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 centre 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 official DOB plans survive, the original masonry is unusually well documented, and the current conversion physically rewrites the very envelope Joseph helped build.
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 centre during its 2023 conversion to housing as SoMA at 25 Water Street.
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