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51 Astor Place

51 Astor Place

Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , ,

51 Astor Place, scorned as the “Death Star” of Greenwich Village, is an imaginative form for the irregular former site of Cooper Union’s engineering school.

The Village Voice‘s harsh words may be familiarity-bred contempt. The Voice was headquartered just two blocks south during the years of construction.

Certainly, the blue-black mirror-glass edifice towers over and clashes with most of its low-rise masonry landmark neighbors. Paradoxically, the reflective facade makes the 1906 landmark Wanamaker’s Annex twice as prominent.

Viewed from the west, the Fourth Avenue facade seems simple a simple monolith, like a giant tower PC. (A fitting image, as the prime tenant is IBM!) From any other angle, the irregular pentagon takes on more complex forms. The east side of the tower incorporates an optical illusion. The wall is split diagonally into narrow panes of light-colored glass above wide panes of dark-colored glass, giving the appearance of a faceted facade. The view from above (via Google Earth) is revealing.

The eastern side of the building – with separate entry numbered 101 Astor Place – is now the Manhattan campus of St. John’s University.

Meanwhile, Architect Magazine explains why and how the Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue facades are different. The Metals in Construction article explains the building’s complexities.

51 Astor Place Vital Statistics
  • Location: 51 Astor Place: block bounded by E 9th Street, Third Avenue, E 8th Street, Fourth Avenue
  • Year completed: 2013
  • Architect: Fumihiko Maki
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: Postmodern
51 Astor Place Recommended Reading

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2 Cornelia Street

2 Cornelia Street

Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , , ,

2 Cornelia Street, also known as the Varitype Building and “the Greenwich Flatiron,” is a distinctive wedge-shaped loft building turned residential condominium in 1982.

The building was originally intended for light manufacturing, offices, and artists’ lofts, according to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. As a result, the apartments have ample windows under 11-foot ceilings. Thanks to the neighborhood’s landmark status, views all around are protected from high-rise incursion.

Even though the building isn’t particularly luxurious, a 2 BR/2 Bath unit on the 2nd floor is renting for $7,500/month, while a 4 BR/3.5 Bath 10th/11th floor duplex is offered at $23,000/month. A 6th floor 2 BR/2.5 Bath apartment is listed for sale at $2.5 million.

2 Cornelia Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 2 Cornelia Street at Sixth Avenue
  • Year completed: 1907
  • Architect: Fred Ebeling
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: Arts and Crafts
  • New York City Landmark: 2010 (Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II)
2 Cornelia Street Recommended Reading

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228 Bleecker Street

228 Bleecker Street

Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , , ,

228 Bleecker Street is a nicely maintained example of the larger apartment buildings that replaced small dwellings in the early 1900s. Greenwich Village at that time was growing, with an influx of Italian immigrants.

The building is across the street from Our Lady of Pompeii RC Church (built 27 years later).

The tiny residential entry is on Bleecker Street, sandwiched between the building’s gustatory tenants: Trattoria Spaghetto, on the right, Molly’s Cupcakes on the left. Buon appetito!

228 Bleecker Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 228 Bleecker Street
  • Year completed: 1901
  • Architect: Michael Bernstein
  • Floors: 6
  • Style: Renaissance Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 2010 (Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II)
228 Bleecker Street Recommended Reading

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Our Lady of Pompeii

Our Lady of Pompeii

Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our Lady of Pompeii Roman Catholic Church is prominently sited on Bleecker Street at Carmine Street. It replaces an earlier church that had been demolished during widening of Sixth Avenue.

Our Lady of Pompeii Vital Statistics
  • Location: 240 Bleecker Street at Carmine Street
  • Year completed: 1928
  • Architect: Matthew W. Del Guadio
  • Floors: 5
  • Style: Neo-Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 2010 (Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II)
Our Lady of Pompeii Recommended Reading

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Emery Roth : Wikipedia photo

Emery Roth

Architecture,

Emery Roth was a preeminent New York architect, best known for his luxury apartment buildings – most of which are landmarks. Indeed, he helped define the Central Park West skyline with seven major buildings.

According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, Emery Roth was born in 1871 at Galzecs, Hungary. Orphaned at 13, he was sent to the United States. He first immigrated to Chicago and then to Bloomington, Illinois, where he apprenticed. Later he assisted with drawings for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He moved to New York several years later, joining the firm of Richard Morris Hunt. In 1895, Roth opened his own offices and three years later, he bought the architectural practice of Theodore G. Stein and Eugene Yancey Cohen, which became Stein, Cohen & Roth. Soon after the turn of the century, Roth returned to independent practice, specializing in luxury apartment houses.

The Hotel Belleclaire (1901-03, 2171-2179 Broadway, a designated New York City Landmark) that exhibits elements of the French Beaux-Arts and Viennese Secession styles, is considered Roth’s first major work in New York City. In the 1910s, he experimented with the Art Nouveau style, and in the 1920s, his designs became more classically-inspired and often incorporated elements of the Art Deco style.

Emery Roth Representative Buildings
Emery Roth Recommended Reading
888 Grand Concourse

888 Grand Concourse

Bronx, New York, , , , , , , , , , ,

888 Grand Concourse has seen better days. But even in decline, the curvaceous Art Deco landmark is striking and memorable. The bold corner treatment, in particular, stands out for its concave gilt and mosaic entry.

The Emery Roth-designed apartment building stands at E 161st Street, across the “Boulevard of Dreams” from the old Bronx County Courthouse. In 2009, The New York Times called 888 “a particular stunner, a medley of curves, scallops and concave spaces executed in black granite, bronze, stainless steel, marble mosaic and gold stripes.”

Since then, the building has fallen on hard times. In 2013, the Daily News reported that the apartment house had 341 open violations and was one of the Bronx’s ten worst buildings. In February 2016 tenants staged a rent strike, and the building is in foreclosure, according to The Real Deal. The New York Real Estate news site described the building as “rat-infested.”

One can only hope that the landmark emerges from foreclosure with an owner that can rehabilitate the building.

888 Grand Concourse Vital Statistics
  • Location: 888 Grand Concourse at E 161 Street
  • Year completed: 1937
  • Architect: Emery Roth
  • Floors: 6
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 2011
888 Grand Concourse Recommended Reading

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Goelet Building

Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , , , ,

Goelet Building * looks surprisingly modern for architecture more than a century old. The structure was built in two stages. The first five floors were completed in 1887. The original sixth floor was demolished in 1906† and replaced with five floors that more or less mimicked the three floors below.

The Maynicke & Franke addition blends very well with the McKim, Mead & White original. The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission notes minor differences in materials and patterns, but the final result maintains a colorful, yet elegant appearance. This is no small accomplishment; add-on floors can be disastrous. Just take a look at De Lemos & Cordes’ 1889 Armeny Building, defaced by a two-story addition in 1893.

As with their Warren Building diagonally across the street, McKim, Mead & White faced the challenge of a non-rectangular plot. They rounded the corner, to avoid the awkward corner dictated by the property line.

In his New York Times Streetscapes column, historian Christopher Gray lauds the Justin family for rescuing the Goetlet Building from decline. Zoltan Justin bought the building in 1977. He and son Jeffrey cleaned the facade, removed non-historic elements, and restored the structure to its original glory.

* Not to be confused with the 1932 Goelet Building, now known as Swiss Center Building, located at Fifth Avenue and W 49th Street.

†See Tom Miller’s post in Daytonian in Manhattan for a look at the original six-story building.

Goelet Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 900 Broadway at E 20th Street
  • Year completed: 1887; enlarged in 1906
  • Architect: McKim, Mead & White; 1906 expansion by Maynicke & Franke
  • Floors: 10
  • Style: Industrial
  • New York City Landmark: 1989
Goelet Building Recommended Reading

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Cable Building

Cable Building

Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , , ,

Cable Building, at the southwestern corner of the NoHo Historic District, is the last remnant of a San Francisco-style cable car system that once served lower Manhattan. The nine-story* Beaux Arts building housed the massive steam engines and winding wheels that pulled 40-ton cables at 30 mph. Alas, the cable system was uneconomical. The last cable car ran just seven years after the first.

For architects McKim, Mead & White, this was their first all-steel-frame building. The four-story-deep basement held the machinery. Above ground, it was a doughnut of offices built around a central light court. Both of the building’s Houston Street corners are chamfered. Light orange brick and terra cotta rise above the two-story limestone arcade base.

While Broadway’s Bowling Green-to-36th Street cable cars did not survive, Cable Building did. Metropolitan Traction Company reorganized as New York Railways Company, and sold the building in 1925. For the next six decades the structure housed small businesses and manufacturers. Then in the late 1980s it went back to being an office building.

Angelika Film Center took up residence in 1989, using the four basement floors.

* The building appears to be eight stories, if you count the floors of large windows. But tiny square windows tucked under the cornice – and larger windows in the north facade – reveal an attic ninth floor.

Cable Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 611 Broadway at Houston Street
  • Year completed: 1894
  • Architect: McKim, Mead & White
  • Floors: 9
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1999
Cable Building Recommended Reading

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Bolivar

Bolivar

Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , , ,

Bolivar is a Georgian-styled co-op of red brick accented with white stone and terra cotta. Its 15 stories contain mostly smaller apartments – studios and 1 BR. Some apartments were combined, though, so even 4BR units are available. One four-bedroom unit recently sold for $10.3 million, according to StreetEasy NY.

Seinfeld reportedly liked the place so much he held onto his bachelor pad even after he got married and moved two blocks away to the Beresford. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The Bolivar has an unusual feature – a brick roof. Tenants use it as a sun deck and garden. (See photos in the Condopedia article.)

Bolivar Vital Statistics
  • Location: 230 Central Park West at W 83 Street
  • Year completed: 1926
  • Architect: Nathan Korn
  • Floors: 15
  • Style: Neo-Georgian
  • New York City Landmark: 1990
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
Bolivar Recommended Reading

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65 Central Park West

65 Central Park West

Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , ,

65 Central Park West is one of nine Central Park West landmarks* designed by famed Emery Roth. Less dramatic than Roth’s towered San Remo, Beresford, or El Dorado, this Neo-Renaissance co-op is still impressive New York architecture.

The building’s location, across from Tavern on the Green and just a three-block walk from Lincoln Center, is idyllic.

Apartments here are currently listed at between $975,000 and $5.5 million.

* One of the Emery Roth landmarks, Mayflower Hotel (1925), was demolished in 2004 to make way for Robert A.M. Stern’s 15 CPW. Roth’s other Central Park landmarks are still standing. Besides 65 CPW they are (moving uptown): San Remo (1930), Beresford (1929), Alden (1926), 275 CPW (1930), 295 CPW (1940), El Dorado (1931), and Ardsley (1931).

65 Central Park West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 65 Central Park West at 66th Street
  • Year completed: 1926
  • Architect: Emery Roth
  • Floors: 16
  • Style: Neo-Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1990
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
65 Central Park West Recommended Reading

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