Tag Archives: Manhattan

Lafayette Hall

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Lafayette Hall (originally Hallenbeck-Hungerford Building) is an attractive neo-Gothic industrial building built to accommodate heavy equipment such as printing presses. It was converted in 1999 to a residence hall for NYU students. The L-shaped building wraps around the seven-story landmark Ahrens Building.

There are interesting grotesques in the upper stories – including headless characters on the 13th floor. Unlucky for them.

Lafayette Hall Vital Statistics
  • Location: 80 Lafayette Street between Franklin and White Streets
  • Year completed: 1915
  • Architect: William E. Austin
  • Floors: 16
  • Style: Neo-Gothic
Lafayette Hall Suggested Reading

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Nelson Tower

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Nelson Tower (after Julius Nelson, the developer) is one of the tallest buildings in the Garment District, built at a time when everyone seemed to be racing to be tallest. The building’s architect, H. Craig Severance, also designed 40 Wall Street – one of the “world’s tallest” contenders of the day. Alas, 60-story One Penn Plaza now looms over 46-story Nelson Tower from across 34th Street.

The distinctive white crown can be seen throughout the neighborhood; polychrome brick spandrels enhance the vertical lines.

Other prominent buildings designed by H. Craig Severance include 40 Wall Street (aka The Trump Building, Bank of Manhattan Trust Building), Taft Hotel, and the Montague-Court Building.

Nelson Tower Vital Statistics
  • Location: 450 Seventh Avenue between W 34th and W 35th Streets
  • Year completed: 1931
  • Architect: H. Craig Severance
  • Floors: 46
  • Style: Art Deco
Nelson Tower Suggested Reading

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Armeny Building

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Nassau and Fulton Streets meet at a busy corner, architecturally speaking: The NYC landmark Fulton Building is on the SW corner; the NYC landmark Bennett Building is on the NW corner; and the Armeny Building is on the SE corner. The Fulton and Armeny buildings were both designed by De Lemos & Cordes, the architects who gave us the Siegel-Cooper Buildings and Macy’s.

If the building looks top-heavy, with an odd transition between the sixth and seventh floors, don’t blame De Lemos & Cordes. In 1893 the owner decided to add two floors, and he hired a different architect for the job. Soon after, pen-maker Gyulo Armeny bought the building.

See the wonderful Daytonian in Manhattan blog for more fascinating history about the building and its tenants.

Today, the ground floor is occupied by a cafe; the upper floors are rental apartments (see the Street Easy listing for details).

Armeny Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 90 Nassau Street at Fulton Street
  • Year completed: 1889
  • Architect: De Lemos & Cordes
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: Romanesque
Armeny 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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New Yorker Hotel

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New Yorker Hotel was once an elegant celebrity-studded 2,500-room property – New York City’s largest when it opened in 1930. Convenient to Pennsylvania Station, it boasted five restaurants, a 42-chair barbershop, and platoons of snappily-uniformed bellboys.

Architecturally, the 43-floor Art Deco tower was (and is) quite plain; apart from size and shape, the building’s most prominent feature is the four-story, west-facing red “NEW YORKER” sign in the crown.

As the big-band era faded, so did New Yorker’s glitter; by the 1960s the hotel (then owned by Hilton) was in decline, financially, and closed in 1972. The World Unification Church (Rev. Sun Myung Moon) bought the hotel in 1975. By 1994 the church decided to re-open the building as a hotel – starting with 178 rooms and a $20 million renovation. Ramada granted a franchise in 2000. The hotel spent an additional $70 million on renovations 2007-2009; the property now has 900+ rooms on floors 19-40. In addition, Educational Housing Services uses five floors (9, 14, 16, 17, 18) for student housing.

New Yorker Hotel’s architects, the firm of Sugarman and Berger, have several other prominent New York City buildings, including: Gramercy Arms Apartments, Broadway Fashion Building, One Fifth Avenue, Millennium Towers North/Navarro Building, Paris Hotel/Paris Apartments.

New Yorker Hotel Vital Statistics
  • Location: 481 Eighth Avenue between W 34th and W 35th Streets
  • Year completed: 1930
  • Architect: Sugarman and Berger
  • Floors: 43
  • Style: Art Deco
New Yorker Hotel 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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Herald Towers

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Built as the Hotel McAlpin in 1912, Herald Towers began life as the world’s largest – and in some respects most innovative – hotel.

Today, the building’s most striking feature is the Beaux Arts crown – seven stories of lavish terra cotta. Two deep light courts face west (Broadway), but the 25-story building is now overshadowed by more recent towers.

The McAlpin’s owners converted the hotel to apartments in 1980, and attempted to go condo in 2005. The condo offering failed, and the building is now rental apartments.

Along the way, the hotel’s spectacular Marine Grill was dismantled. The restaurant was vaulted, like Grand Central Terminal’s Oyster Bar. Preservationists (led by Friends of Terra Cotta President Susan Tunick), rescued the restaurant’s terra cotta murals. Those panels are now on display at the Fulton Street (Broadway/Nassau) subway station. [nycsubway.org photos]

Herald Towers Vital Statistics
  • Location: 50 W 34th Street at Broadway/Sixth Avenue (Herald Square)
  • Year completed: 1912
  • Architect: Frank Mills Andrews
  • Floors: 25
  • Style: Beaux Arts
Other Herald Towers Resources

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Trump SoHo

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After unveiling plans on prime time TV (The Apprentice, June 2006), The Donald’s Trump SoHo lurched from one controversy to another. Having survived the gauntlet, the 46-story mirror-glass box now commands the local skyline – almost daring other developers to match it.

Of course anything that wears the Trump name is a lightning rod for criticism, but Columbia University architecture professor Mitchell Joachim is quoted (Wikipedia) calling Trump SoHo “one of the ugliest buildings in New York.” Architectural Record‘s Michael Sorkin stated, “As urbanism, it’s vandalism.” Sorkin sides with Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and others who sued to block the building, claiming it violated zoning restrictions. Trump prevailed, claiming the building was for transients, not permanent residents.

Work was stopped briefly in December 2006 when the excavation unearthed human remains – graves from beneath the former Spring Street Presbyterian Church. Work stopped again in 2008 when a concrete form collapsed, killing a worker.

The condo/hotel’s developers and interior design firm sued and countersued over payment/performance issues, and some condo buyers claimed that they had been tricked into purchasing units.

The architect, Handel Architects, points out that guests will have fabulous views in all directions. “The intent of the building design is to express the internal, dynamic life of the hotel and its relationship to its urban surroundings. The public theater of the hotel public spaces are revealed through clear glass, while the more private functions are concealed behind translucent glass.”

Preservationists point out that 46-story Trump SoHo is blatantly out of scale with a neighborhood of six- to 15-story buildings.

On the other hand, it does provide an interesting kaleidoscopic effect for sky photos.

Trump SoHo Vital Statistics
  • Location: 246 Spring Street at Varick Street
  • Year completed: 2010
  • Architect: Handel Architects
  • Floors: 46
  • Style: Postmodern
Trump SoHo Suggested Reading

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Five Penn Plaza

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Five Penn Plaza is overshadowed now, but as the Printing Crafts Building it was the “tallest and most imposing business structure on Eighth Avenue” [The New York Times] when built in 1916. Today, the gilt panels of former tenants recall the structure’s history.

It was conceived as the nation’s largest printing/publishing building, with 10 floors devoted to presses and binderies, and 12 floors for stockrooms and offices of publishers and ad agencies. Proximity to the main post office and Penn Station were key ingredients of the building’s success.

Despite the building’s age, it has been modernized with “green” technology (LEED-certified silver) and multiple fiber optic lines.

Five Penn Plaza Vital Statistics
  • Location: 5 Penn Plaza – 461 Eighth Avenue between W 33rd and W 34th Streets
  • Year completed: 1916
  • Architect: John & Edward Larkin
  • Floors: 24
  • Style: Beaux Arts
Five Penn Plaza Recommended Reading

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Red House

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Red House is a rarity: A building designed by architects for themselves!

The building is a deluxe apartment house – larger, brighter and more elaborate than the “French Flats” designed for middle-class New Yorkers in the late 1800s. Elaborate ornamentation is one of the earmarks of luxury apartments; Harde & Short were particularly adept at the use of terra cotta in their designs (Alwyn Court on Seventh Avenue at 58th Street is a stunning example).

Harde and Short’s other New York buildings include the landmark Alwyn Court Apartments, Studio Building (44 W 77th Street), and 45 E 66th Street.

Red House Vital Statistics
  • Location: 350 West 85th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue
  • Year completed: 1904
  • Architect: Harde & Short
  • Floors: 6
  • Style: French Gothic
  • New York City Landmark: 1982
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1983
Red House Recommended Reading

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