Tag Archives: Manhattan

Our Lady of Pompeii

Our Lady of Pompeii

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.

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Our Lady of Pompeii Recommended Reading

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Goelet Building

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
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Cable Building

Cable Building

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
Cable Building Recommended Reading

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Bolivar

Bolivar

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
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65 Central Park West

65 Central Park West

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
65 Central Park West Recommended Reading

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311 Amsterdam Avenue

311 Amsterdam Avenue

311 Amsterdam Avenue, aka The Wachusett, was built in 1889 as flats. Architect Edward L. Angell designed the five-story brick building in Romanesque Revival style, with Queen Anne embellishments.

According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, the structure has masonry bearing walls. (Since the advent of modern iron, steel, and concrete frames, brick is usually used only to seal and decorate the facade.)

The building was converted to condominiums in 2006.

311 Amsterdam Avenue Vital Statistics
311 Amsterdam Avenue Recommended Reading

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304 E 20 Street

304 E 20 Street

304 E 20 Street is a modest apartment building in New York’s Gramercy Park neighborhood, distinctive for heavy flat arches above the windows and for the pedimented dormers at the 8th floor.

304 E 20 Street Vital Statistics
304 E 20 Street Recommended Reading

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295 Central Park West

295 Central Park West

295 Central Park West is a lesser-known work of Emery Roth, the preeminent New York apartment building architect. The 19-story-plus-penthouse building stands at W 90th Street, and is part of the Upper West Side-Central Park West Historic District.

The facade is quite plain, even for Art Moderne. A modest stone surround marks the centered entry on Central Park West; a decorative brick bandcourse separates the first and second floors. The only other significant architectural detail is the use of rounded corners (and rounded corner windows).

The building has so far resisted conversion to condominium or co-op.

295 Central Park West Vital Statistics
295 Central Park West Recommended Reading

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244 W 23 Street

244 W 23 Street

244 W 23 Street shows the versatility of brick, which mimicks rough-cut stone on lower floors and forms fluted pilasters on upper floors. The builder went to the expense (according to Daytonian in Manhattan) to use carved stone instead of terra cotta to ornament the facade. Sadly, subsequent owners splashed red paint over the whole facade – covering some of the stonework and all of the mortar lines.

The building was converted to co-op apartments in 1982, ending a colorful commercial history. In its first 82 years the building was home to a publisher, a filmmaker, an art school, a piano factory and more, according to the Daytonian in Manhattan blog.*

244 W 23 Street Vital Statistics
244 W 23 Street Recommended Reading

* Daytonian in Manhattan – one of my favorite resources – is the work of Tom Miller, assisted by photographer Alice Lum. If you enjoy his blog, you’ll love his book: “Seeking New York.” In it, you’ll find the human stories behind 54 historic Manhattan buildings, mostly seldom-profiled pieces of architecture.

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240 W 23 Street

240 W 23 Street, described as “eclectic” in the “AIA Guide To New York City,” is right at home on an eclectic block of Chelsea. C.P.H. Gilbert, best known for elaborate mansions, designed the commercial structure with almost as much detail as his gothic Ukrainian Institute (former Harry F. Sinclair House). The lofts-turned-apartments sits among official and unofficial landmarks such as the Chelsea Hotel (two doors east), Muhlenberg Branch of the NY Public Library, and McBurney YMCA.

There seems to be some confusion about the building’s age. The AIA Guide reports “1880s”; Daytonian in Manhattan says 1899; the Department of Buildings says 1920; most real estate sources list 1930. Since Daytonian in Manhattan seems to have done the most research, I’m going with 1899.

240 W 23 Street Vital Statistics
240 W 23 Street Recommended Reading

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