May 31, 2006
The First National City Bank of New York
415 Broadway. Founded in 1812, the First National City Bank of New York would go on to become Citibank, parent of multibillion dollar Citigroup. In 1919, eight years before this building on Canal St/Broadway was completed, Citibank had already accumulated assets of over 1 billion dollars. Now this great Deco structure lays abused by Sbarros, Payless, and counterfit bag merchants. A gem, gleaming, in the jostling density of Canal. Bring this beauty back from the brink. As C.J. Hughes pointed out last year in the Times, Banks can get good and profitable reuses in Manhattan. Forgotten NY has a great old bank page.
Posted by jmarston at 09:33 PM | Comments (2)
March 23, 2006
520 Broome St.
Begged for a Renovate Me back in July. Then Curbed covered its demise.
Now the old Deco decor is revealed. Take the shell, Zucker, make it the Don.
Posted by jmarston at 07:50 PM | Comments (1)
November 01, 2005
Renovate Me Victims
Back in early October I got sad news byway of a Curbed post about 520 Broome St, which I featured in my Renovate Me column back in July. A developer is going to trash the gem for some substandard bore... But
Now comes more sad news via Massey Knakal that my other fave canidate for proper renovation and restoration was recently sold - with 5,600 sq ft of available air rights. This art deco gem, 73 Lexington Ave, which I covered back in June, looks to be headed for history. Except for those 29 stablized units that stand in the way of condo glinted greed... Massey sale journal entry below...
Posted by jmarston at 04:46 PM
July 29, 2005
Tunnel Garage
So long overdue, the second installment of Renovate Me. More on the way...
Holland Tunnel, the "world's first long underwater mechanically ventilated vehicular tunnel", is named after its chief engineer Clifford Milburn Holland. Construction began in 1920, and was completed seven years later, with some 51,694 vehicles passing through on opening day. Vehicles of course meaning horse drawn carts and motorized transport.
This little sweetheart, Tunnel Garage, was built five years before the first vehicle even passed through the Holland, in the grand tradition of New York real estate speculation. Surely one of the first parking garages in Manhattan, which at the time was polluted more by horse shit than the equally noxious automobile. A short but fascinating history of parking, from a 2001 issue of Architecture Week, can be found here.
But unlike today's boom, they built a speculative beauty. Scarred by contemporary signage, this gem is awaiting a good scrubbing and preservationist rehab, along with a new and fantastic use. Considering Transfer's biggest congestion style proposal is to tax the shit out of parking lots, thereby making it extremely costly to drive into Manhattan, this Garage would to good to apply for a different use permit. Thats of course after a detailed and accurate restoration of the existing facade. The cache this little building could kick, with its artful font, lead pane windows, small detailed touches, and rounded corner frontage.
Bring this beauty back from the brink. Certificate of Occupancy and Photos below.
520 Broome St
Completed 1922
Posted by jmarston at 05:14 PM
June 03, 2005
Renovate Me: Deco on Lex
New Category Alert: Renovate Me. Vast swaths of New York's once gutted rowhomes, crumbling tenements, and dried manufacturing shells have been rehabbed and retooled in the recent real estate upshot, some have returned to their spectacular former glory, while others have been given functional updates. But there remains a hellva lot of beauties sitting in disrepair, overlooked by the clamoring real estate whordes, perhaps even slated for demo to make room for a substandard 'lux condo' drawn up in a half a day, thrown up in half a year. Filling in New York's stately smile with cheap dentures. Here's to cleaning the plaque, applying the bridge, and bringing some of New York's finest gems back from the brink.
Our first installment is a stellar Deco tenement building across the street from the 69th Reg Armory on Lexington Ave in the 20's. Still listed as a rooming housing, with 6 apartments on each floor... This elderly and under cared for Betty has beautiful curving windows, a sleek Deco entrance, elegant ironwork (both on the window irons and on the fire escapes) and best of all, absolutely brilliant scale. The Deco touches and gentle curves speak sophisticatedly, in an understated tone, as one of the few Art Deco buildings with only a rowhouse footprint. Bring the beauty back from the brink. Certificate of Occupancy and Photos below.
73 Lexington Ave
Completed June 3, 1941
24'8" Front / 5 stories / 52'00" Tall
Posted by jmarston at 09:47 AM