375 Pearl Street

375 Pearl Street, also known as the Verizon Building and One Brooklyn Bridge Plaza, is a 32-story telephone switching building at the Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The building, which appears windowless but has several 3-foot-wide slits (0.91 m) (some with glass) running up the building, is featured in most photos of the bridge from the Brooklyn side. Verizon operations include a small DMS-100 switching system and a Switching Control Center System. The building's CLLI code, its identification in the telecommunications industry, is NYCMNYPS.^[3]

As of 2016, the building is undergoing a renovation.^[4]

History

When it opened in 1975 for New York Telephone Company, New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger decried it as the “most disturbing” of the phone company’s new switching centers because it “overwhelms the Brooklyn Bridge towers, thrusts a residential neighborhood into shadow and sets a tone of utter banality.”^[5]

Verizon building as seen from Brooklyn Bridge, under renovation in March 2016

The building played an important part in recovering service to the police department in the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In September 2007 it was announced that Taconic Partners bought the building from Verizon. Verizon will lease back floors 8 through 10.^[6] Taconic bought the 1.098-million-square-foot building (102,000 m²) for $172.05 million, which amounted to $185 a foot when property was selling in Manhattan for $500 a foot. Other appeals of the building are its 16- to 17-foot (5.2 m) ceilings and 39,000-square-foot (3,600 m²) floor plans as well as the naming rights. The Verizon logo currently tops the building.

Taconic had announced plans to dramatically change in the facade in which a curtain wall designed by Cook & Fox is to be built. The New York Times in reporting the news wrote:

Paul E. Pariser, co-chief executive of Taconic, said a reporter had told him: 'Mr. Pariser, you have a challenge cut out for you — turning a G.E. dishwasher into an office building.' I like that challenge.

In early June 2011, Sabey Data Center Properties, the largest privately held developer, owner, and operator of data centers in the United States purchased the deed in lieu of foreclosure from M&T bank for $120 million, considerably less than what Taconic had paid a few years earlier. Sabey intends to redevelop the property as a major Manhattan data center and technology building. The building is now referred to as Intergate.Manhattan.^[7]

John Sabey, president of the company,^[8] said they were excited to be part of lower Manhattan’s “ascendance as a world capital for data-based enterprises of all types.” He said Intergate.Manhattan would appeal to “new scientific, academic and medical research centers” in addition to data center tenants.

“The largest areas of growth for data centers are in the financial, internet-based service and networking, insurance, and healthcare sectors, particularly in life sciences research,” said Sabey. “Mission critical computing in these areas demands varying levels of availability and latency sensitivities. Indeed, the most infinitesimal delay in a single computer operation can be harmful. For these enterprises and for multi-national companies originating in Europe and looking to establish a North American data center location, New York is typically a prime choice.” ^[9]

On April 3, 2012, the UK's online version of the Daily Telegraph showed 375 Pearl Street ranked 20th in a series of "the ugliest buildings in the world".^[10]

See also

• 33 Thomas Street
• Verizon Building

References

Notes

External links

• Media related to 375 Pearl Street at Wikimedia Commons