1 The interior of the Wall Street Banking Hall is designated a historic landmark

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has voted unanimously to designate the interior of the Banking Room at 1 Wall Street, also known as the Red Room, as a Manhattan Financial District landmark. Completed in 1931, this unique, richly tiled space served as a reception hall and banking room for the Irving Trust and Bank Company. The Red Room is the work of architect Ralph Walker and muralist Hildreth Meière.

Designed to project an image of permanence and wealth after the financial market crash of 1929, the Red Room is a visually striking space with walls that mimic the curved stone facades of 1 Wall Street, one of New York’s first Art Deco skyscrapers and itself a designated landmark. The room’s walls, ceiling, and columns are adorned with warm-colored mosaic tiles that fade from red to orange on the ceiling, creating an elaborate style that departs from the more typical stone banking halls of the period.

1 Wall Street Banking Floor, via nyc.gov

The Red Room’s designation as an interior landmark is part of an office-to-residential conversion project at 1 Wall Street that will create 566 housing units and ground-floor retail. The Red Room’s restoration will include using a recently discovered trove of surplus original tiles to restore the murals, and the space will soon reopen as the first New York location for French luxury retailer Printemps.

Hildreth Meière, the artist behind the mosaics, was a pioneer for women in architecture and design. Her work can also be found in other New York City landmarks, including the AT&T Long Distance Building and Radio City Music Hall. Ralph Walker, the architect of 1 Wall Street, was a principal in the firm of Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker and designed several other New York City landmarks, including the Western Union Building at 60 Hudson Street and the Barclay-Vesey Building.

“1 Wall Street Banking Room, one of New York’s most beautiful interior spaces, is now designated a landmark as part of a major office-to-housing conversion project,” said Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce. “With the designations of 1 Wall Street and the Banking Room, LPC underscores the complementary nature of our goals of preserving historic spaces and building housing.”

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