text: Thirty-one parcels were acquired and cleared to make way for the development. The 54th Street frontage was largely occupied by brownstone houses. Some of the other lots contained commercial spaces, ranging from small shops to the upscale Cafe Chauveron. The site also included the Medical Chambers on 54th Street, which was owned by a cooperative of doctors. St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church occupied the corner of Lexington Avenue and 54th Street; its sanctuary was rebuilt when the Citigroup Center was developed.
  Street furniture
  Custom street furniture—including newsstands, flagpoles, and streetlight pylons—was designed for the sidewalks around the Citigroup Center. New Jersey-based company Designetics designed pylons with a cruciform cross-section and street lamps at the top. Seven lighting pylons are placed along the streets that surround the block. Three custom pylons—at the northwest, northeast, and southwest corners of the block—include pedestrian and vehicular traffic lights. The pylons were initially designed with a "glossy black finish" that contrasted with the tower's aluminum facade; by 2016, they had been painted gray. The New Yorker described the pylons in 2017 as "sculptural towers worthy of Brancusi".
  History
  First National City Bank (later Citibank) was founded in 1812 and, for over a century, had its headquarters in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The company was headquartered at 52 Wall Street until 1908, when it moved to 55 Wall Street. After National City Bank and the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company merged in 1929, the new company, City Bank Farmers Trust, moved into a new structure at 20 Exchange Place, which was completed in 1931, and opened a Midtown office at 399 Park Avenue, one block west of the present Citigroup Center, in 1961.