41c. Wall Street Historic District

Location: Roughly bounded by Cedar Street, Maiden Lane, Pearl Street, Bridge Street, South William Street, Greenwich Street, and Trinity Place.
Built: N/A
Architect: N/A
National Register Number: 07000063
Listed: February 2, 2007
Visited: December 30, 2007



An art deco hypodermic needle. According to Emporis, the American International Building (Clinton & Russell and Holton & George, 1932) is tallest building in downtown Manhattan, the fifth tallest in New York City, sixteenth tallest in the United States, and forty-seventh worldwide. One short block away from Wall Street, it is nonetheless on the periphery of the neighborhood. Its entrance on the Pine Street side is typically in shadow, and save for a lone security guard who makes me kinda skittish about taking pictures of the place, curiously free of activity, even in the middle of a weekday. Should they re-open their observation deck, I suspect that would change, but it'll never happen. Just looking at those gorgeous but relatively unprotected decks that ring the top gives me the willikers, and you gotta figure the building's current tenant, the country's biggest insurance company, must feel the same way.