The tower is tiered on three sides, forming the classic wedding-cake style outline emblematic of post-1916 Zoning Resolution New York skyscrapers. The setbacks recede in shallow formations from a large 16-story platform. Red-granite panels frame wide-paned commercial windows at street level as part of the five-story limestone base.[3]
The building has 615,000 square feet (57,100 m2) of space[2] and occupies a 23,000-square-foot (2,100 m2) lot.
History
Greenmal Holding Corporation (Henry Greenberg and David Malzman) acquired the site in 1928 from the American Sugar Company.[4][5] In February 1929, the company obtained a $4,050,000 construction loan for the building.[6][7] The cost was estimated at $12,000,000, with the edifice resting upon a 51 caisson deep foundation.[8]
The building opened in March 1930.[9] The original anchor tenant of the building was the American Sugar Refining Company.[5][3]New York Life Insurance Company bid $1,000,000 to foreclose a $5,569,605 lien against the skyscraper at a June 26, 1933 foreclosure auction.[4] 120 Wall Street was the only major high-rise building on the East River downtown waterfront for many years until the post-1970s construction boom.