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Skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

The Secretariat Building is directly connected to the Conference Building (housing the Security Council) at its northeast and the Dag Hammarskjöld Library to the south. It is indirectly connected to the United Nations General Assembly Building to the north, via the Conference Building. West of the Secretariat Building is a circular pool with a decorative fountain in its center, as well as a sculpture executed in 1964 by British artist Barbara Hepworth in memory of Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. The Japanese Peace Bell is just north of the building, and a grove of sycamore trees is planted next to the Secretariat Building. On the western part of the site, along First Avenue, are the flags of the UN, its member states, and its observer states. Outside of the UN headquarters, Robert Moses Playground is directly to the south, and Tudor City and the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice are to the west. In addition, the Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza hotel (within One and Two United Nations Plaza) is to the northwest. Historically, the site was part of a cove called Turtle Bay. The cove, located between what is now 45th and 48th Streets, was fed by a stream that ran from the present day intersection of Second Avenue and 48th Street. A creek from the southern end of modern day Central Park also drained into Turtle Bay. The first settlement on the site was a tobacco farm built in 1639. The site was developed with residences in the 19th century.

The Secretariat Building was designed in the International Style by a team of ten architects working under planning director Wallace K. Harrison. The Board of Design comprised Nikolai Bassov of the Soviet Union; Gaston Brunfaut of Belgium; Ernest Cormier of Canada; Le Corbusier of France; Liang Seu cheng of China; Sven Markelius of Sweden; Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil; Howard Robertson of the United Kingdom; G. A. Soilleux of Australia; and Julio Vilamajó of Uruguay. In addition, David Fine of United States Steel oversaw the construction of the Secretariat Building. The building houses the administrative functions of the UN, including day to day duties such as finance and translation. When the building was completed, it was cited as measuring 165.81 m tall, although Emporis and The Skyscraper Center both cite the height as 153.92 m. The Secretariat's architects wanted to design the massing as a slab without any setbacks. The cornerstone is a block of New Hampshire granite, weighing and measuring The name of the United Nations is inscribed in English, Spanish, French, Russian, and Chinese, which at the time were the five official languages of the United Nations. The cornerstone was initially intended to be relocated to the General Assembly Building when that building was completed.

The wider western and eastern elevations of the facade consist of glass curtain walls set within a metal grid. The Secretariat Building was the first skyscraper in New York City to use a glass curtain wall. The western and eastern elevations contain 5,400 windows in total. A total of of glass was used, a greater proportion than any other structure in the world at the time. The General Bronze Corporation manufactured and supplied the building with 5,400 individual windows, spandrel frames, louvers, and architectural metalwork. The original curtain wall was a single layer General Bronze Corporation manufactured the windows to meet the specifications of Harrison's design: "a curtain wall cantilevered two feet, nine inches, in front of the steel structure so that it formed a flush skin of blue green Thermopane heat absorbing glass, painted black on the inner face." The modern facade, installed in 2010, is made of low emissivity glass that resembles the original facade. The modern curtain wall consists of two layers of glass panes, which are more resistant to shattering in case of a bombing. When the building was completed, the curtain walls were cantilevered 0.61 m from the superstructure

Spandrel panels separate the windows on different stories. The inner faces of the spandrels are painted black, insulating the building while also giving the impression of depth. Floors 6, 16, 28, and 39 house mechanical equipment and thus contain pipe galleries rather than glass panels. The facades of these mechanical stories consist of latticed panels, except on floor 39, where there is a mechanical penthouse behind an open air grille. These elevations rise as unbroken slabs and do not contain any openings.

The foundation includes concrete piers that extend down to the underlying bedrock. Steel pilings are used at points where the bedrock is more than 6.10 m deep. The piles are installed in sets of 5 to 20 and range from deep. Each set of pilings is covered by a concrete cap. and floor 39 serves as a mechanical penthouse, accessible only by stairs. Objects could be transported between floors via a conveyor belt system that traveled at
The Secretariat Building was built with 21 high speed passenger elevators and eight bronze and glass escalators.

Under the building is a three story garage for UN employees, with 1,500 parking spaces. The first basement level also houses the UN's post office and a studio for educational films. On the second basement level are lockers for maintenance workers and a room for printing and collating documents. The third basement level includes a small firehouse for the UN headquarters and a furnace room, Tunnels from the basements lead south to the library and north to the General Assembly Building. as well as columns covered with green Italian marble. Black and white terrazzo floors are also present at all entryways, and all corridors in the building near the elevator banks. Also within the lobby is Peace, a stained glass window by Marc Chagall, dedicated in memory of Hammarskjöld in 1964. When the building was constructed, the lowest stories were to contain broadcasting studios, press offices, staff rooms, and other functions. There was a meditation space on floor 2 that doubled as a press conference room. In addition, there was a bank branch on floor 4. On floor 5 are employee amenities, including a health clinic and a passageway to a staff dining room above the adjacent Conference Building. The dining room frequently hosted parties and receptions for UN staff before being converted into offices in 1981. The modern day dining room, completed in 1982, is a 750 seat space in the headquarters complex's South Annex. Floor 7 had a large telephone switchboard for the UN's Information Office. Floor 17 housed an interpreters' lounge and the UN's art and cartography divisions, while floor 20 had an in house barber shop. The eastern side of the building was more desirable because it faced the East River, and higher level diplomats needed large amounts of space for secretaries, filing cabinets, and other functions. The offices are divided into modules measuring 1.22 m wide, with movable partitions that align with the facade's mullions. The offices initially included French desks as well as aluminum chairs. which are outfitted with egg crate louvers to reduce glare. efn|Most of the ceiling is 2.44 m tall, but the sections of ceiling near each window are 2.90 m tall. Offices within 3.66 m of a window are cooled by high velocity air conditioning units underneath the windows. The use of East River water precluded the need for a dedicated cooling tower, which would have required increasing the building's height and strengthening the superstructure. The suite was donated by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and designed by Gerhard Karplus of New York City and Mr. and Mrs. Karl Mang of Vienna. Prior to a 2000s renovation, it was covered in walnut paneling. In addition, floor 38 had a private switchboard and an office for the President of the United Nations General Assembly; most Secretariat employees were not allowed to visit this story. At the time, the UN was operating out of a temporary headquarters in Lake Success, New York, although it wished to build a permanent headquarters in the US. Several cities competed to host the UN headquarters before New York City was selected. John D. Rockefeller Jr. paid US$8.5 million for an option on the X City site, and he donated it to the UN in December 1946. The UN accepted this donation, despite the objections of several prominent architects such as Le Corbusier.

The design process for the United Nations headquarters formally began in February 1947. Each architect on the Board of Design devised his own plan for the site, and some architects created several schemes. All the plans had to include at least three buildings: one each for the General Assembly, the Secretariat, and conference rooms. The plans had to comply with several "basic principles"; for example, the Secretariat Building was to be a 40 story tower without setbacks. It would be a freestanding tower surrounded by shorter structures, something which may have been influenced by Le Corbusier's ideals. The same month, the Board of Design published two alternative designs for a five building complex, anchored by the Secretariat Building to the south and a pair of 35 story buildings to the north. After much discussion, Harrison decided to select a design based on the proposals of two board members, Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier. Even though the design process was a collaborative effort, The committee unanimously agreed on this plan. The complex was originally planned to cost US$85 million. The same month, UN Secretary General Trygve Lie and the architects began discussing ways to reduce construction costs by downsizing the headquarters. Lie then submitted a report to the General Assembly in which he recommended reducing the Secretariat tower from 45 to 39 stories. The UN had contemplated installing a swimming pool in the building during the planning process, but the pool was eliminated due to objections from American media organizations. The General Assembly voted to approve the design for the headquarters in November 1947. In April 1948, US President Harry S. Truman requested that the United States Congress approve an interest free loan of US$65 million to fund construction. Because Congress did not approve the loan for several months, there was uncertainty over whether the project would proceed. Around that time, the UN had decided to reduce the Secretariat Building to 39 stories. The height reduction, along with other modifications, was expected to save US$3 million. Congress authorized the loan in August 1948, of which US$25 million was made available immediately from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Lie predicted the US$25 million advance would only be sufficient to pay for the Secretariat Building's construction.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the initial buildings occurred on September 14, 1948. The next month, Harrison requested that its 58 members and the 48 U. S. states participate in designing the interiors of the building's conference rooms. It was believed that if enough countries designed their own rooms, the UN would be able to reduce its expenditures. Also in October, the American Bridge Company was hired to construct the steel superstructure of the Secretariat Building. This prompted the architects to erect a mockup of the planned facade on the roof of the nearby Manhattan Building. By late 1948, the Secretariat Building was scheduled to receive its first tenants in 1950. Fuller Turner Walsh Slattery Inc., a joint venture between the George A. Fuller Company, Turner Construction, the Walsh Construction Company, and the Slattery Contracting Company, was selected in December 1948 to construct the Secretariat Building, as well as the foundations for the remaining buildings. The next month, the UN formally awarded a US$23.8 million contract for the Secretariat Building's construction to the joint venture. The Secretariat Building was to be completed no later than January 1, 1951, or the joint venture would pay a minimum penalty of US$2,500 per day to the UN. The joint venture had started constructing the piers under the building by the end of January 1949, and site excavations were completed the next month. In April 1949, workers erected the first steel beam for the Secretariat Building, and the flag of the United Nations was raised above the first beam. The cornerstone of the headquarters was originally supposed to be laid at the Secretariat Building on April 10, 1949. Lie delayed the ceremony after learning that Truman would not present to officiate the cornerstone laying. At a topping out ceremony on October 5, the UN flag was hoisted atop the roof of the newly completed steel frame. The facade was still not completed; the aluminum had only reached the 18th floor and the glass had reached the 9th floor. New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey laid the headquarters' cornerstone on October 24, 1949, the fourth anniversary of the United Nations' founding. Construction workers completed a sample office on the eighth floor in January 1950.

The first portion of the building to be completed was its parking lot, which opened in July 1950. with 450 staff members moving into the basement levels and the first 15 stories. Staff members with frequent meetings, such as interpreters, remained at the Lake Success office for the time being. At the time, the UN had 57 member states and could accommodate 13 more nations. Initially, the UN did not allow visitors in the Secretariat Building. The UN ultimately agreed in November 1950 to relocate the Secretariat Building's air intakes. The same month, the UN decided to spend US$360,000 to furnish three floors of offices for UNICEF and the Technical Assistance Administration. Media correspondents moved into the building in January 1951, and the Secretariat Building was fully occupied by that June. Building officials also announced in early 1951 that they would repair the windows, which were leaking due to poor weather stripping. Officials had recorded 4,916 instances of leaks before the windows were repaired in mid 1951. During a storm that October, after the windows had been repaired, officials recorded only 16 leaks. William R. Frye of The Christian Science Monitor said that the Secretariat Building's vertical office layout had led many staff members to express nostalgia for the old Lake Success offices. and the fountain outside the building was dedicated in June 1952. By the end of 1952, the complex received about 1,500 visitors per day. Workers cleaned the building for the first time in April 1953, and repairs to the facade were completed by that September. The next year, Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld proposed allocating US$635,000 to install automatic elevators in the Secretariat Building due to increasing labor costs. At that time, the building received about 2,500 to 3,000 tourists a day. That year, Secretary General U Thant proposed constructing a two story annex at a cost of US$6.3 million, but a UN committee rejected this proposal. A journalists' club in the building was opened the same year. In 1964, a UN panel approved a proposal to replace the elevators and renovate two of the building's unoccupied stories, but it rejected other proposals to expand the headquarters. Two years later, Thant proposed constructing another office building within the UN headquarters. By then, the Secretariat Building was nearing capacity, and some organizations, such as UNICEF, had been forced to relocate. The building's manual elevators were replaced by automatic cabs in 1967. This led to the construction of One United Nations Plaza, on 44th Street just outside the UN complex, in 1975. The main headquarters was expanded slightly from 1978 to 1981. As part of this project, a new cafeteria was built at the northern end of the headquarters, and the Secretariat Building's cafeteria was converted into additional offices. By then, the Secretariat had over 6,000 employees, some of whom were forced to work within the United Nations Plaza towers. Because the headquarters was an extraterritorial territory, the Secretariat Building was exempt from various building regulations. Furthermore, the building's machinery created electromagnetic fields, which reportedly made some employees ill. Although the General Assembly had voted to fund the installation of electromagnetic shields in the building in 1990, that money was instead used for roof repairs. and up to one quarter of the building's heat escaped through leaks in the curtain wall. At the time, the UN had proposed renovating the building for US$800 million, as UN officials had concluded that the long term cost of renovations would be cheaper than doing nothing. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Secretariat Building's curtain walls were covered with a green coating, which was intended to limit damage in case of a bombing. In 2002, Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed replacing the Robert Moses Playground with a new tower, relocating the Secretariat's offices there temporarily, and renovating the Secretariat Building itself. but the New York State Legislature refused to pass legislation in 2005 that would have allowed these plans to proceed. The UN then decided to renovate its existing structures over seven years for US$1.6 billion. The Secretariat Building would be renovated in four phases, each covering ten stories, and the UN would lease an equivalent amount of office space nearby. Louis Frederick Reuter IV was the original architect for the renovation, but he resigned in 2006 following various disputes between UN and US officials. Michael Adlerstein was hired as the new project architect. At that point, the cost of the project had risen to US$1.9 billion.

The renovation of the United Nations headquarters formally began in 2008. Adlerstein planned to reconstruct the Secretariat Building's offices entirely while preserving the appearance of the exterior and public spaces. All of the building's 5,000 workers had to relocate to nearby office space. Work on the building began in mid 2010. In addition, large amounts of asbestos were removed from the structure, and workers installed a fire alarm and sprinkler system. The building was also retrofitted with various green building features as part of the project. The building reopened in phases, with the first workers returning in July 2012. On October 29, 2012, the basement of the UN complex was flooded due to Hurricane Sandy, leading to a three day closure and the relocation of several offices. By that December, the last workers had moved back into the Secretariat Building. Following the renovation, the Secretariat Building housed all of the Secretariat's divisions. Some of the building's previous occupants, such as the Department of Peace Operations, had relocated to other buildings.

When the Secretariat Building was being constructed in June 1949, Building magazine described the tower as "a vast marble frame for two enormous windows a mosaic reflecting the sky from a thousand facets". Upon the building's completion in 1951, Office Management and Equipment magazine presented UN officials with a plaque recognizing the building as "office of the year". The Secretariat Building's staff quickly nicknamed it the "Glass House". Vogue magazine compared the tower to an "ice cream sandwich", describing it as being "as much monument as office". The architect Henry Stern Churchill wrote of the building: "Visually it completely dominates the group; when one thinks of U. N. one thinks only of the vast green glass, marble end slab." The architect Aaron Betsky wrote in 2005: "The Secretariat becomes both an abstraction of the office grids behind it and an abstract painting itself, posed in front of Manhattan as one approaches from the major airports on Long Island." Architectural critic Lewis Mumford regarded the building as a "superficial aesthetic triumph and an architectural failure" that was only enlivened during the nighttime when the offices were illuminated. He wrote of the interiors: "So far from the being the model office building it might have been, it really is a very conventional job." Mumford reluctantly acknowledged that the building could be a global symbol, saying that the building represented the fact that "the managerial revolution has taken place and that bureaucracy rules the world". the Corning Glass Building, and the Springs Mills Building, were built after the United Nations Secretariat Building. The development of Lever House and the glass walled Seagram Building, in turn, led to development of other glass walled skyscrapers worldwide. The 2005 film The Interpreter was the first filmed inside the headquarters.