Ornamentation

As regular readers of this blog (all two of you) know, I love the beautiful and unique architectural ornamentation on many of the old buildings in NYC.  Which is why I wanted to call your attention to two things.  The first is the Brooklyn Museum's Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden. Situated in a small area behind the museum, next to the parking lot, the garden features about a dozen beautiful architectural ornamentations that were saved from demolished buildings.

Cunard Building

The Cunard Building at 25 Broadway is one of those imposing structures with a massive facade that when seen quickly from the street can look like any other Renaissance Revival office building.

It has all the standard features, such as arches, columns, quoins, and cornices...

But when you look closer, you'll start to see what differentiates the Cunard Building from others.

Its ornamentation (like the keystone featuring Neptune above) is all nautical.  The theme relays the business of shipping that went on inside to the passersby outside.  They are treated to images of ships, shells, compasses, mermaids and other sea creatures.

243 Riverside Drive

New York's architecture is often referred to in terms usually associated with nature... SKYscrapers, CANYON of Heroes, etc.   And when you look at 243 Riverside Drive you can see why it's called The Cliff Dwelling.  

The tall orange/yellow brick facade looks like a high cliff facing the banks of the Hudson.  In fact, it is meant to recall the ancient cliff dwellings in Colorado and Arizona...

This Southwestern motif is continued in the awesome ornamentation. Including buffalo skulls..

Grant's Tomb and Riverside Church

Grant's Tomb and Riverside Church are two structures you can't help but look up at.  The problem is many New Yorkers just don't make the trip to Morningside Heights to see them.  I finally did a few weekends ago, and can't believe I've waited so long.  

Situated across the intersection of Riverside Drive and 122nd Street from each other, they are both imposingly beautiful buildings inside and out, from top to bottom.

Let's take a look at both, starting with Riverside Church.  The Neo-Gothic church was built in 1930 and primarily financed by John D. Rockefeller.  I love it's pale exterior of Indiana limestone.  Just looks so fresh and clean.

The exterior buttressing is purely decorative... The structure is supported on its steel frame, and its weight would not be sufficient to counter the weight of the vault. 

The tower holds the world's largest tuned carillon bell and makes Riverside the tallest church in the United States.  It is also the first of its kind to serve a functional purpose, providing 24 floors for the congregation's programs. 

451 Broome

My in-laws were visiting from Europe last week and spent most of their time taking advantage of the weak dollar with never-ending shopping sprees.  So, while they went store to store in SoHo, I stayed outside and looked up at all the awesome buildings.

One that I always found so interesting is 451 Broome.  It's a huge, massive building that stretches from Broadway to Mercer Street.  So big, I couldn't even fit it in one shot.  There's the central part of the facade...

And then the left part of the facade...

And the right part of of the facade...

Massive, isn't it?  Well, yes and no.  When viewed from Broadway, it's a tiny sliver of a building...

226 West Broadway

It's easy to rush past the plain street level facade of 226 West Broadway.

But, if you don't stop and look up, you'll miss a really great building.

The white terra-cotta building was built around 1915 (I've seen 1912 and 1918 in my research) for the FDNY's High Pressure Services headquarters.  It was later transferred to the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity. 

A Trio of Tribeca Telecommunications Towers

Today, I had some time to kill before an appointment in Tribeca and decided to walk around and snap some photos.  I love all the old industrial warehouses that have been converted into luxury apartments.  Today, however, I focused my camera on three of the area's taller buildings, all of which were built to house telecommunications companies. 


The first is at 60 Hudson Street.

60 Hudson Street was built as the headquarters for Western Union.  It was was designed by Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker and opened in 1930.  During the heyday of the telegraph, the building was the premier nexus of worldwide communications and originally contained 70 million feet of wire and 30 miles of conduit in addition to offices.

The massive 24-story building has nineteen shades of brick on the facade, from deep red brown at the bottom to bright salmon at the top.

I especially like the Art Deco elements, including the entranceway...

and the grills on the vents...

When Western Union moved its headquarters to New Jersey in 1973, the building was converted into a carrier hotel where over 100 telecommunications companies have offices. 

The second tower is at 32 Avenue of the Americas.

874 Broadway

Whenever I have errands to run around Union Square, I try to walk up Broadway just north of 17th Street. This is the Eastern edge of the Ladies' Mile Historic District which contains some really great buildings. One of my favorites is 874 Broadway at the NE corner of 18th Street.

874 Broadway was built in 1892 by prominent New York architect R. H. Robertson.  Like most buildings in NY, it is more impressive at the upper floors, however it does have a pretty nice ground level storefront too.

Once you get past the horrible Sleepy's SALE and OPEN signs, you'll notice a beautiful set of windows (curved at the corner) set in ironwork and framed with stone where it meets the building.  

After the ground level, the building rises into several stories of columned windows...

Which then give way to two stories of arched windows followed by another row of columns in a contrasting color...

 The corner of the building is topped off by an ornate pitched tower.

The A.I.A Guide to New York City describes this mix of styles as ''unspeakable eclectic: a murmuration of Byzantine columns, Romanesque arches, Gothic finials and crockets -- the designer used the whole arsenal of history in one shot.''  

26 Broadway

Walk past 26 Broadway and you'll notice a plain facade currently housing an HSBC bank branch.

Cross the street and look back and you'll see it rises into a strong, handsome building.

Pass through Bowling Green Park, turn around, and look up and you'll finally see 26 Broadway in all it's grandeur...  A mighty fortress-meets-temple that was home to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company.

I've always loved this building because to me it seems like several buildings in one.  Or some sort of organic stone structure that sprouts new floors, wings, and towers at will.  Or a real-life Tetris game where different shaped blocks fell on top of each other.

But the seemingly randomness of it makes sense because Standard Oil's headquarters was built in many installments over 40 years.  The original building built in 1885 had 10-stories. In 1895, six stories were added and a 27-foot-wide extension was made on its north side. After World War I, the company decided to greatly expand the structure by buying all four of its neighboring buildings on the block; and to either demolish them or extensively renovate them so that the new building looked like one.  Then, it was extensively overhauled in 1921-1928, when it reached further skyward and was crowned with a pyramid.

29 Washington Place - 100 Years After The Fire

After years of thinking and talking about it, it's fitting that I'm finally starting this blog today with 29 Washington Place.  Today, the building is known as the Brown Building and is part of New York University.

But one hundred years ago, it was known as the Asch Building and was the site of one the deadliest events in New York City history... The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

The Triangle Waist Company occupied the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the Asch Building on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, just to the east of Washington Square Park.  The company produced women's blouses, known then as "shirtwaists."  The factory employed mostly young immigrant woman, many of them Italian or Jewish.

At about 4:45 pm on Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the Eighth Floor and quickly spread upward.  Although each floor had a number of exits – two freight elevators, a fire escape, and stairways down to Greene Street and Washington Place – flames prevented workers from descending the Greene Street stairway, and the door to the Washington Place stairway was locked to prevent theft.  Terrified employees crowded onto the single exterior fire escape, a flimsy and poorly-anchored iron structure which may have been broken before the fire. It soon twisted and collapsed from the heat and overload. 

Many workers jumped from the windows to their death. The remainder waited until smoke and fire overcame them. The fire department arrived quickly but was unable to stop the flames, as there were no ladders available that could reach beyond the sixth floor. 

In the end, 146 lives were lost.  Their deaths should never have happened, but their legacy is the transformation of the labor code of New York State and the adoption of fire safety codes that served as a model for the whole country.