The biggest bank in the world officially opened its new global headquarters — “our gift to the city,” per David Arena, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s head of real estate — on Oct. 21, in a ceremony that included new age author Deepak Chopra saying that he hopes the building will “remind us that the true currency of life is consciousness itself.”
In reality, the 1,388-foot-tall skyscraper serves to remind New Yorkers that JPMorgan Chase is not only a global bank but also a major developer, one with a propensity for adding boxlike architecture to the city’s iconic skyline. (See also: 28 Liberty Street, formerly known as One Chase Manhattan Plaza, the brainchild of an earlier chairman, David Rockefeller.) The current chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, loves to talk about his bank’s “fortress balance sheet” — well, 270 Park is the fortress metaphor realized in steel, bronze, and glass.