United Nations Secretariat Building

United Nations Secretariat Building
The United Nations Secretariat Building in New York City
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Office
Location	International territory in Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates	40°44′56″N 73°58′05″W / 40.74889°N 73.96806°W / 40.74889; -73.96806
Construction started	September 14, 1948 (1948-09-14)
Completed	June 1951
Opening	August 21, 1950
Owner	United Nations
Height
Roof	505 ft (154 m)
Technical details
Floor count	39
Design and construction
Architect(s)	United Nations Headquarters Board of Design (Wallace Harrison, Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, etc.)
Main contractor	George A. Fuller Company Turner Construction Walsh Construction Company Slattery Contracting Company
References
[1][2]

The United Nations Secretariat Building is a skyscraper at the headquarters of the United Nations in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It contains the offices of the United Nations Secretariat, the executive organ of the United Nations (UN). The building, designed in the International Style, is 505 ft (154 m) tall with 39 above-ground stories. It was designed by a group of architects led by Wallace Harrison. Although the building is located within the United States, the site is under UN jurisdiction, so the building is exempt from some local regulations.

The Secretariat Building is designed as a rectangular slab measuring 72 by 287 ft (22 by 87 m); it is oriented from north to south and is connected with other UN headquarters buildings. The wider western and eastern elevations of the facade are glass curtain walls, while the narrower northern and southern elevations are made of marble. The Secretariat Building has 889,000 sq ft (82,600 m²) of space. There are press offices, staff rooms, and other functions on the lower stories. The Secretariat offices are placed on the upper stories, which were originally arranged in a modular layout. The building also features various pieces of artwork. The building's style has inspired the construction of other glass curtain wall buildings in Manhattan.

The design process for the United Nations headquarters formally began in February 1947, and a groundbreaking ceremony for the Secretariat Building occurred on September 14, 1948. Staff started moving into the building on August 21, 1950, and it was completed in June 1951. Within a decade, the Secretariat Building was overcrowded, prompting the UN to build additional office space nearby. The building started to deteriorate in the 1980s due to a lack of funding, worsened by the fact that it did not meet modern New York City building codes. UN officials considered renovating the building by the late 1990s, but the project was deferred for several years. The Secretariat Building was renovated starting in 2010 and reopened in phases from July to December 2012.