JPMorgan Chase’s 383 Madison Ave., the older and shorter brother to the bank’s soaring new headquarters at 270 Park Ave., will wear a handsome new suit to the super-tall skyscraper’s coming-out party, Realty Check has learned.
The Jamie Dimon-led bank is redeveloping 383 Madison inside and out to create a state-of-the-art workplace and a more public-friendly environment, sources said, to complement the Foster + Partners-designed 270 Park, which is expected to welcome employees later this year.
The 383 Madison project’s most dramatic exterior change will be an entirely new facade on the 47-story, octagonal tower to replace its granite panels with more glass and much larger windows, according to a rendering exclusively obtained by Realty Check.
It will be a striking departure from the currently drab structure, which New York magazine in 2002 called “lugubrious,” “dressed nearly head to toe in dour granite” and “stiff to the point of pass-out boredom.”
The 1,388-foot-tall 270 Park Ave. dwarfs 383 Madison by more than 600 feet. The older tower, which has served as the nation largest bank’s temporary headquarters, was opened in 2001 and acquired by JPMorgan when it bought defunct Bear Stearns in 2008.
Other major improvements coming to 383 Madison are a remodeled lobby to generate better access and flow for pedestrians, especially for those using a new, enclosed MTA entrance to Grand Central Terminal.
Ground-floor walls will be removed to create open-air public passageways and to widen the Vanderbilt Avenue and East 47th Streets sidewalks from four feet to 19 feet.
Additionally, a new entrance will be created on the Madison Avenue side where old storefronts will be upgraded. The multiple sidewalk-level improvements are designed to synergize with a 10,000 square-foot public plaza at the entrance to 270 Park Avenue that will have green space, seating, public art and a cafe open to all.
Inside 383 Madison’s 1.3 million square feet, bank employees will enjoy refurbished work floors with 360-degree skyline views, cutting-edge technology and furniture, and a modern food hall for tenants with a focus on healthy menu choices.
The project is expected to take two years.
The two towers will eventually hold most of JPMorgan Chase’s 16,000 employees in Midtown.
Architectural firms working on the 383 Madison project include Foster + Partners, Gensler and SOM. The lobby changes require city approval because it includes a privately-owned public space (POPS).
