Jacob K. Javits Federal Building

Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building at 26 Federal Plaza in the Civic Center, Manhattan, New York City is a 40+ story structure which houses many federal government agencies. The federal building falls under the jurisdiction of the United States Federal Protective Service for any and all law enforcement and protection issues.

Because the New York City district field office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is located in the building, it is a well-known location among the city's immigrant communities. Every business day, immigrants requiring USCIS services can be seen lining up in the morning along Worth Street to go through the security checkpoint and enter the building.The building is named for influential U.S. senator from New York Jacob K. Javits.

The Jacob K. Javits Federal Building and Customs Courthouse, as the complex's full name goes, was built in 1967 for the US Federal Government as the only realized buildings, along with the nearby Family Court Building, of the 1962 Civic Center general plan.At 179 m the Federal Building dominates the Civic Center at Foley Square along with the Municipal Building and the U.S. Courthouse.This massive building has a 41-storey glass-walled slab facing east that is partly "wrapped" around a core that faces Broadway. Originally the facade facing Broadway was a windowless wall of exposed concrete, but in 1976 an extension by the same architects brought offices also to the western portion. The vertical window slits of the glass walls are misaligned so that all the adjacent windows are at a different height, forming an alternating zig-zag pattern on the facade.On the triangular plaza in front of the building is the eight-storey Customs Courthouse as a black glass cube that is elevated on two white vertical "plates" that slice through the cube.The Plaza at the NE corner of the Javitz site once was home to "Tilted Arc", a massive Cor-Ten Steel sculpture by Richard Serra measuring 12 ft x 120 ft x 2 1/2 in.

According to Serra, "The viewer becomes aware of himself and of his movement through the plaza. As he moves, the sculpture changes. Contraction and expansion of the sculpture result from the viewer's movement. Step by step the perception not only of the sculpture but of the entire environment changes."The sculpture generates controversy as soon as it is erected, and Judge Edward Re begins a letter-writing campaign to have the $175,000 work removed. Four years later, William Diamond, regional administrator for the GSA, decides to hold a public hearing to determine whether Tilted Arc should be relocated. Estimates for the cost of dismantling the work are $35,000, with an additional $50,000 estimated to erect it in another location. Richard Serra testifies that the sculpture is site-specific, and that to remove it from its site is to destroy it. If the sculpture is relocated, he will remove his name from it.The public hearing is held in March 1985. During the hearing, 122 people testify in favor of retaining the sculpture, and 58 testify in favor of removing it. The art establishment -- artists, museum curators, and art critics -- testify that Tilted Arc is a great work of art. Those against the sculpture, for the most part people who work at Federal Plaza, say that the sculpture interferes with public use of the plaza. They also accuse it of attracting graffiti, rats, and terrorists who might use it as a blasting wall for bombs. The jury of five, chaired by William Diamond, vote 4-1 in favor of removing the sculpture.Serra's appeal of the ruling fails. On March 15, 1989, during the night, federal workers cut Tilted Arc into three pieces, remove it from Federal Plaza, and cart it off to a scrap-metal yard.

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United States Federal Protective Service