The canyons of Wall Street are lined with condos. Dog walkers on strolls outnumber hung-over clerks on cigarette breaks. Gilded-Age moneymaking monoliths now house spas, sushi joints and luxury retailers. What happened? Arriving at settlement with Lower Manhattan's makeover.

It's 7 o'clock on a chilly midwinter weeknight. Manhattan market strategist Mike Morrissey saunters east on Wall Street past Broad and the still heart of world commerce: the New York Stock Exchange.

Morrissey is semi-shell-shocked from another session in the arena in which he does daily battle -- the mortgage-backed securities market -- and he's ready to unwind. To his left, through heavy columns, an army of treadmillers marches in unison inside the Equinox health club at 14 Wall Street, an icon of Art Deco architecture and once the headquarters of Banker's Trust. He soon passes the sparkling street-level displays of Tiffany's at 37 Wall before ducking into Cipriani, one block over. Minutes later, negotiating the open pockets of a bustling bar space, the intense 43-year-old MBS maven is sipping a bellini on a terraced colonnade. The entire space, specifically its famous 16,000-square-foot interior framed by magnificent Corinthian columns, reeks of history. This was, at one time or another, home to the New York Merchants' Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange and National City Bank.

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