Plaza Views: A Closer Look at Citi's New Commons for Tribeca

An evening view of the Citi plaza from across North Moore Street in Independence Plaza. The plaza sports 28 new trees and 8,500 square feet of new plantings. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

The new public plaza at the entrance to Citi’s Tribeca headquarters opened to great fanfare on Oct. 3, with hundreds of employees gathered for a ribbon cutting and round of speeches led by Michael Corbat, the financial giant’s CEO. But this was the day after the reimagined space, at Greenwich and North Moore streets, had actually opened. And it seemed to need no introduction. Already, Citi-ites and locals alike had taken easily to the plaza’s curvy wooden benches, new walkways, and freshly laid oval lawn.

The 29,000-square-foot public space, which opened along with a 7,000-square-foot lobby, is part of what Corbat called a “five-year journey” to renovate and combine Citi’s two buildings and reconfigure every floor into an open plan, with completion due in 2019. Corbat said the project, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is the largest private sector, single occupant renovation in the city’s history. (James Corner Field Operations designed the plaza.) Citi declines to reveal the current cost of the project.

The new plaza, Corbat said, “is meant to encourage people who work here, live here or just strolling by to take a seat and relax.”

“But if you work here,” he quipped, “don’t relax too much.”

Below, we take a closer look at the new space—and a few captured moments within it.

Photographs by Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

In preparation for the opening of the new plaza, a worker sweeps the Citi building's sidewalk on North Moore Street.

During the ceremony, a photo of the former plaza was on display, a reminder of the space, from 1988 until 2015, that has been replaced. The walls and trellises were removed to create a more open entrance.

Dwayne Wilson, a Citi security guard, pauses during the singing of the Star Spangled Banner at the opening ceremony for the new plaza.

Employees from both the 388 and 390 Greenwich Street buildings now enter through the main building at 388. The two buildings have been combined.

The all-glass front replaces the masonry facade on the lower 14 floors and gives the building a new transparency. "The public plaza and the building aspire to be open, welcoming and collaborative from inside our offices all the way to the curb," said Citi CEO Michael Corbat.

No sooner had the plaza opened than families discovered that the newly laid, 3,500- square-foot lawn is an ideal open space for small children to run free. 

A typical plaza activity.

The newly renovated lobby for Citi's global headquarters in Tribeca. - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

A 360 degree view of Citi's 7,000-square-foot new lobby, with nearly 26-foot-high ceiling. (Click and drag your cursor to see the full 360-degree view.)

A view into the lobby from the North Moore side of the building.

The plaza's curving benches are popular play spaces for children.

A new place—for all—to hang out.