10 Liberty Street

The plaza at 28 Liberty Street, formerly One Chase Manhattan Plaza, is one of the most significant Privately Owned Public Spaces in Lower Manhattan. The sunken plaza, designed in conjunction with the Chase Manhattan Bank headquarters tower, was one of the earliest and most influential POPS in New York City.

The plaza was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and completed in 1961, the same year the city's incentive zoning program was created. The space features a sunken circular area with a sculptural work by Isamu Noguchi, 'Sunken Garden,' one of the most important public artworks in the Financial District.

The Chase Manhattan Bank tower (now known by its address) was a groundbreaking development that helped establish the International Style in American corporate architecture. The building and its plaza represented a new model of urban development that integrated public open space with private office construction.

The plaza has undergone renovations over the decades and continues to serve as one of the primary outdoor gathering spaces in the Financial District. The sunken garden and the open plaza above provide different experiences within a single POPS.

This plaza is historically significant as one of the spaces that defined how POPS would function in New York City, establishing design standards and public access expectations that influenced hundreds of subsequent privately owned public spaces across Manhattan.