water Street.
Current view · 2023 · Photo: SnowFire · CC BY 4.0 · Source
Why this project matters
- Project identity
- Verified
- Kelly connection
- Family source
- Masonry scope
- Strong
Rita’s list
Transcription: Manufacturers Hanover Bldg. — 1967
Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record
KM-051
1 of two
“Manufacturers Hanover Bldg. — 1967”
The Municipal Archives indexes 4 New York Plaza as New Building application 91/66 by Carson, Lundin & Shaw. City records document its conversion into 1,320 apartments, including 330 income-restricted units.
The south wall of 4 New York Plaza used more than 408,000 bricks. Period records even preserve the names of workers John Welby, Sam Silver and Charles La Senna. Built as a vast mainframe-era operations center, the building is now being remade as roughly 1,320 apartments, including income-restricted homes. Rita's entry links individual craftspeople to a wall large enough to define a skyline—and to a building still changing with the city.
What Kelly did here
Family source
Strong
Very likely the massive exterior brick wall package—especially brick veneer/wall construction—plus associated masonry backup and CMU. The south wall alone contained more than 408,000 bricks.
This scope is recorded as strong, not documented. It is a disciplined reading of the building and the trade practice of the period, not a contract-level record of Kelly’s work.
The construction team
- 01Owner / client
Manufacturers Hanover Trust
- 02Architect
Carson, Lundin & Shaw
- 03GC / construction manager
GC not yet identified
What happened to it
Converted to residential
The former 4 New York Plaza has been transformed into SoMA at 25 Water Street with 1,320 apartments, including 330 income-restricted units, plus a ten-story overbuild and major envelope changes.
Sources
7 citedOpen →
- 01
- 02skyscrapercenter.com
24929
- 03legacy.com
david larson obituary
- 04architecturalrecord.com
17512 in manhattan cetraruddy transforms an aging office building into much need
- 05nyc.gov
DOB Drawings Finding Aid REC0074
- 06comptroller.nyc.gov
office to residential conversions
- 07manhattanbp.nyc.gov
mbp levine celebrates largest office to residential conversion in u s history
- SnowFire · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · 2023-08-17
The former Manufacturers Hanover operations center during its 2023 conversion to housing as SoMA at 25 Water Street.
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