A 60-story supertall lifted 80 feet off the ground on a fan-column structure threaded between two active rail tunnels, opened to the public in October 2025 as JPMorganChase’s new global headquarters. At 2.5 million square feet, it is the largest all-electric, net-zero-operational-emissions commercial building in North America.

Project Scope

Foster + Partners designed the tower to replace the original Union Carbide building on the same Park Avenue block — itself a notable Bunshaft-designed corporate icon — that JPMorganChase demolished in 2019. The new structure sits directly above Grand Central Terminal’s approach tracks and the Metro-North platforms below, forcing a fan-column structural concept that lifts the building entirely off the street and concentrates loads onto a smaller footprint than the lot would otherwise dictate.

Tishman Construction served as construction manager. The structural system is steel with composite floors. Triangular bracing is exposed at the base. The 80-foot lift creates a covered public plaza at street level, with retail and a transit connection feeding into Grand Central.

Key facts:

• 60 stories, 1,388 feet (423 m)
• 2.5 million gross square feet
• Capacity for 14,000 employees; opened housing roughly 10,000
• All-electric: no fossil fuels for HVAC or hot water
• Hydroelectric supply contracted to cover 100% of operational electricity
• Triple-layer facade with high-performance glazing

Current Status

Operational. The tower opened October 21, 2025. JPMorganChase moved staff in waves through Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 and is now operating at planned headcount for the first phase.

Why It Matters

Two reasons. First, 270 Park is the largest live test of an all-electric supertall in a cold-climate city. Designing out gas service in a building this size required oversizing electrical infrastructure, integrating heat recovery from data center loads, and committing to a renewable-electricity supply contract long enough to amortize the design choices.

Second, the fan-column structural solution is a working answer to the question of how to build dense commercial product above active rail. Manhattan, Chicago, and a handful of European cities have a long list of similar over-track development opportunities. The structural template here is now built and operational, which materially de-risks the next one.

For owners chasing operational carbon targets, the building is also a working data point on the cost premium of all-electric versus mixed-fuel at scale. JPMorganChase has not published the delta publicly, but the project totaled roughly $4 billion all-in.

Key Stakeholders

• Owner: JPMorganChase
• Architect: Foster + Partners
• Construction Manager: Tishman Construction (an AECOM company)
• Structural: Severud Associates
• MEP: Cosentini Associates
• Sustainability: Atelier Ten
• Energy supply: 100% hydroelectric under long-term PPA

The building is a useful benchmark for the next generation of commercial supertalls targeting net-zero operations.