For the Future

When it opened in 1977, Citicorp Center charted a course to transform Midtown. It was a consequential time for New York City. The Center, especially its most public space—Saint Peter’s—fostered much-needed vitality and enriched the urban landscape with an enduring effectiveness like few other redevelopment efforts. In 2016, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Center a Landmark Site as much for its architectural significance as for its innovation in urban planning, noting the “special character and special historical and aesthetic interest and value as part of the development, history, and cultural characteristics of New York City.” Jazz and theater, art and music, culture and community programming: these remain not mere amenities but essentials for countless people who in some way call this place home.

Once again, the City is at an inflection point. And so, too, is Saint Peter’s.

In 2021, a broken New York City water main pipe brought devastation and destruction to the levels at and below the outdoor sunken plaza. Practice studios, rehearsal spaces, a much-beloved theater, meeting rooms, archives, and so much more were literally wiped away. The exquisite Vignelli-designed Sanctuary and its distinctive organ were lovingly, but necessarily, dismantled in order to be saved.

Just as the original Saint Peter’s / First National City Bank of New York partnership was an intentional, unprecedented plan that brought revitalization and flourishing at an otherwise uncertain time, today’s rebuilding is guided by confidence in the future of the City. To this end, a capital campaign is now underway to address necessary restoration work not fully covered by insurance, and to expand public spaces through legacy and refreshed programming, architecture and design consistent with the best of late modernism, and commitments to sustainability and the environment.

For the Future is a joint initiative of The Arts and Architecture Conservancy at Saint Peter’s, a non-religious, non-profit organization giving future to modernist art and architecture in Midtown Manhattan, and Saint Peter’s Church, a founding condominium partner of Citicorp Center.

The goal of the campaign is to make enduring investments in four pillars: the future of community, arts, and culture; the future of Modernism; the future of the “wonder, love, and praise” inspired by a world-class organ; and the future of a sculptural masterwork, Nevelson Chapel.

Over the past five decades of life in and around Saint Peter’s, vitality has been fostered by those who, in ways large and small, are part of this place. Likewise, the future will be secured by gifts and support in sizes across a wide spectrum, from ten dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, and from one thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Corporate and family philanthropy, individual donors, and foundations—together, an ever-expansive community is investing in a visionary Landmark and committed to nothing less than life in the City.