Category Archives: Manhattan

Manhattan

Ladies Mile

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The Ladies Mile Historic District – the heart of what was an even larger shopping district – ranges roughly from 15th Street to 24th Street, Sixth Avenue to Broadway. Retail “dry goods” giants of the 19th and 20th Centuries built palaces befitting their wares; most of the giants are now only ghosts, but some of the architecture has been preserved for New Yorker’s viewing (and even shopping) pleasure.

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TriBeCa Tour

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Though its main claim to fame in recent years is its film festival, TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal) is an amazing architectural showcase, encompassing five New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission-designated historic districts. Although the protected areas date back to the 1700s, recent restoration, reconstruction and renovation makes many blocks look new – only the styles are old.

Founded as a residential neighborhood, the neighborhood became a commercial center in the mid-1800s – greatly expanded in the early 1900s thanks to new IRT Seventh Avenue and Ninth Avenue (later demolished) subway lines. Fickle industry moved out in the mid-1900s, and by 1970 the neighborhood’s population was down to 370. Artists started moving in, sparking large-scale conversion of commercial space to residences – and sky-high rents that now exclude artists!

One of the striking features of TriBeCa is the imaginative and colorful use of brick – sometimes on a massive scale. The Verizon Building (6th Avenue & Walker Street) and 60 Hudson Street (former Verizon Headquarters) (Hudson and Worth Streets) are the most prominent examples. Other standouts are 451 Washington Street (at Watts Street), Greenwich Court (apartments) (Greenwich Street between Murray and Chambers Streets), American Express Horse Stables (Collister Street between Laight and Hubert Streets) and Powell Building (corner of Hudson and Franklin Streets).

You’ll see how architects paint rich textures by using bricks of different colors, sizes and bonds (layering patterns). Bottom line: After touring TriBeCa, you’ll no longer think of brick as a dull red building material.

The maps and reports linked below provide very detailed information about Tribeca’s architectural heritage:

Google Map

Schermerhorn Building

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The New York Community Trust landmark plaque says of the Schermerhorn Building: “This six-story building, erected in 1888 for William C. Schermerhorn, is one of New York’s outstanding manufacturing structures of the period. It demonstrated that a utilitarian building could have real artistic merit and need not be devoid of ornament. Its particular distinction lies in its rhythmic composition and in the interesting brick and sandstone detail. The architect was Henry Janeway Hardenbergh who also designed the Hotel Plaza, the Dakota Apartments and the American Fine Arts Society Building.”

(And while you’re in the neighborhood, don’t miss the landmark 1898 firehouse on the next block [east].)

Schermerhorn Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 380 Lafayette Street at Great Jones Street
  • Year completed: 1888
  • Architect: Henry Janeway Hardenbergh
  • Floors: 6
  • Style: Romanesque Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1966
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1979
Schermerhorn Building Suggested Reading

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Bond Street – NOHO

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For a two-block stretch of New York real estate, cobblestone Bond Street packs a lot of architectural delights. Although Bond Street spans two landmark districts (NoHo Historic District and NoHo Historic District Extension), several high-priced condominium conversions on the street are anything but historic in appearance. Alas, landmark designation came in May 2008, after the original buildings had been demolished/rebuilt in modern styles.

The modern standouts in our photo gallery are numbers 25, 40, 41, 48 and 57 Bond Street; the “classics” are 670 Broadway, 1-5, 7-9, 24, and 54 Bond Street.

The cast green glass facade and white aluminum street-level filigree screen of 40 Bond are irresistible (to me). But directly across the street, 41 is impressively subdued monochromatic bluestone. Even the fire hydrant blends in. A few doors down, number 48’s grey granite facade is livened by the projection of random window panes – like giant glass teardrops.

At Bond Street’s western end, 670 Broadway’s brick and granite dates from 1873 and was originally Brooks Brothers’ home; across the street, 1-5 Bond Street is white cast iron construction with a Mansard roof. Just east of Lafayette Street, Gene Frankel Theatre resides at 24 Bond Street. This is the street’s playful element, with gilt dancers cavorting across and up three of the building’s six stories. (Robert Mapplethorpe’s studio was here 1972-1989.) At the Bowery end of Bond Street, number 54 is another cast iron building, the former Bond Street Savings Bank.

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Puck Building – NoLita

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The Puck Building – named for the magazine that originally had offices and printing presses here – was built in two sections: the north (shorter, Houston Street) end in 1886 and the south end seven years later, in 1893.

The massive structure was among the largest built in what was then the printing/publishing district, designed in the German variation of Romanesque Revival. However, the building’s chief architectural distinction is two gilt-covered statues of Puck, Shakespeare’s character (from “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”): The larger on the NE corner, a smaller version over the Lafayette Street entrance.

At this writing, the building’s cornice is being rebuilt to hide a penthouse recently (December 2011) approved by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Puck Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 293 Lafayette Street at E Houston Street
  • Year completed: 1886 and 1893
  • Architect: Albert and Herman Wagner
  • Floors: 9
  • Style: Romanesque Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1983
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1983
Puck Building Suggested Reading

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SoHo

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SoHo is (according to New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report) the world’s largest concentration of cast iron facades. The style emphasizes floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows. My personal favorite is the Singer Building on Broadway – an L-shaped building with its second entrance on Prince Street. The row of buildings along the west side of Broadway is predominantly block-through structures with back entrances on Mercer Street.

Most visitors to SoHo (South of Houston – which New Yorkers pronounce How-ston) are more interested in shopping than in architecture: The district has become a designer outlet, missing only a free parking lot. Even Canal Street – once the preserve of scrap, tool, and junk shops – is becoming semi-respectable.

As you tour the area you may notice “A.I.R.” painted on some buildings. That stands for “Artist In Residence” to alert the Fire Department that the lofts may be occupied.

SoHo Historic District as defined by the Landmarks Commission extends from Houston Street south to Canal Street, and from West Broadway east to Crosby Street. This gallery includes some buildings (even-numbered) from the west side of West Broadway and St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church (on Sullivan Street off Houston Street).

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Fire Houses

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What’s a fire house? Just a dorm with a garage, right? No way!! It’s where New York’s Bravest hang their helmets while pursuing arguably the most exciting career in the city. It’s where a kid might loiter on a summer afternoon: Waiting for the bells to summon firefighters to another blaze, watching the trucks roar to life, hearing the sirens and bells warn mere mortals to clear the way. (Well, fire trucks used to have shiny brass bells, and if you asked really nicely, the firemen would sometimes let you ring the bell.)

That excitement and romantic view of firemen must have inspired New York architects, because they designed some really awesome fire houses!

The elaborate stations of the early 1900s came about as New York City transitioned from volunteer corps to a paid professional force. The FDNY had its own architect, which for many years was Napoleon LeBrun. His crowning work was the station for Engine Company 31, a Loire Valley chateaux-style confection now used as television studios.

Incidentally – when you see a tower attached to or sprouting from a firehouse, that’s where they hang their hoses to dry between fires.

This photo gallery is but a small sample; you might also enjoy the “Ten House” (Engine Company 10/Ladder Company 10) website – it’s a portal into dozens of FDNY websites: www.fdnytenhouse.com/fdnylinks.htm

Gansevoort / Meatpacking District

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The Gansevoort / Meatpacking District is tucked under Chelsea – just a block downtown from Chelsea Market: from 14th Street south to Horatio Street, Hudson Street to Tenth Avenue. The warehouse loading docks are mostly empty and quiet; high fashion boutiques have edged out most of the wholesale meat suppliers. (Navigating the cobblestone streets must be murder in high heels!)

Meat packers were once supplied by rail – Gansevoort Street is the southern terminus of The High Line, the abandoned elevated rail line now turned into a park. (Also see High Line Park gallery.)

One of the architectural standouts is The Standard Hotel – which straddles The High Line on massive supports. The hotel entrance is in a bright yellow cylinder – there’s no sign anywhere to tell you it’s a hotel. I asked the doorman about that – he explained: “This is not your standard hotel.”

Gansevoort / Meatpacking District Recommended Reading

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Posterized Photos

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This gallery is just for fun – posterized versions of images used elsewhere in this site. These images all started out normally – sets of bracketed exposures. Then I used Photomatix software to apply color shifts and luminosity effects with the “Grunge” preset. (See NewYorkitecture.com Photography Technique for more information about this technique.)

The images in the gallery are of buildings in the Chelsea, Soho, Ladies Mile, Civic Center, Astor Plaza and Flatiron districts.

Chelsea

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Chelsea began in 1750 as a single estate, extending from what is now 28th Street south to 19th Street, and from the Hudson River east to Eighth Avenue. Now in its third century of subdivision, the neighborhood’s definition has expanded south to 14th Street and east to Seventh Avenue.

Chelsea’s commercial and residential makeup has shifted like the tides: Breweries, warehouses, factories, film studios, theaters, town houses and tenements have come and gone; multiple rail lines, both street level and elevated, brought goods in and out (the last remnant is now The High Line park).

Contemporary Chelsea has luxury housing, shops and art galleries – overflow from SoHo. And although the neighborhood boasts three historic districts – Chelsea Historic District, Chelsea Historic District Extension, and West Chelsea Historic District – the neighborhood has a tremendous variety of architectural styles. You’ll find modern landmarks such as the IAC Building (2007) and 100 Eleventh Avenue (2009) just two blocks from the Gothic Revival style General Theological Seminary (1883).

For NewYorkitecture.com’s purposes, we are dividing this area into two parts: West Chelsea, the area between W 28th Street and W 15th Street west of The High Line; Chelsea, from W 28th Street south to W 15th Street and The High Line east to Seventh Avenue.

Among the Chelsea landmarks that are outside the Landmarks Preservation Commission-designated historic district are four notable whole-block structures.
Chelsea Market, the interconnected buildings between W 15th and W 16th Streets and Ninth to Tenth Avenues, is the former Nabisco plant where Oreos were invented and produced (now that’s historic!). An extension from Tenth to Eleventh Avenues is connected by a bridge. Today the buildings house stores, restaurants, offices and television production studios – including, appropriately, The Food Network. See more on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Market.

Just across Ninth Avenue from Chelsea Market is Port of New York Authority Commerce Building/ Union Inland Terminal No. 1. This is the one-time headquarters of the Port Authority (before they moved into the World Trade Center). Conceived as a warehouse/distribution center at a time when Hudson River piers were active and rail lines served Tenth Avenue, the building is now offices, and was purchased by Google in 2010. Some interesting background at: http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4949&page=73.

London Terrace Gardens apartments is 14 interconnected buildings between W 23rd and W 24th Streets, from Ninth to Tenth Avenue. When built in 1930, the complex was the world’s largest apartment building. The set has been broken up – the 10 inner buildings and the four avenue-facing towers have separate owners. See more at: http://www.londonterrace.com/building/history-photography.htm.

The Fashion Institute of Technology campus occupies eight buildings on two blocks: from Seventh (Fashion) Avenue to Eighth Avenue, W 26th Street to W 28th Street. The campus was built over the period of 1958 to 2001. See the Wikipedia article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_Institute_of_Technology.

Chelsea Recommended Reading

Also see High Line Park gallery.

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