Intergate Manhattan

Project Description

Prior to AIC performing our renovations to the facade at 375 Pearl Street formally known as the Verizon building, New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger had decried the old facade 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.” It was also ranked #20 in a series of the "ugliest buildings of the world." Our job was to transform this structure by demolishing the upper 14 floors of the facade which had interior floor exposure and to provide a new infill of large vision glass. To frame the wall, and to separate the floors custom metal fins were added to clearly distinguish the new facade from the old. One of the largest challenges on this project was working around diagonal wind bracing which restricted ability to send the window panels to the exterior. To accomplish this, AIC installed a monorail system to travel the panels along the exterior facade, and set the panels from two-tier hanging scaffolds.