The 800 Westchester Avenue complex, built as the General Foods Corporate Headquarters and designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, LLC

Kevin Roche

Kevin Roche is an Irish-American architect known for his creative work with glass.Born in Dublin, Roche spent his formative years in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork before he graduated from University College Dublin in 1945. He then worked with Michael Scott from 1945-1946...

, is a postmodern

Postmodern architecture

Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day architecture...

 Class A office building located in Rye Brook, New York

Rye Brook, New York

Rye Brook is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, within the town of Rye. Prior to the village's establishment on July 7, 1982, the area was an unincorporated section of the town of Rye...

. Described as an "aluminum business palace" and an "Aztec

Aztec

The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...

 temple

Temple

A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...

", it was notable for being the subject of the largest real estate transaction

Real estate transaction

A real estate transaction is the process whereby rights in a unit of property is transferred between two or more parties, e.g. in case of conveyance one party being the seller and the other being the buyer...

 of 2004.

History

Originally conceived in 1979 by the General Foods

General Foods

General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the USA by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The name General Foods was adopted in 1929, after several corporate acquisitions...

 company as a symbol of the company's "aggressive consumer products packaging and marketing", it is known for its distinctive glass and white aluminum exterior, as well as its unusual layout of a grand staircase extending over the underground garage and a secret underground tunnel. Upon its opening in 1983, General Foods relocated its 2,000 headquarters

Corporate headquarters

Corporate headquarters is a term used to describe the entity at the top of a corporation to take full responsibility for the overall success of the corporation, ensures Corporate Governance...

 staff from nearby White Plains

White Plains, New York

White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...

. However, in 1985, General Food was acquired by Philip Morris

Altria Group

Altria Group, Inc. is based in Henrico County, Virginia, and is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. It is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations...

, who proceeded to lay off most of the General Foods headquarters staff in 1987. After a series of subsequent mergers and restructurings, Altria, the successor to Philip Morris sold off the facility in 2004 to the RPW Group headed by Robert Weisz, moving the remaining 1,000 employees to other facilities except for 6 essential employees who remain employed with RPW in Westchester County

Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...

. At a cost of 40 million dollars, this was the largest real estate transaction in Westchester county in 2004 and did not include the 70 million dollar cost of renovating and subdividing the building.

Facilities

The complex is noted for its extensive corporate amenities, and retains such features as a hair salon, barber shop, television studio, fitness center and conference facilities

Convention center

A convention center is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees...

. These features were continued even after the sale and renovation of the complex as a value-added benefit to the significant number of new tenants who occupy spaces ranging from 1,500 to 120000 square feet (11,148.4 m²).

Also on-site is the related 760 Westchester Avenue facility that has been converted into a disaster recovery/adjunct location. It is currently leased by CBLPath Inc for an anatomic pathology services lab.

Currently, it is owned by the RPW Group and managed by Cushman and Wakefield.