In 2014, New York City developer Macklowe Properties acquired One Wall Street, a landmark 50-story limestone Art Deco tower, with plans to repurpose the building for luxury residential units.

Work began in 2016. Manhattan-based Electronic Security and Communications Corp. (ESCC), which has a long-standing relationship with the developer, won the competitive bid for the security integration segment of the high-profile multi-year and multi-million-dollar project.

2023 Project of the Year

Winner: Electronic Security and

Communications Corp. (ESCC), New York, N.Y.

Customer: Macklowe Properties, New York, N.Y.

Scope of Project: New York City’s largest-ever office-to-residential conversion, the project covered 1.2 million square feet and included completely new construction within a New York City-designed landmark Art Deco skyscraper built in 1931.

Project launch: October 2016

Project completion: Spring 2023

It would be no simple task. The structure’s transformation from office space to luxury condominiums required a total gutting as designers shifted the mechanics from the building’s perimeter to its center to maximize window space. One Wall Street’s landmark status required that aesthetics remain top of mind when installing security cameras and other details. ESCC’s proven track record in high-rise, multi-use developments and its expert team of designers and engineers ensured that it was well equipped for the job.

What no one could have anticipated was the emergence of a global pandemic that would upend supply chains, disrupt construction timelines and turn an already massive and complex project into an even bigger challenge.

But in spite of all this, ESCC helped the One Wall Street project come in on time and on budget, with the building’s first residential closings beginning in March 2023. The sheer size and complexity of the project, and ESCC’s involvement in bringing to life a state-of-the-art security system, made it a natural winner for SDM’s 2023 Project of the Year Award.

“The vision that Mr. Macklowe has — and the vision of the people he brings along for the ride — contributes to these projects being as successful as they are,” says Joseph Bosco, vice president, design & construction for Macklowe. ESCC and others involved in the One Wall Street project enabled Macklowe to navigate COVID-19 “with hardly any impact to the schedule; we were able to ramp up pretty quickly to keep up continuity,” he says.

Anita Mascoli, senior client advocate at ESCC, adds, “We’re well positioned in this industry as we have very solid high-end residential expertise and extensive experience in large-scale commercial projects, including the design aspects, aesthetics, and working with architects. … Developers see the complexity we’re dealing with and they think about ESCC for their projects. We put ourselves out there as a company that can manage a very complex project on time, on budget, and continue with service post installation.”

Transforming a Manhattan Landmark

One Wall Street, an Art Deco skyscraper faced in limestone, has occupied an entire block at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street — located just west of the New York Stock Exchange — since 1931, when architect Ralph Walker designed it for the Irving Trust Company. Officially designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2001, One Wall Street is a 50-story tower with a 36-story annex added by the architect in 1963. The property encompasses approximately 1.2 million square feet of gross floor area and is one of the most distinctive assets in the downtown market.

The ESCC team for One Wall Street included (from left to right): Karl Tyson, vice president of operations; Rafael Cabrera, senior designer/project manager; Ricky Taboso, senior field technician; Louis Daigneault, senior design engineer; and Anton Marquez, lead field technician.

Real estate developer Harry B. Macklowe, who founded Macklowe Properties in the mid-1960s, has been a premier developer in New York City for decades. The developer already had a long-standing relationship with ESCC when the integrator entered the bidding war for the One Wall Street project. “The Macklowe family has been a real estate icon in New York City going back generations,” says Robert Horowitz, founder and president of ESCC. “ESCC was introduced to them decades ago, and we’ve done many projects with them.”

Some of these include 432 Park Avenue, successful for both its innovation and design; the redevelopment of the General Motors building on 5th Avenue; 510 Madison Avenue; 737 Park Avenye; 150 East 72nd Street; and others.

The developer’s vision for One Wall Street places the project in the vanguard of the office-to-residential conversion boom that’s due to another side effect of COVID-19: the work-from-home wave, which has emptied office spaces and transformed financial centers across the country from workspaces to residential and mixed-use districts.

Conversion of the historic structure required a total gutting of the interior and completely new construction, including elevators, within the building’s shell. Today the space houses 566 luxury residential units ranging from studios to four-bedroom condos, 46 with private outdoor terraces. There’s also a new 42,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market, a 5,000-square-foot health and wellness spa, 6,500 square feet of high-performance workspaces, and a 4,500-square-foot landscaped terrace with an amazing view of the city for residents and their guests.

“Our layouts were ahead of their time,” Bosco says. “Macklowe’s vision for One Wall Street was a city within a city. Both the units and the retail block were designed intentionally to support that vision. It was planned prior to COVID, but it’s a significant marketing tool in a post-COVID world.” Bosco points to the building’s One Works communal workspace, which features separate podcast rooms and other state-of-the-art technology, as indicative of how residences are merging commercial, retail and residential space.

“Wall Street is changing,” Horowitz says. “We started working on early conversions years ago, but it didn’t take off. … It’s really an outgrowth of the remote workforce as well as businesses choosing not to have as many people in their offices. We’re going to see more of it down the road as well; it will be around for quite a while.”

One Wall Street by the Numbers

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What it is: A 50-story Art Deco style tower and 36-story annex

Built: 1931

Landmark status: Granted in 2001

Size: 1.2 million square foot

Number of luxury condo units: 566

Retail space: 174,000 square feet

Number of elevators: 26

Total number of floors: 53

Amenities: 100,000 square feet across multiple floors, including an enclosed pool and 39th floor roof deck

What it is: A 50-story Art Deco style tower and 36-story annex

Built: 1931

Landmark status: Granted in 2001

Size: 1.2 million square foot

Number of luxury condo units: 566

Retail space: 174,000 square feet

Number of elevators: 26

Total number of floors: 53

Amenities: 100,000 square feet across multiple floors, including an enclosed pool and 39th floor roof deck

What it is: A 50-story Art Deco style tower and 36-story annex

Built: 1931

Landmark status: Granted in 2001

Size: 1.2 million square foot

Number of luxury condo units: 566

Retail space: 174,000 square feet

Number of elevators: 26

Total number of floors: 53

Amenities: 100,000 square feet across multiple floors, including an enclosed pool and 39th floor roof deck

What it is: A 50-story Art Deco style tower and 36-story annex

Built: 1931

Landmark status: Granted in 2001

Size: 1.2 million square foot

Number of luxury condo units: 566

Retail space: 174,000 square feet

Number of elevators: 26

Total number of floors: 53

Amenities: 100,000 square feet across multiple floors, including an enclosed pool and 39th floor roof deck

What it is: A 50-story Art Deco style tower and 36-story annex

Built: 1931

Landmark status: Granted in 2001

Size: 1.2 million square foot

Number of luxury condo units: 566

Retail space: 174,000 square feet

Number of elevators: 26

Total number of floors: 53

Amenities: 100,000 square feet across multiple floors, including an enclosed pool and 39th floor roof deck

Many cities are mobilizing to address the issue of underutilized office space in the wake of COVID-19. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced in his January State of the City address plans to lift a Midtown housing ban between West 23rd and 41st Streets, which will bring more than 20,000 new apartments over the next 10 years as property owners convert office space into residential housing. And the city’s Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force, established in 2021, recently recommended changes the city can make to increase conversions of obsolete office buildings into residences. These include more flexible regulations in office-heavy districts; seeking opportunities to build housing in areas where it is currently banned; and a proposed tax incentive for developers repurposing buildings.

Renovating a building’s identity from commercial to residential requires some creative design work with an emphasis on security for its new tenants. The ESCC team worked closely with Macklowe designers to develop a security system that would work well in the unique space. “Macklowe is very design oriented and aesthetic driven; you can’t just take a huge camera and put it in the middle of that lobby,” Horowitz says. “It has to be done in a way that meets their needs on an aesthetic basis, and we’ve been doing that for decades.”

In its ongoing relationship with Macklowe Properties, ESCC has learned that aesthetics are top of mind for the developer. Pictured is One Wall Street’s lobby security desk with streamlined camera display and security elements.

From the start, ESCC knew the system had to be IP-based and Ethernet-centric for economy of scale, with one type of wiring used throughout the building, says Rafael Cabrera, ESCC’s senior designer/project manager for One Wall Street. Other security technologies deployed include IP-based CCTV, elevator control systems, an access control system, IP-based telephone system, IP-based intercom system, audio/visual systems and back-of-house communications systems. Suppliers include Openpath (now Avigilon Alta, a part of the Motorola Solutions Avigilon security suite), Hanwha Vision, Cisco, Panasonic, Lutron, Sony, Dell, Leviton, Berk-Tek, Sonos, Crown, Apple and others.

One of the most innovative technologies used in the project is the frictionless, cloud-based access control system designed by Openpath, which ESCC recommended to the developer.

“We’re picky who we partner with. We use the best of breed for everything and while we’re open to anything, we’re very specific and loyal to the brands that we use because we’re confident that they’re going to work,” Cabrera says. “Everything we install, we support. … The products we install are something that we can depend on."

Openpath didn’t even exist when Macklowe first purchased the One Wall Street property, and the client originally had another system in mind. But ESCC convinced them that Openpath was the most appropriate choice for the project, says Karl Tyson, ESCC vice president, operations.

“We take it upon ourselves to beta test a lot of new technology,” Tyson says. “Robert and I met Openpath five years ago when they first started business and brought them into the Manhattan market. This project was not going to be theirs initially because they weren’t even in business (when Macklowe purchased the property). Once we got involved and were testing the product, we made a suggestion to ownership and they made a change to the project. [Macklowe] believed in what we were telling them. We’ve done that numerous times in this market. Start-ups come to us because we have so much knowledge; we help them design, engineer and improve upon what they’re doing. We’re never sitting still. We make things happen.”

One Wall Street’s 26 elevators operate via Openpath’s keyless door access control system, accessible via mobile app. Tenants can walk into an elevator and be instantly and automatically authenticated, enabling them to be taken directly to their floors.

Challenges: Typical & Not

The sheer size and complexity of the One Wall Street project required intensive communication between ESCC, Macklowe and the trades involved in its construction, Cabrera says. Representatives of the various groups regularly met two to three times a week at sessions that lasted six to eight hours, simply to coordinate efforts. “When field conditions apply, you must use ingenuity and experience to overcome challenges, and ultimately, we did,” he says.

ESCC deployed its most experienced technicians for the project because of its complexity and scale, Cabrera says. “We integrated cameras, access control, intercoms and the infrastructure for the apartments and back-of-house,” he says. “It's all fiber optic cabling that had to run through the infrastructure within extremely limited ceiling space. I could write a book.”

One of the biggest challenges for ESCC involved the installation of interior video surveillance cameras that wouldn’t compromise the building’s aesthetics, Cabrera says. Because of their high demand for quality design, Macklowe insisted that the camera profiles be “fairly covert,” he says. “The best way to secure the perimeter was cameras and access control, but that needed to coincide with the regulations of landmark status,” he says. “We had to work with Macklowe, the city and the landmarks commission in order to get that accomplished.

As with the access control system, ESCC recommended its choice of cameras to Macklowe: Hanwha Vision’s Wisenet X Series, AI-powered, 5 megapixel video surveillance cameras. This was the camera of choice for the project because of its high resolution, clean lines and built-in, license-free intelligent video analytics, with capabilities such as people counting and heat mapping, says John Sprague, regional sales manager for Hanwha Vision.

The video surveillance system at One Wall Street runs on Wisenet WAVE 5.0, an enterprise VMS that is both end user-friendly and intuitive for video searches, Sprague adds.

“When we started One Wall Street in 2016, we had spec'd an entirely different system," Tyson says. "We were able to get the customer to let us substitute the original equipment with a Hanwha system. We were 100 percent certain they would be more satisfied with this product, and they trusted us to re-engineer the video surveillance. It goes back to the relationship we have with Macklowe and being able to do the right thing for the client."

Another major concern was integrating the newly installed elevators — all 26 of them — with Openpath’s keyless door access control system, Cabrera says. While ESCC was not responsible for installation of the elevators themselves, they designed, engineered and installed all the elevator, CCTV and access control systems. They also had to ensure communication between the elevator and access control systems, which don’t “speak” the same language, he adds. This required installation of a sophisticated middleware software component that acts as a translator between Openpath and the elevator systems.

The elevator system’s destination dispatch system, which groups passengers by destination and assigns them into the same elevator cars, operates by users presenting a mobile app at the elevator, selecting a floor, and pressing the app or keypad to show which elevator to take.

ESCC selected Hanwha Vision’s Wisenet X Series AI-powered, 5-megapixel video surveillance cameras for One Wall Street because of their high resolution, clean lines and built-in, license-free intelligent video analytics, with capabilities such as people counting and heat mapping.

The Openpath control center system operates through any browser and connects via the cloud to controllers on site, usable with Bluetooth, low-frequency and high-frequency credentials, says Jim Tapp, regional sales manager for Openpath. Based on how ESCC’s team programs the system, users can walk into an elevator and be instantly and automatically authenticated, taking them directly to their floors, Tapp says. “ESCC is better at this than anyone in the city,” he adds. “Openpath’s frictionless technology is transparent to the clientele; like an alarm system, they don’t even notice it. You’re secure in your facility but it’s almost totally effortless. That’s what their clientele likes.”

One challenge that no one could have predicted was the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which first struck New York City in January 2020. In the unprecedented period that followed, construction projects in the city ground to a halt due to quarantines and shutdowns, and One Wall Street was no exception. “COVID definitely threw a wrinkle into completion,” Cabrera says. “But otherwise, we stayed on track.”

A side effect of COVID-19 that still lingers is a compromised supply chain. At the height of the pandemic in 2021, the One Wall Street team had problems getting anything with a computer chip, Cabrera says. “Fortunately, on the access control side, Openpath foresaw the shortages and stocked up on products. But for some other critical components like Ethernet switches, we had to wait six months to get one or two pieces.” Macklowe realized how anomalous the situation was and remained patient with the delays. “It has eased but there are still some delays on getting product,” Cabrera says. “2021 was really tough.”

Additionally, logistics could be challenging due to One Wall Street’s proximity to the New York Stock Exchange, Bosco notes. Security protocol was tight, and Macklowe had to work closely with its contractors to be as efficient as possible in getting in and out of the site.

“Security was always tight,” Cabrera adds. “There were security checks, and mobility was an issue because of this. For instance, I was doing a tour of one of the condos and looked out the window; you can see right into the Stock Exchange from there. That’s how close together the buildings are to each other.”

Forging an Ongoing Relationship

Although One Wall Street is officially completed, with the first condo closing taking place in early March of this year, ESCC remains involved through service plans for access control and back-of-house communications systems, upgrades to the digital/IP-based CCTV recording system, audio/video equipment, cloud-based hosting fees and more.

“ESCC continues to support the building from a service standpoint,” Bosco says. “We hired them to do installations and service the equipment. And because building amenities are always evolving, there is other automation that we’ll recommend ESCC for.”

From the start, ESCC knew the system had to be IP-based and Ethernet-centric for economy of scale, with one type of wiring used throughout the building.

Future projects with Macklowe are in the cards, too: Most recently, Macklowe retained ESCC as its security and telephone/data consultant on the design, engineering and specifications for a new-construction residential building with 774 units, a parking structure, and amenities spaces. The team will be headed by Cabrera and involve other ESCC personnel who worked on One Wall Street. And that long-standing relationship between ESCC and Macklowe will make the project just that much easier.

“The thing we do well is we can almost predict what Harry’s going to want because we’ve been working so long with him,” Tyson says. “We know what his lobbies will look like, what he appreciates in cameras. He knows when he gets something from us, it will be what he anticipated.”

Horowitz adds, “This will be a new construction project in a unique area. Knowing what Harry’s going to do here, it’s going to be gorgeous. We’re excited about it.”