383 Madison Avenue

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Bear Stearns World Headquarters)
Jump to: navigation, search
383 Madison at night

383 Madison is a JP Morgan owned office building in New York City located at 383 Madison Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, it is 755 ft (230 m) tall with 47 floors. It was completed in 2001 and opened in 2002, at which time it was, by some reports, the 88th tallest building in the world. The building is approximately 110 000 rentable square meters (1,200,000 sq ft). It housed the world headquarters for Bear Stearns until its purchase by JPMorgan Chase.

Note the glass "crown" at top

The building has an octagonal tower that rises out of a rectangular base to a 20 m (70 ft) crown made of glass which is illuminated at night.

The building's design has proven unpopular with some critics. New York said, "This is a building you wouldn't want to get anywhere near at a cocktail party. Dressed nearly head to toe in dour granite, and geometrically proper, it's stiff to the point of pass-out boredom. Out of character with SOM's (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's) current work, the design recalls the firm's unfortunate postmodern interlude a decade ago." [1]

A 72-story tower proposed by G Ware Travelstead for the site during the 1980s was never built. The building (also being referred as Travelstead Tower [2]) was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

The building changed hands in 2008 during JP Morgan's takeover of Bear Stearns. On their second-quarter 2008 conference call, JP Morgan estimated the building's value at $1.1—1.4 billion.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 40°45′20″N 73°58′38″W / 40.755585°N 73.977089°W / 40.755585; -73.977089