Aside from the benefits to the Bankers Trust Company of constructing a signature tower, it had to demolish the relatively modern Gillender Building (22 stories high and only a dozen years old) in order to make the most of its investment in the extraordinarily valuable site. Because it rested on quicksand, the Gillender's engineers had to employ caissons so large that subterranean stories were rendered useless, making the building inefficient. These caissons are clearly visible in the photographs.