Bankers Trust Company Building (originally 14 Wall Street)
THE PERVADING metaphor for the skyscraper in the eclectic era was monumentality. As a powerful but young nation, America felt a need to compete with the landmarks of history. If not in age, we could outdo the past in sheer size and height: The Met Life To
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TROWBRIDGE
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LIVINGSTON ,
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designs on other downtown skyscrapers, repeated in the 480-foot-high Standard Oil Building (Carrère & Hastings and Shreve, Lamb & Blake, 1922) and Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo, & Associates’ glassy postmodern Morgan Bank Headquarters (1988) at 60 Wall Street. The Bankers Trust Company was founded to provide fiduciary services in cooperation rather than competition with commercial banks. The mighty enterprises of capitalism are sym-
bolized in the bronze gate inside the lobby, which was renovated in 1931–33: a tipping vat of molten ore represents metallurgy; a helm interlaced with rigging stands for shipping; a derrick ball and rivets stand for construction; a generator with zigzag lightning bolts that anticipates Expressionist motifs stands for power; and an ox-head, engine valves, and shovel-head with paired sticks of dynamite represent agriculture, manufacturing, and mining, respectively.
[ 1 ] The pyramidal top is one of the most influential designs on downtown skyscrapers.
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