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92-564: The twelfth district is the nation's largest by area and population, covering 1.3 million sq mi (3.4 million km), or 36% of the nation's area, and 60 million people. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is the second-largest by assets held, after New York . In 2004 the San Francisco Fed processed 20.8 billion currency notes and 1.5 billion commercial checks. The Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco has one of

184-525: A branch of the Whitney Museum of American Art , designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. The New York Fed purchased 33 Maiden Lane for $ 208 million in 2012. The Federal Reserve Building is where the monetary policy of the United States is executed by trading United States dollars and United States Treasury securities . The original 1924 building and its 1935 annex were both designed for

276-539: A central bank could manage a nation's economy without the gold standard in his book A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923). To quote one authority: It was Strong more than anyone else who invented the modern central banker. When we watch ... [central bankers of today] describe how they are seeking to strike the right balance between economic growth and price stability, it is the ghost of Benjamin Strong who hovers above him. It all sounds quite prosaically obvious now, but in 1922 it

368-411: A collective 200 short tons (180 long tons; 180 t), depict animal heads and unusual motifs such as smileys. The design is reminiscent of early Italian Renaissance palaces such as Florence 's Palazzo Strozzi and Palazzo Vecchio , which was deliberately intended to inspire trust and confidence in the institution within. The building's Italian Renaissance-style motifs were also designed to fit

460-658: A complete hermetic seal . The vault is additionally secured by listening devices, motion sensors, and cameras. As of 2018 , there has never been a successful break-in attempt, though a fictional robbery of the vault was depicted in the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance . Inside the vault are 122 gold compartments, each containing the deposits of one account holder, as well as various shelves for smaller account holders. The account holders are identified by numbers for anonymity. Gold bars are weighed and tested for purity whenever they are deposited. The Fed charges $ 1.75 to move each bar of gold. Gold bars are moved between

552-519: A gradual slope, with the western end being about 17.5 feet (5 m) higher than the eastern end. There is also a steeper slope downward along Nassau Street from Liberty Street northward to Maiden Lane. Much of the Maiden Lane side faces the building's raised basement. The Federal Reserve Building's lot has a frontage of 408.08 feet (124 m) on Liberty Street and extends 164.75 feet (50 m) deep. The building narrows at its east end, following

644-488: A location that it would occupy for the next 60 years. In 1983, the bank relocated to 101 Market Street. After the bank's creation, a number of branches were opened to provide services across the district. Although not a stand-alone branch, the bank opened the Phoenix Cash Processing Center in 2001. The old headquarters building of the bank , designed by George W. Kelham , has an Ionic colonnade that

736-435: A means of managing the quantity of money in the U.S. economy and thus affecting interest rates. This was particularly important at the time because gold had flooded into the United States during and after World War I. Thus, its gold-backed currency was well-protected, but prices had been pushed up substantially by the currency expansion due to the gold standard -imposed expansion of currency. In 1922, Strong unofficially scrapped

828-415: A prominent role in the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance , starring Bruce Willis , Jeremy Irons and Samuel L. Jackson . The Federal Reserve Bank is the setting for a major heist of the gold by Jeremy Irons' character, Simon Gruber. The vault is penetrated under the pretense of construction work and the gold bullion transported via dump trucks to a location outside the city. The New York Fed publishes

920-544: A report in 2009, released by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2011, saying "that a number of people he interviewed at the reserve bank believe that supervisors paid excessive deference to banks and, as a result, they were less aggressive in finding issues or in following up on them in a forceful way". In 2012, Carmen Segarra , then an examiner for the bank, told her superiors that Goldman Sachs had no policy governing conflicts of interest. She

1012-510: A resolution on October 24, 1917, providing for the construction of a new headquarters building. The Fed decided to buy the entire city block bounded by Nassau, Liberty, and William Streets and Maiden Lane. In May 1918, the Fed bought about 33,000 square feet (3,100 m ) on the block. The New York Fed's staff had grown from 175 to 1,200 in the past year, but the bank wished to wait until the end of World War I to build its headquarters. By early 1919,

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1104-461: A series of educational comic books about its activities. Included are such titles as Once upon a Dime , The Story of Money , Too Much, Too Little , A Penny Saved ... , and The Story of Foreign Trade and Exchange . During the final season of the TV series The Strain , the protagonists use the abandoned Federal Reserve to hide their stolen nuclear warhead until they can determine how to use it against

1196-573: A storage facility. Six architectural firms were invited to take part in an architectural design competition in August 1919. Alexander Trowbridge , the Federal Reserve Board's consulting architect, was the adviser for the design competition. York and Sawyer submitted the winning design, which was approved by the Fed's directors in November 1919. The plans for a 14-story structure ran contrary to

1288-607: A year before the Great Depression , he might have been able to maintain stability in the international financial system. A public competition for the design of the building was held and the architectural firm of York and Sawyer submitted the winning design. The bank moved to the new Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building in 1924. Since the founding of the Federal Reserve system, the Reserve Bank of New York has been

1380-668: Is a bigger Florentine palace than has ever stood in Florence", while the Architectural Record wrote, "There is no building in Italy which remotely resembles this design." At the time of the Federal Reserve Building's construction, many bank buildings in the United States had been built in the neoclassical style. The Architectural Record praised the Federal Reserve Building's design as being distinctive "without resorting to

1472-593: Is a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District , an NRHP district created in 2007. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building is in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City . It occupies the entire block bounded by Nassau Street to the west, Liberty Street to the south, William Street to the east, and Maiden Lane to the north. The Federal Reserve Building

1564-452: Is east of the entrance hall. The vaulted ceilings were made in Guastavino tile . The other portions of the ground floor contained numerous public departments such as the cash and collections department. By the 21st century, the interior contained a security checkpoint, and the ground floor also had an exhibition space that displayed numismatic artifacts. Most of the remaining interior

1656-425: Is made of limestone and sandstone, which serve as cladding for the steel interior superstructure . It is separated horizontally into three sections: a two-story base, seven-story midsection, and five-story top section. The stones of the facade are rusticated , with deep horizontal and vertical grooves separating each block. The far eastern end of the building is topped by a round tower. The lowest two stories of

1748-808: Is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States . It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System , which encompasses the State of New York , the 12 northern counties of New Jersey , Fairfield County in Connecticut , Puerto Rico , and the U.S. Virgin Islands . Located at 33 Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan , it is the largest (by assets), the most active (by volume), and

1840-438: Is pure Beaux-Arts , while the upper building is in the new Moderne fashion of 1924. The lobby with murals by Jules Guerin who created the palette for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition . In 1983 the bank relocated to larger and more modern facilities on 101 Market Street as the 400 Sansome Street location was sold to private developers who rented out the space. Prominent law firm Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe

1932-416: Is reminiscent of early Italian Renaissance palaces such as Florence 's Palazzo Strozzi and Palazzo Vecchio . The horizontal and vertical joints of the facade's stones are deeply rusticated . The Federal Reserve Building's gold vault rests on Manhattan's bedrock , 80 feet (24 m) below street level and 50 feet (15 m) below sea level. The vault contains the largest known monetary-gold reserve in

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2024-644: Is surrounded by numerous other structures, including the John Street Methodist Church , Home Insurance Plaza , and 63 Nassau Street to the north; 28 Liberty Street to the south; 140 Broadway to the southwest; and the Liberty Tower and the Chamber of Commerce Building to the west. The building's land lot has a total area of 49,440 square feet (4,593 m ). The site slopes downward from southwest to northeast. The Liberty Street facade contains

2116-508: Is the largest known and confirmed gold store in the world, and holds approximately 7,000 tonnes (7,700 short tons ) of gold bullion, more than Fort Knox does. The gold does not belong to the bank, which transferred all of its domestic gold reserves to the Treasury under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 . Nearly 98% of it belongs to the central banks of foreign governments. The rest belongs to

2208-465: The Equitable Building . Much of the space leased by the Fed was poorly lit or ventilated and did not include enough space for employees. Furthermore, the Federal Reserve Board was constructing buildings for the other Federal Reserve banks and branches at the time, and the Fed wanted each bank's design to be architecturally appropriate to each branch's needs. The New York Fed's directors passed

2300-514: The Federal Reserve System . The act established twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which was originally led by Benjamin Strong Jr. Originally, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was housed at a small office on 62 Cedar Street. By the late 1910s, the Fed's employees were working in several locations, including 50 Wall Street and part of

2392-662: The September 11 attacks in 2001, which resulted in the collapse of the World Trade Center nearby, the New York Fed continued to operate. The building was temporarily evacuated after the attacks because of fears the nearby One Liberty Plaza would collapse. For several weeks after the attacks, the Federal Reserve used its building to provide assistance to first responders working at the World Trade Center site . The building

2484-753: The "Old Lady of Liberty Street". It initially did not contain a name identification sign above its main entrance because the Fed had thought the building to be distinctive enough. A name sign was installed in 1944 after numerous war bondholders complained that they had gotten lost for several hours in the Financial District while looking for the building. By that decade, the New York Fed had outgrown its headquarters and had leased additional space at 51 Pine Street, 70 Pine Street , and 95 Maiden Lane. The New York Fed also acquired some land in 1964 on Maiden Lane between Nassau and John Streets, intending to construct an office tower just north of 33 Liberty Street. The tower

2576-543: The 1913 Federal Reserve Act because many Americans were antagonistic to centralized control. When the United States entered World War I , Strong was a major force behind the campaigns to fund the war effort via bonds owned primarily by U.S. citizens. This enabled the United States to avoid many of the post-war financial problems of the European belligerents. Strong gradually recognized the importance of open market operation , or purchases and sales of government securities , as

2668-399: The 1990s, the Federal Reserve Building had outdated mechanical facilities and security infrastructure. The New York Fed signed a lease for the adjoining building at 33 Maiden Lane in 1997 and became that building's primary occupant in 1998. The New York Fed also leased space at 3 World Financial Center , but the original 33 Liberty Street structure remained its primary building. Following

2760-527: The Fed had bought more land on Liberty Street and Maiden Lane, increasing its land holdings to 43,500 square feet (4,040 m ). The only structure on the block that the Fed did not acquire was the Montauk Building on William Street, as the Fed and the Montauk Building's owners could not agree on a sale price. The site had been fully acquired by June 1919 at a total cost of close to $ 5 million. Several lots were also acquired on nearby Gold Street for

2852-400: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York by York and Sawyer in the neo-Renaissance style. Marc Eidlitz & Son was the main contractor for both structures. Numerous other engineers and contractors were involved in the building's construction. The building has fourteen above-ground stories and five basement levels. Because the design was intended to accommodate up to 4,000 employees,

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2944-508: The Master. While the gold supply is acknowledged, more focus is given to the silver, which is melted down to create weapons to use against the vampires. In the TV series The Endgame , the Federal Reserve is one of the banks targeted by Elena Federova's Snow White criminal organization. However, it is revealed that this apparent robbery is merely a means of exposing the fact that the gold has already been stolen and replaced with painted clay bars by

3036-426: The New York Fed was not accurately stating how much gold was in the vault. The vast majority of the bars audited were found to be of sufficient purity. Also in 2012, a 21-year-old man was arrested while attempting to detonate a bomb outside the Federal Reserve Building. The device was actually a decoy given by undercover law enforcement, and he was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. The Federal Reserve Building

3128-524: The Reserve Bank of New York distributes coins and currency, participates in the Fedwire system that transfers payments and securities between domestic banks, and conducts economic research. The bank is the exclusive fiscal agent of the U.S. Treasury . In this role, it conducts all primary auctions of marketable Treasury securities, as well as government buybacks when authorized. It carries out exchange rate policy by swapping dollars with foreign currencies under

3220-509: The Treasury , the bearer of the Treasury's General Account, and the custodian of the world's largest gold storage reserve . Aside from these distinct functions, the New York Fed also performs the same responsibilities and tasks as the other Reserve Banks do, such as supervision and research. Given its central role within the Federal Reserve System, the New York Fed and its president are therefore considered first among equals among

3312-481: The Treasury's direction. The Treasury receives all direct federal revenue and borrowed funds, and pays nearly all federal expenses, through its General Account at the Reserve Bank of New York. The bank's underground gold bullion depository lies 80 feet (24 m) below street level and 50 feet (15 m) below sea level, resting on Manhattan bedrock. By 1927, the vault contained 10% of the world's official gold reserves . The vault (designed by Frederick S. Holmes )

3404-517: The United States and international organizations such as the IMF . The bank stores the gold at no charge, but charges for handling whenever it is moved. The bank publishes a monthly recession probability prediction derived from the yield curve and based on the work by Esteban Rodriguez Jr . Their models show that, when the difference between short-term interest rates (using three-month T-bills ) and long-term interest rates (using ten-year Treasury notes) at

3496-408: The United States' total gold reserve. The vault is 30 feet (9.1 m) below and 100 feet (30 m) away from the nearest New York City Subway tunnels. The foundations of the Federal Reserve Building were constructed to withstand the weight of the gold vault and its contents, which would have exceeded the weight limits of almost any other foundation. Ninety-nine concrete piers , extending to

3588-463: The architects and engineers' fees alone were to cost $ 1.1 million. In response, Federal Reserve chairman William P. G. Harding said that the original estimated cost was only about $ 18 million, and that the new building's cost was justified by the size of the New York Fed's staff. The Fed was able to reduce the construction cost by $ 5 million by early 1924. This was largely because of reduced construction costs after adjusting for inflation. Ultimately,

3680-492: The bank was accused of political corruption by being a "captured agency", i.e. , subject to regulatory capture , of the banks which it supervises. The following people serve on the board of directors as of April 2022 . Terms expire on December 31 of their final year on the board. (Deputy Chair) (Chair) In the first Godfather movie, the "meeting of the Dons" scene uses the Federal Reserve building exterior, even though

3772-504: The branch and is listed on the NRHP. The following people serve on the board of directors as of 2023: (Chair) (Deputy Chair) The position was installed under the title of “Governor” until the Banking Act of 1935 abolished the dual role of governor and agent and created a single leadership role – president. Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Federal Reserve Bank of New York

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3864-559: The building cost $ 13.865 million excluding land acquisition, or $ 18.715 million in total. The structures on the building site were torn down starting in May 1921 and the site was cleared by that September. The architects filed construction plans with the Manhattan Bureau of Buildings in July 1921. The foundation was dug to the underlying layer of bedrock, up to 117 feet (36 m) deep. Afterward,

3956-413: The building to its irregular land lot. Further enhancing the building's sense of scale was the fact that, prior to the construction of 28 Liberty Street to the south, the Federal Reserve Building could only be viewed at an irregular angle due to the presence of other nearby buildings. Upon its completion in 1924, the Federal Reserve Building was one of the largest bank buildings in the world. The facade

4048-446: The city must deliver it to the train car within one hour or the hijackers will start killing passengers at the rate of one per minute until it is delivered. The money for the ransom, to be provided in bundles of used $ 50 and $ 100 bills, is frantically assembled by workers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York while a police cruiser waits at the front entrance for it to be assembled for delivery. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York plays

4140-405: The compartments whenever one account holder pays another. Staff wear steel-toe footwear to protect their feet in case they drop one of the gold bars, each of which weighs 28 pounds (13 kg). Every time the compartments are opened or gold is moved, three Fed staff members are required to oversee the transaction. Each compartment is further locked behind a padlock , two combination locks , and

4232-410: The delivery of large shipments of money. The other windows at the first story contain round arches covered by wrought iron window grilles. The second story contains rectangular window openings. The third story is surrounded by a balcony with a stone balustrade . At the third through ninth stories, each vertical bay generally contains two windows per story, with round-arched window openings at

4324-404: The end of a Federal Reserve tightening cycle is negative or less than 93 basis points positive, a rise in unemployment usually occurs. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Buffalo Branch was the bank's only branch. It was formally disbanded on October 31, 2008. In 2009, the bank commissioned a probe into its own practices. David Beim, finance professor at Columbia Business School submitted

4416-399: The expectations of observers who thought the site would be developed with a low-rise building. Marc Eidlitz & Son was hired as the building's general contractor, while Samuel Yellin successfully submitted a bid to install ornamental ironwork. Former Currency controller John Skelton Williams objected to the building's projected $ 25 million cost, including land expenses, and claimed

4508-426: The exterior of the Federal Reserve Building deteriorated over the years. Because the sandstone was more porous compared to the limestone, dirt particles accumulated in the sandstone blocks, giving the facade a checkerboard appearance. The facade was cleaned between 1999 and 2000 under the supervision of Beyer Blinder Belle and Turner Construction , the first major cleaning in the building's history. In addition, by

4600-473: The facade comprise the building's base and are deeply rusticated. The main entrance is through a double-height arch on the Liberty Street elevation , flanked by wrought-iron lanterns. This entrance, about 100 feet (30 m) east of Nassau Street, was intended for bank officers and visitors. A smaller entrance on Maiden Lane provided an entrance for most employees, and a truck driveway on Maiden Lane allowed

4692-466: The footprint of the block. As built, the Federal Reserve Building occupied all except the east end of the block, with frontage of 365 feet (111 m) on Liberty Street, 388 feet (118 m) on Maiden Lane, and 152.11 feet (46.36 m) on Nassau Street. The annex at the east end of the block has 44 feet (13 m) of frontage on Liberty Street, 79 feet (24 m) of frontage on William Street, and 24 feet (7.3 m) on Maiden Lane. In addition to

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4784-446: The full block between Liberty , William , and Nassau Streets and Maiden Lane ; it narrows at its east end, following the footprint of the block. The Federal Reserve Building has fourteen above-ground stories and five basement levels, designed by York and Sawyer with decorative ironwork by Samuel Yellin of Philadelphia. Its facade is separated horizontally into three sections: a base, midsection, and top section. The stone exterior

4876-439: The gold and does not own it outright. Nearly 98 percent of the building's gold is owned by the central banks of 36 foreign nations. The remaining two percent is owned by the United States and international organizations such as the IMF . As of August 2016 , the building's vault holds 13.4 million troy ounces (460 short tons) of gold bullion and $ 3 million (book value) in gold coins for the United States, just over 5 percent of

4968-422: The gold standard and instead began aggressively pursuing open market operations as a means of stabilizing domestic prices and thus internal economic stability. Thus, he began the Federal Reserve's practice of buying and selling government securities as monetary policy. John Maynard Keynes , a prominent British economist who had previously not questioned the gold standard, used Strong's activities as an example of how

5060-530: The interior of another New York building (the Penn Central railway boardroom) was also used for filming. In the 1984 film Once Upon a Time in America Max suggests a New York Federal Reserve Bank heist, which Noodles and Carol deem a suicide mission. In the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three hijackers take over a subway train car and demand $ 1 million for release of the car and 19 passengers, and

5152-687: The largest collections of US paper money in the United States, which is displayed in the American Currency Exhibit. Mary C. Daly serves as the President and CEO as of October 1, 2018. Notable former Presidents include John C. Williams (2011-2018), who now holds the same role at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and is Vice Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee , as well as Janet Yellen (2004-2010), who held

5244-471: The late 1920s. This worried him, but he also felt he had no choice because the low interest rates were helping Europeans (particularly the United Kingdom) in their effort to return to the gold standard. Economic historian Charles P. Kindleberger states that Strong was one of the few U.S. policymakers interested in the troubled financial affairs of Europe in the 1920s, and that had he not died in 1928, just

5336-422: The leader of the Federal Reserve's largest and most powerful district bank, Strong became a dominant force in U.S. monetary and banking affairs. One biographer has termed him the "de facto leader of the entire Federal Reserve System". This was not only because of Strong's abilities, but also because the central board's powers were ambiguous and, for the most part, limited to supervisory and regulatory functions under

5428-574: The main building, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York occupies a neighboring structure immediately to the north at 33 Maiden Lane, also known as 2 Federal Plaza. The New York Fed had acquired the site, at Maiden Lane and Nassau Street, in the 1960s, with plans to build an annex designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates , but canceled the plans in 1976. The site was then sold to Park Tower Realty in 1980. The building at 33 Maiden Lane, designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee ,

5520-523: The most influential of the Reserve Banks. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is uniquely responsible for implementing monetary policy on behalf of the Federal Open Market Committee and acts as the market agent of the entire Federal Reserve System (as it houses the Open Market Trading Desk and manages System Open Market Account ). It is also the sole fiscal agent of the U.S. Department of

5612-469: The officers' quarters. Recreational facilities for employees were placed on the top floors. The thirteenth and fourteenth floors contained cafeterias, which were originally separate facilities for women, men, and bank officers. There was also an employee's hospital and a gymnasium. In the basement are six vaults that store money and securities. The gold vault and two other vaults are guarded by 230-short-ton (210-long-ton; 210 t) doors and frames, while

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5704-475: The other regional Reserve banks. Its current president is John C. Williams . The Federal Reserve Bank of New York opened for business on November 16, 1914, under the leadership of Benjamin Strong Jr. , who had previously been president of the Bankers Trust company. He led the bank until his death in 1928. Strong became the executive officer (then called the "governor"—today, the term would be "president"). As

5796-600: The place where monetary policy in the United States is implemented, although policy is decided in Washington, D.C. by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). It is the only Reserve Bank with a permanent seat on the committee, and its president is traditionally selected as the committee's vice chairman. Operating in the financial capital of the U.S., the bank conducts open market operations —the buying and selling of outstanding Treasury securities and agency securities —through its trading desk . Like other regional Reserve Banks,

5888-421: The placement of elevators and entrances was a main consideration. Since Nassau Street was such a busy street, and because the slope was so steep, the architects decided to place the main entrance at Liberty Street instead, with the service entrance along the raised basement at Maiden Lane. The facade and interior contain ironwork manufactured by Samuel Yellin of Philadelphia. The iron decorations, which weigh

5980-403: The remaining vaults are guarded by smaller 185-short-ton (165-long-ton; 168 t) doors and frames. Also in the basement were the building's mechanical equipment, which included electric generators and ventilation systems. The vaults are also protected by armed security forces, who have their own firing range in the building. The Federal Reserve Building's three-story gold vault is toward

6072-429: The rival Belok syndicate, with help from the corrupt President Andrew Wright. Notes Further reading Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building , also known as 33 Liberty Street , is a building in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City , which serves as the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York . The building occupies

6164-632: The role of Chair of the Board of Governors from 2014-2018. The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank opened for business in rented quarters at the rear of the Merchants National Bank on November 16, 1914, in order to make the reserve provisions of the Federal Reserve Act . In 1924, the San Francisco staff moved out of temporary locations and into the Bank's newly built headquarters at 400 Sansome Street,

6256-465: The seal of the Fed's auditor. The Fed does not publicly record whenever gold bars are moved in and out of the vault, and no one except account holders or auditors is allowed to look at the bars. While the Fed does conduct public tours of the vault, visitors are only allowed to see a display sample of gold. In 1913 the United States Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act , thereby creating

6348-455: The superb quality of construction". The 1939 WPA Guide to New York City characterized the building's Florentine design and iron grilles as completing "the picture of a building ready for a siege". The Federal Reserve Building was larger than even the buildings in Italy from which its design was inspired. John Brooks wrote of the Federal Reserve Building in The New Yorker , "In fact, it

6440-403: The third story and rectangular windows on the other stories. Near the extreme ends of each side are vertical bays that contain one rectangular window per story. The tenth story contains smaller arched windows set between the corbels of a cornice that runs atop that story. The upper floors are above the cornice. The eleventh floor contains a single rectangular window corresponding to each of

6532-413: The underlying bedrock, were poured to support the weight of the building. The vault walls consist of steel layers reinforced with concrete. The eastern wall of the vault is about 10 feet (3.0 m) thick while the other three walls are about 8 feet (2.4 m) thick. The only entrance is a 90-short-ton (82-tonne) circular door inside a 140-short-ton (130-tonne) frame; when closed, the vault door forms

6624-472: The usual orders of architecture", namely neoclassical designs. The design of the Federal Reserve Building inspired that of other subsequent bank buildings. Architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern stated that the building's "innovative" Florentine design had inspired other banks to be built in a similar style. Stern wrote that the structure "demonstrate[d] how a bank could achieve strong visual identity even if located within an office building". The building

6716-514: The vault contained over 12,000 short tons (11,000 metric tons) of gold. The reserves declined in subsequent years because, in 1971, the direct international convertibility of the United States dollar to gold had been canceled in what was called the Nixon shock . Between December 1973 and May 1974, a replica of the Diana statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens was exhibited in the building's lobby. Meanwhile,

6808-519: The vault's door and frame were lowered into the foundation. According to the Wall Street Journal , it was the largest ever foundation to be built in New York City at the time. About 121,000 cubic yards (93,000 m ) of material was removed. This process was made more difficult due to the presence of numerous buildings nearby, which had to be shored up during the excavation. The cornerstone

6900-420: The vault. By January 1934, the Fed purchased the Montauk Building for less than $ 400,000, thereby acquiring a land lot of 2,900 square feet (270 m ). This had been the only structure on the city block that the Fed had been unable to acquire when it started assembling land for the Federal Reserve Building fifteen years prior. York and Sawyer was hired to design the addition, while Marc Eidlitz & Son

6992-400: The vault. The relocation, requiring one hundred round trips, represented the largest ever such movement of money at any one time. Employees had moved into the new structure by the next month. The new building's vault replaced what was formerly eleven separate vaults in five buildings throughout the Financial District. By 1927, ten percent of the official gold reserves worldwide were stored in

7084-430: The vertical bays on the lower stories. The twelfth and thirteenth floors are contained within an arched loggia that runs around the exterior. These stories are slightly set back behind a 14-foot-wide (4.3 m) balcony running around the building. The roof is clad in quarry tile. The main entrance arch on Liberty Street leads to a large entrance hall with a vaulted ceiling as well as walls clad with stone. On

7176-406: The west side of the main hall, perpendicular to the entrance hall, is a corridor with doorways to the bank directors' offices and conference rooms. These doorways are made of ironwork and are closed to the public. A reception room, measuring 34 feet (10 m) wide by 71 feet (22 m) long, runs west of the entrance hall. A tellers ' room, with a vaulted ceiling and ornamental tellers' cages,

7268-405: The western end of the site, adjoining Nassau Street. The vault rests on Manhattan's bedrock , 80 feet (24 m) below street level and 50 feet (15 m) below sea level, and contains the largest known monetary-gold storage reserve in the world. As of 2024 , the vault housed approximately 507,000 bars of gold, weighing about 6,331 metric tons (6,979 short tons). The Fed serves as a guardian for

7360-595: The world, with about 6,190 short tons (5,620 metric tons) in storage as of 2019 . The building was erected from 1919 to 1924, with an eastward extension built in 1935. The Federal Reserve Building's design and scale was largely praised upon its completion. The building was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1980. It

7452-424: Was a radical departure from more than two hundred years of central banking history. Strong's policy of maintaining price levels during the 1920s through open market operation and his willingness to maintain the liquidity of banks during panics have been praised by monetarists and harshly criticized by Austrian economists . With the European economic turmoil of the 1920s, Strong's influence became worldwide. He

7544-412: Was a strong supporter of European efforts to return to the gold standard and economic stability. Strong's new monetary policies not only stabilized U.S. prices, they encouraged both U.S. and world trade by helping to stabilize European currencies and finances. However, with virtually no inflation, interest rates were low and the U.S. economy and corporate profits surged, fueling the stock market increases of

7636-405: Was completed in 1986. It is 27 stories tall, with 570,000 square feet (53,000 m ) of floor area. The facade is made of tan brick, with an arcade of 43-foot-high (13 m) columns at ground level and turrets on the roofline to match the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building's design. The building contains a privately owned public space (POPS). From 1988 to 1992, the building held

7728-588: Was described as being of "standard office building construction", according to The Wall Street Journal . The structure was designed with just over 462,000 square feet (42,900 m ) of office space. Numerous corridors were built on the second floor, connecting to the offices there, and a conference room originally occupied one side of the second floor. The third through twelfth floors contained loft working spaces that could accommodate several thousand employees. Each of these stories originally contained 32,000 square feet (3,000 m ). The tenth floor contained

7820-503: Was designated a landmark by the LPC on December 21, 1965. It was one of the first landmarks to be designated by the LPC in Manhattan. The city landmark designation was opposed by the building's owner, the Fed, which wrote that federal property could not be regulated by local governments. The Federal Reserve Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on May 6, 1980. It

7912-533: Was dismissed in May 2012 and brought a lawsuit for whistle-blower retaliation in October 2013. In April 2014 the U.S. District court in Manhattan dismissed the case, "ruling that Segarra failed to make a legally sufficient claim under the whistle-blower protections of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act ". In September 2014, Segarra's secretly recorded conversations were aired by This American Life and

8004-726: Was headquartered in the building until 2002 when the firm moved out of the space. The building continues to be owned by private developers and current tenants include the Bar Association of San Francisco . It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The 1929 Los Angeles branch building is also NRHP-listed. From 1951 to 2008, the Seattle branch was headquartered at the Federal Reserve Bank Building in Downtown Seattle , which had been built in 1951 for

8096-603: Was hired as the main construction contractor. The Montauk Building's last tenants vacated the building in June 1934, and demolition of the Montauk Building started. By the next month, plans for the annex were filed with the Manhattan Department of Buildings. The executive offices of the annex were formally opened in December 1935, but some of the lower floors were occupied several weeks before that. The building came to be known as

8188-485: Was intended to house 1,500 of the New York Fed's 4,500 employees, which worked at four separate structures near the Federal Reserve Building. However, the project was canceled in 1976 due to rising costs. Much of the building's gold arrived during and after World War II as countries sought to store their gold in a safe location. By the end of World War II, the reserves of gold inside the vault were valued at $ 4 billion (equivalent to $ 54 billion in 2023). At its peak in 1973,

8280-485: Was laid with a brief ceremony on May 31, 1922, after the foundations had been completed. Marc Eidlitz & Son started constructing the Federal Reserve Building's structural system after the excavations had finished. The steel framework was in place by the end of 1922, followed by the facade in mid-1923. Some of the 2,600 employees of the New York Fed started occupying their new offices in June 1924. That September, three billion dollars in cash and securities were moved to

8372-428: Was largely praised upon its completion, especially for its large scale. Margaret Law, writing for Architecture magazine in 1927, stated that the building carried "a quality which, for lack of a better word, I can best describe as epic". The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) stated that the visual impact of the structure derives from its "vast size, fortress-like appearance, fine proportions and in

8464-439: Was not damaged during the attacks, though dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center settled onto the facade. The Federal Reserve Building was renovated between 2007 and 2008, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Buffalo Branch was closed. The New York Fed purchased the neighboring 33 Maiden Lane in 2012. An audit of the New York Fed's gold was conducted in 2012 after politicians and investors expressed concern that

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