A Life Built in New York
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Tour 7

Corporate New York

Banks, headquarters and skyline landmarks trace the changing architecture of corporate power.

6 stops · 1960–1987 · 6 identified

Thematic. Each stop links to the full project record, where the sources, construction team and archival evidence are set out.

One Chase Manhattan Plaza, now 28 Liberty Street, photographed in 2007.
Current view · 2007 · Photo: Michael · CC BY 2.0
One Chase Manhattan Plaza, now 28 Liberty Street, photographed in 2007.
Current view · 2007 · Photo: Michael · CC BY 2.0
01 · 1960 · Manhattan, New York

One Chase Manhattan Plaza (now 28 Liberty Street)

A major postwar turning point: corporate Modernism replacing the fine-grained old Financial District — exactly the New York cycle the Fran Lebowitz story captures.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Probable

Why this stop — A near-perfect New York lifecycle: the city altered its street grid to help build a modern corporate superblock, and half a century later landmarked the result.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: Chase Manhattan Bank — 1960

Transcription: Chase Manhattan Bank — 1960

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →
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
02 · 1967 · Manhattan, New York

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.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Strong

Why this stop — The official DOB plans survive, the original masonry is unusually well documented, and the current conversion physically rewrites the very envelope Joseph helped build.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: Manufacturers Hanover Bldg. — 1967

Transcription: Manufacturers Hanover Bldg. — 1967

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →
The Colgate-Palmolive Building at 300 Park Avenue between East 49th and 50th Streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City was completed in 1955 and was designed by Emery Roth & Sons in the…. Photographed in 2012; a current view, not a construction-period photograph.
Current view · 2012 · Photo: Beyond My Ken · CC BY-SA 4.0
03 · 1980 · Midtown Manhattan, New York

Barclays Bank of New York — 300 Park Avenue alteration

A repeat Barclays client, explicitly labeled an alteration.

Project identity
Very strong
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Probable

Why this stop — An alteration project inside a prominent Park Avenue office building during Barclays Bank of New York’s expansion era.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: Barclay Bank Alteration — 1980

Transcription: Barclay Bank Alteration — 1980

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →
85 Broad Street in the Financial District, Manhattan. Photographed in 2026; a current view, not a construction-period photograph.
Current view · 2026 · Photo: Kidfly182 · CC BY 4.0
04 · 1981 · Manhattan / New York City

85 Broad Street — Goldman Sachs global headquarters

Joseph’s 1981 entry places him on Goldman Sachs’s new 85 Broad Street headquarters above the archaeological remains of New Amsterdam.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Strong

Why this stop — CMU/block partitions, shafts, service/core walls and masonry backup are now directly supported by the headquarters improvement inventory, which explicitly names masonry in occupant areas. The visible red-brown granite-aggregate exterior still should not be assigned to Kelly without the facade/subcontract records.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: 85 Broad Street — 1981

Transcription: 85 Broad Street — 1981

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →
The Lipstick Building at 53rd Street and Third Avenue, photographed in 2007.
Current view · 2007 · Photo: Melanie Lazarow from Brunswick, Australia · CC BY 2.0
05 · 1984 · Manhattan, New York

53rd at Third / Lipstick Building

Joseph worked on the Lipstick Building while it was rising; two decades later Bernard Madoff's firm operated from the same tower, which is now being reused in large part by Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Strong

Why this stop — One of the archive's richest three-act stories: exact-period construction photographs, a defining New York financial scandal, and a major medical institution's reuse of much of the same tower.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: 53rd Street at Third Avenue — 1984

Transcription: 53rd Street at Third Avenue — 1984

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →
One Court Square in Long Island City, Queens. Photographed in 2023; a current view, not a construction-period photograph.
Current view · 2023 · Photo: Kidfly182 · CC BY-SA 4.0
06 · 1987 · Long Island City, Queens, New York

One Court Square / Citicorp Building

Rita's list says 'City Square.' The building was almost certainly Citicorp's One Court Square.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Probable

Why this stop — A landmark Queens skyline story — and the family transcription itself contains a charming almost-right place name, 'City Square' instead of Court Square.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: Citicorp at City Square — 1987

Transcription: Citicorp at City Square — 1987

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →

Banks, headquarters and skyline landmarks trace the changing architecture of corporate power.

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