text: Design partner Gordon Bunshaft was in Europe at the time, so Roy O. Allen and Jacques E. Guiton worked on alternative plans. SOM considered three plans for the site: a single building on the block between Cedar and Liberty Streets; two buildings spread out across the two blocks between Pine and Liberty Streets; and a single building on the two blocks, with a plaza abutting it.  On September 26, 1955, Guiton presented at least two of the three plans to Chase's board of directors. In addition to the tower-and-plaza plan, Guiton presented a "control" plan in which the two blocks were kept separate. Bunshaft assumed responsibility for the design when he returned from Europe on October 15, and he had convinced Chase officials to pursue the tower-and-plaza plan by December 6. This would allow a building with  of space. By contrast, if Cedar Street had not been closed, Chase would have been able to construct a tower with  to the north; the existing buildings to the south, covering , would have been modernized.
  Finalization of plans
  The Chase Manhattan Bank officially publicized its intentions to rebuild the two-block site in November 1955. The planned development was described as part of a little"Rockefeller Center" for Lower Manhattan. The proposed building would allow Chase to consolidate 8,500 employees at nine buildings. The following month, further details of the redevelopment were revealed, including a wider-ranging redevelopment of the Financial District. SOM's initial design called for a 50-to-60-story building, surrounded by an open plaza that would be created by closing Cedar Street. The building would occupy 30 percent of the resulting two-block site, and all other structures would be demolished, except for Chase's existing building at Nassau and Pine Streets. The Financial District plan also included a 750-unit middle-income housing project on Whitehall Street, a 1,000-spot parking garage on Pearl Street, and a $6.19 million widening of Water Street, promoted by Rockefeller's Downtown–Lower Manhattan Association. The wider redevelopment was conceived in conjunction with city planner Robert Moses, mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., and Manhattan borough president Hulan Jack. In particular, Rockefeller said that Moses's approval of the project preceded approvals from other entities.