Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building
General information
Type	Government offices
Coordinates	40°48′33″N 73°56′51″W / 40.80923°N 73.94746°W / 40.80923; -73.94746Coordinates: 40°48′33″N 73°56′51″W / 40.80923°N 73.94746°W / 40.80923; -73.94746
Construction started	1967
Completed	1974
Cost	36 million dollars (1974)
Technical details
Floor count	19[1]
Floor area	260,000 square feet (24,000 m2)
Design and construction
Owner	New York State
Architect	Ifill, Johnson & Hanchard

The Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building (originally the Harlem State Office Building) is a nineteen story high-rise office building located at the intersection of 125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard the Harlem neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is named after Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the first African-American elected to Congress from New York, and was designed by the African-American architecture firm of Ifill, Johnson & Hanchard in a brutalist style. It is the tallest building in Harlem.^[2]

The building was proposed in 1966 by then-governor Nelson Rockefeller as the beginning of a surge of development to turn Harlem into a "truly viable community".^[3] Ground was broken in 1967 with the demolition of a Corn Exchange Bank building by Rockefeller personally, who accidentally struck an occupied building when attempting the demolition.^[4] In 1969 work was halted on the project as a result of demonstrators objecting to the racial makeup of the construction workforce and the intended purpose of the facility.^[5][6] By mid-1970 the dispute was resolved and work resumed on the site.^[7]

The building was completed in 1974 and was known as the Harlem State Office Building.^[8] While the initial occupancy of the building was criticized for lacking basic requirements such as a building manager and fire equipment, eventually things settled down to the point that in 1978 the location hosted Harlem's first giant Christmas tree.^[9][10][11] In 1983 the building was renamed the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building after the former U.S. Representative, the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who had died in 1972.^[12] In 1994 the building was threatened with closure due to budget cuts; however, it remained open.^[13]

Over the years, the building has been criticized as a "killer building" from the urban renewal movement of the 1960s that "disfigured" the neighborhood,^[14] and as an example of mediocre government architecture.^[15] However, others have embraced it as causing the community to focus its efforts for future development battles.^[16] In 2006, the Harlem Community Development Corporation partnered with the New York State Office of General Services to propose a redesign of the African Square that the building occupies.^[17]

References

	New York City portal
	New York portal