383 Madison Avenue

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383 Madison at night

383 Madison Avenue, or the Bear Stearns Building, is an office building in New York City located between 46th and 47th Streets. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, it is 230 meters (755 ft) tall with 47 floors. It was completed in 2001 and opened in 2002, at which time it was, by some reports, the 88th tallest building in the world. The building is approximately 110 000 rentable square meters (1,200,000 sq ft). It currently houses the world headquarters for Bear Stearns.

As of March 18, 2008, Bear Stearns has agreed to be wholly-purchased by JPMorgan Chase, a rival competitor. In the stock purchase agreement, JPMorgan will assume the space currently occupied by Bear Stearns as well as obtain new space that is currently under consideration to replace the Deutsche Bank Building in Lower Manhattan at the site of the World Trade Center. The former Deutsche Bank building is currently being deconstructed to make way for a replacement office tower which JPMorgan has previously agreed to lease before the Bear Stearns purchase.[1]

Note the glass "crown" at top

The building has an octagonal tower that rises out of a rectangular base to a 20 m (70 ft) crown made of glass which is illuminated at night.

The building has not been a hit with some critics. New York Magazine said, "This is a building you wouldn't want to get anywhere near at a cocktail party. Dressed nearly head to toe in dour granite, and geometrically proper, it's stiff to the point of pass-out boredom. Out of character with SOM's (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's) current work, the design recalls the firm's unfortunate postmodern interlude a decade ago." [2]

A 72-story tower proposed by G Ware Travelstead for the site during the 1980s was never built. The building (also being referred as Travelstead Tower [3]) was designed by Kohn Pederson Fox.