Tag Archives: historic

New Era Building

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With its eye-catching Art Nouveau copper mansard roof, the New Era Building stands out in the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District. You can spot the building a block away.

But up close, it’s even more wondrous: The deeply incised white terra cotta detailing of the sixth floor arches has the appearance of carved ivory. What’s more, the facade has been restored to a pristine white.

Confusion…

There seems to be some confusion over the original owner and architect of this building. The “AIA Guide to New York City” accurately describes the structure, but identifies the New Era Building as 491 Broadway, designed by Buchman & Dreiser. The Daytonian in Manhattan blog gives it the right address – 495 Broadway – but also says the building was designed by Buchman & Dreiser, and was originally owned by Jeremiah C. Lyons. The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission says 495 Broadway was owned by Augustus D. Julliard and designed by Alfred Zucker; 491 Broadway, the larger building next door, was owned by Lyons and designed by Buchman & Dreiser. I’m going with the Landmarks Preservation Commission version.

New Era Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 495 Broadway between Spring and Broome Streets
  • Year completed: 1893
  • Architect: Alfred Zucker
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: Art Nouveau
  • New York City Landmark: 1973 (included in SoHo Cast Iron Historic District)
New Era Building Suggested Reading

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Hotel Martinique

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Hotel Martinique is full of surprises. For starters, don’t let the French Renaissance style fool you: The name has nothing to do with the sunny French Caribbean island – it’s named for developer William R. H. Martin. And the showy Broadway and W 32nd Street facades are actually add-ons to the hotel – it started as a more modest property on W 33rd Street.

But if the style reminds you of the Plaza, that shouldn’t surprise: the two hotels have the same architect, Henry Janeway Hardenbergh.

Like the Plaza, Hotel Martinique has open space – Greeley Square – in front of it, to show off grand-scaled elements: A four-story mansard roof, tiers of balconies and gigantic ornaments.

Grandiose was appropriate for the time. Just down the block (where the Empire State Building now stands) were the original Waldorf and Astoria hotels (also designed by Hardenbergh).

Unfortunately, as the theater district moved north over the years, so did Martinique’s luxury clientele. By the late 1900s the property became run down; in the ’70s and ’80s it was a notorious homeless shelter and welfare hotel. At the time of its designation as a NYC landmark, the Hotel Martinique was being renovated as a Holiday Inn. Currently it is a Radisson property, popular with airline crews and tour groups. In keeping with W 32nd Street’s current identity – “Korea Way” – the property has a 24-hour Korean restaurant, Kum Gang San.

Hotel Martinique Vital Statistics
  • Location: 1260 Broadway at West 32nd Street
  • Year completed: 1898, 1903, 1911 (3 phases)
  • Architect: Henry Janeway Hardenbergh
  • Floors: 16
  • Style: French Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1998
Hotel Martinique Suggested Reading

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Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse

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The Thurgood Marshall US Courthouse (originally United States Courthouse, Foley Square) was the last building designed by the famed Cass Gilbert, who died before the project’s completion. His son, Cass Gilbert, Jr., supervised the structure’s completion.

The 37-story skyscraper design marked a significant departure from other federal government buildings, which until then were all horizontal. The sprawling six-story base, however, blends in with surrounding landmarks.

The base and tower are faced in granite from Gilbert’s home state of Minnesota; the pyramidal roof is clad in gilded terra cotta.

The building was renamed Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in August 2001, honoring the first African American Supreme Court Justice, who had worked at the courthouse from 1961 to 1965 as a judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

The building completed a modernization project in 1992; at this writing (December 2012) it is going through a renovation/restoration that was supposed to have been completed in 2009, but seems to be never-ending.

Thurgood Marshall US Courthouse Vital Statistics
  • Location: 40 Centre Street at Foley Square
  • Year completed: 1936
  • Architect: Cass Gilbert
  • Floors: 37
  • Style: Classic Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1975
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1987
Thurgood Marshall US Courthouse Suggested Reading

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90 West Street Building

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The 90 West Street Building is an extraordinary building – for its architecture, and for surviving 9/11.

But to begin at the beginning: The West Street Building was built as an office building for shipping and rail companies – West Street in 1907 was on the Hudson Riverfront. The architect, Cass Gilbert, was a master of the tripartite design commonly used for tall buildings, but the West Street Building was different. Gilbert de-emphasized the base, emphasized the vertical lines of the shaft, and finished with a “Gothic fantasy” capital, including a three-story mansard roof. (Gilbert’s initial plans included a five-story tower at the top.) Where Gilbert’s earlier Broadway Chambers Building used terra cotta ornament in its upper stories, the West Street Building was almost entirely clad in terra cotta. Even the inside of the building used terra cotta, for fireproofing.

The building changed hands in 1923, and was modernized in 1933 – including a new Gilbert-designed lobby. In 1998 the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the West Street Building a landmark. It was still in use as an office building on Sept. 11, 2001, when debris from the South Tower of the World Trade Center rained down on 90 West Street.

The north (Cedar Street) facade was gashed, the roof was destroyed, and eight floors of the building were gutted or heavily damaged by fire. Although the building changed hands several times and was in limbo until 2003, the new owners were able to restore the shell thanks to the terra cotta fireproofing.

The three-year restoration converted the offices to 410 rental apartments. Contractors had to replace 75 percent of the north facade’s granite, and 7,853 pieces of terra cotta. Explore the Suggested Reading links for the full story on the restoration.

90 West Street Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 90 West Street between Albany and Cedar Streets
  • Year completed: 1907
  • Architect: Cass Gilbert
  • Floors: 23
  • Style: Gothic Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1998
  • National Register of Historic Places: 2007
90 West Street Building Suggested Reading

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Empire State Building

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The Empire State Building is still New York City’s most-visited landmark, even though it lost “world’s tallest skyscraper” title in 1972. The building claims four million visitors a year to its 86th and 102nd floor observatories; the building reputedly makes more money from observatory ticket sales than from rents.

Books have been written about the Empire State Building (one of the best is linked below) – we’ll just hit the highlights here:

  • The land under the Empire State Building is part of a six-square-block tract that the City sold to John Thompson for $2,600 in 1799. He farmed the land, and sold it for $10,000 in 1825. Two years later William B. Astor bought the farm for $20,500. In 1859 and 1862 the Astors built two mansions on the plot now occupied by the Empire State Building. In 1893 and 1897 those mansions were demolished to make way for the Waldorf Hotel and Astoria Hotel, which were operated jointly as the Waldorf-Astoria. In 1928 the Bethlehem Engineering Corporation bought the properties for $20 million.
  • General Motors executive John J. Raskob set up The Empire State Corporation in 1929, with four-time New York Governor (and Democratic presidential candidate) Al Smith as President.
  • It took five months to demolish the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel; two months to excavate the site for construction; 13 months to build the Empire State Building.
  • Architects Shreve, Lamb and Harmon produced drawings for the Empire State Building in just two weeks – based on their earlier designs for the Reynolds Building (Winston-Salem, NC) and Carew Tower (Cincinnati, OH).
  • Under budget: The Empire State Building was erected in less time (13.5 months vs 18 months) and for less money ($24.7 million vs $43 million) than budgeted.
  • President Hoover officially opened the Empire State Building by pushing a button in Washington, D.C. on May 1, 1931. (May 1 was the traditional lease-signing day in New York City.)
  • Bad timing: The building opened during the Great Depression, and for years was derided as the “Empty State Building” for lack of tenants.
  • Lights: The Empire State Building has always used lights to attract attention. A November, 1932 beacon celebrated the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt as President. In May, 1956, four “Freedom Lights” beacons were installed. In 1964 the building installed floodlights, commemorating the New York World’s Fair. In November 2012, the Empire State Building switched on LED lights, replacing the floodlights.
  • 1933: “King Kong” is released.
  • 1945: An Army Air Force B-25 bomber en route to Newark swerved to miss the fog-shrouded Chrysler Building – and crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building.
  • 1950: The Empire State Building grew 217 feet via a new broadcast antenna, after the FCC ordered an end to NBC’s exclusive use of the tower.
  • 1978: First Annual ESB Run-Up competition. Record time: 9 minutes, 33 seconds from ground floor to 86th floor.
Empire State Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 350 Fifth Avenue between W 33rd and W 34th Streets
  • Year completed: 1931
  • Architect: William F. Lamb of Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon
  • Floors: 102
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 1981
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
Empire State Building Recommended Reading

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The Wilbraham

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The Wilbraham is a rare species: a “bachelor apartment hotel,” or “bachelor flats.” In the late 1800s, New York City had an unusually large concentration of single men. Yet bachelors were outcasts, of sorts, in the housing market: They couldn’t afford to live in rowhouses or hotels and were considered awkward in family-oriented apartment buildings (“French flats”) or apartment hotels. Bachelor flats were apartment hotels (each apartment included a suite of rooms with bathroom but no kitchen – a separate dining room served all residents) exclusively for single men.

The Wilbraham was considered among the most fashionable of bachelor flats, with its Fifth Avenue location, elegant architecture and amenities – including an elevator.

By 1929 the building had become a normal apartment hotel – women outnumbered men 15-10 according to the census. In 1934, new owners added kitchens to some of the apartments. Subsequent renovations converted the dining room and penthouse servants quarters to full apartments, as well.

The bottom two floors have always been a store.

The Wilbraham Vital Statistics
  • Location: 284 Fifth Avenue at W 30th Street (also 1 W 30th Street)
  • Year completed: 1890
  • Architect: D. & J. Jardine
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: Romanesque Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 2004
The Wilbraham Recommended Reading

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Alwyn Court Apartments

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Alwyn Court Apartments is undoubtedly the most decorated building in New York: Gray terra cotta covers every foot of the 12-story building. When the building opened in 1909 it was as opulent inside as it is outside. Each apartment (two to a floor) had 14 rooms and five baths – except for the 32-room apartment!

The building had a stroke of bad luck just months after opening, when only five apartments were occupied – a fire damaged some of the upper floors. The building was repaired and filled quickly, but dropped out of fashion in the late 1930s. And the Great Depression didn’t help. The bank foreclosed and reconfigured Alwyn Court as 75 much smaller apartments under direction of architect Louis H. Weeks. The main entrance on the corner was converted to retail space (now the Petrossian restaurant); the former service entrance on Seventh Avenue is now the main entrance.

As part of a co-op conversion, the building’s facade was cleaned and restored in 1980 by Beyer Blinder Belle, an architectural firm specializing in historic preservation.

The fire-breathing dragons at the corner entry (and elsewhere) are actually salamanders; a crowned salamander was the emblem of Francis I, King of France. (The same emblem graces Red House, another apartment building designed by Harde & Short.)

Alwyn Court Vital Statistics
  • Location: 180 W 58th Street at Seventh Avenue
  • Year completed: 1909
  • Architect: Harde & Short
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: French Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1966
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1979
Alwyn Court Recommended Reading

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Brooklyn Public Library

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Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library was 35 years in the making – a case of municipal overreaching. Brooklyn’s pride was on the line – former Brooklyn Mayor David A. Boody was the library president. The grandiose plan began in 1906 with sending the chief architect, the consulting architect and the chief librarian to Europe for a 19-city tour to study 24 libraries. The following year, architect Raymond F. Almirall proposed a Beaux Arts design. The library’s board and the city’s Municipal Art Commission approved the plans, but construction didn’t begin until 1911.

Financial support soon became a political issue, and as early as 1914 city administrations were balking at paying the library’s enormous cost. In October 1930 – 19 years after groundbreaking – the library was only one third complete.

A new library administration in 1933 abandoned the grandiose four-story Beaux Arts design in favor of a less expensive three-story modern plan. In 1935 the directors chose new architects: Alfred Morton Githens and Francis Keally. They unveiled new plans in 1937; the city approved the plans in 1938, and construction resumed in 1939. Githens and Keally used the foundations and first three floors of the steel frame, but scrapped most of the existing masonry and ornament. In just under two years, they completed the project.

Brooklyn Public Library Vital Statistics
  • Location: 10 Grand Army Plaza (junction of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue)
  • Year completed: 1941
  • Architect: Alfred Morton Githens & Francis Keally
  • Floors: 3
  • Style: Beaux Arts / Art Moderne
  • New York City Landmark: 1997
  • National Register of Historic Places: 2002
Brooklyn Public Library Recommended Reading

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Standard Oil Building

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The Standard Oil Building began as a 10-story, 86-foot-wide structure in 1885 – just 21 years after the Civil War. But as Standard Oil grew, so did the building: In five stages, it extended north by 27 feet and south by almost 400 feet to Beaver Street and grew to 29 stories. The piece-by-piece construction was dictated by the pace of acquiring and demolishing adjoining properties. The building expanded again in 2011-2012 with the addition of a two-story gymnasium, which filled in a portion of the Beaver Street light court. The gymnasium was needed by one of the three NYC public schools that now occupy seven lower floors.

The shape of the Standard Oil Building is as complex as its construction history – the 16-story base is five-sided, with a curved transition to follow the curve of Broadway as it joins Whitehall Street. The 13-story tower seems misaligned with the building when viewed from the southwest (the best view), but it is actually aligned with the original building’s northern edge.

Material and stylistic details also reveal the piece-by-piece construction. For example, the original brick and granite shows on the New Street (eastern) facade; newer sections are clad in limestone. Some limestone blocks have rounded edges, others are sharply angled; different styles of columns and pilasters are used in the upper stories.

Standard Oil Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 26 Broadway at Beaver Street
  • Year completed: 1928
  • Architect: Thomas Hastings (Carrère and Hastings) with Shreve, Lamb and Blake
  • Floors: 29
  • Style: Renaissance Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1995
Standard Oil Building Recommended Reading

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45 East 66th Street

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45 East 66th Street is a striking Gothic-embellished apartment building designed by Harde & Short, built of red brick with white terra cotta ornament. The 10-story Madison Avenue landmark has a distinctive corner tower (like Harde & Short’s Alwyn Court) and a tall cornice; the colors and ornamentation are similar to the architects’ Red House.

Originally, the luxury building had just two apartments on each floor. The building’s entrance was in the base of the corner tower, and there were no stores. In 1928, new owners moved the entry to East 66th Street (where it is now) and converted ground floor apartments to more lucrative stores. A few years later the owners began subdividing apartments – there are now 33 in the 10-story building.

45 East 66th Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 45 E 66th Street at Madison Avenue
  • Year completed: 1908
  • Architect: Harde & Short
  • Floors: 10
  • Style: Gothic Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1977
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1980
45 East 66th Street Recommended Reading

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