Primary Resources: Commercial

5. Bankers' Trust Company Building

• Address: 259-265 West 14th Street/80-90 Eighth Avenue
• Architect: William Whitehill
• Date: 1929

5a. Exterior

The former Bankers’ Trust Company building is a highly expressive example of the setback, Art Deco-style office tower that characterized the wave of construction associated with Manhattan’s burgeoning financial industry of the1920s and ‘30s. Commissioned by Vincent Astor for his investment banking firm,16 the building was completed in 1929 to serve the meat and poultry dealers in the market district of Chelsea and Greenwich Village. In striking contrast to the two fine examples of the low, classically-inspired purpose-built bank standing on opposite corners, the former Bankers’ Trust building uses the monumentality of the new skyscraper form to establish itself in the neighborhood.

The Bankers’ Trust Company occupied the basement and second floors of the building, as well as a grand banking hall on the ground floor, which was entered from the Eighth Avenue side; the rest of the building, from the third to the nineteenth floors, was rented out to small office tenants, who entered the building through a lobby on the 14th Street side. The building still functions as a bank-office building.

The former Bankers’ Trust Co. building is a “wedding cake” form constructed of a steel-beam skeleton clad in a brick veneer over concrete blocks. The solid steelframed, double-hung plate glass windows are original. The building’s ornamentation, concentrated in the region of the setbacks, is carried out in terra-cotta (or cast stone), and motifs include the lion, the shield, the fasces (bundle of arrows), and the eagle. The lions and the eagle, together with the fasces and the shields decorating the lower setback region, articulate the building’s function as a pillar of civic life, the bank. However, it is equally valid to surmise that the architect chose the entire ornamental scheme of the building based on the current popularity of nationalistic motifs. Symbols of civic virtue were a fitting choice for government buildings— post offices, courts, etc.—but could indeed be borrowed to flesh out the image of commercial concerns like investment banks. Other decorative motifs include the “Lombard” strip (a raised scalloped band running below the cornice line), alluding to Romanesque architecture, and the foliated double-scroll, a bold Art Deco design. The abstract pattern of polychrome brickwork on the building’s two secondary facades (the north and east facades) constitutes another substantial ornamental program, one that articulates the building’s structure in concise modernist terms.

The former Bankers’ Trust Co. building is a highly illustrative example of the “setback” mode of building construction that dominated New York’s skyline after passage of the 1916 zoning law, which restricted a building’s height and bulk based on street width and lot size. The façade composition of the former Bankers’ Trust Co. building demonstrates architect William Whitehill’s attempt to integrate the setback into a classical façade composition.

Architects of the 1920s had not only to solve the aesthetic “problem” of the zoning law-they were also bound by speculative developers to fill the entire zoning “envelope” in order to capture full return on investments. The banking industry, especially in New York City, changed dramatically between the two world wars, and this change is evident in the striking juxtaposition of the Bankers’ Trust Co. bank-office building with the domed, temple-front Classical New York Savings bank that sits facing it on the northwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 14th Street. The design of this bank deploys Academic Classicism to convey wisdom and security, traits particularly favorable in a savings bank; the design of the Bankers’ Trust Co. bank capitalizes on monumentality and heavily symbolic ornament to declare the new commercial aspirations of the investment banking industry in the modern era.

The Bankers’ Trust Co. still reads in the same boldly optimistic way it was intended to, and is still used in the same everyday way envisioned by the architect and the corporation. It is an undeniable embodiment of the economic forces that transformed the Manhattan skyline into the metropolis we recognize today and propelled the city towards its current status of international financial leadership.

5b. Interior: Office Lobby

The small office lobby of the former Bankers’ Trust Company Building is a sumptuous exposition of high Art Deco design and materials. The tight, streamlined composition of highly-polished marble surfaces, smoked glass and bronze grillework articulates the principles of crafstmanship, elegant detail, and luxury demonstrated by the finest examples of high Art Deco design.

Long and narrow, the office lobby with vestibule, stairs and six elevators, is clad entirely in two shades of highly polished marble: a slate-colored marble predominates, while the baseboard area is articulated in a deep green, almost black, marble. Large dark green marble diamonds are inlaid into the gold-hued terrazzo floor, the tones of which are picked up and multiplied by the gilded, coffered ceiling. The flat marble lintels over the doors and stairway opening are carved away at the ends in a cascading, “waterfall” form, the waterfall being a ubiquitous Art Deco motif.

The narrowness of the lobby is complemented by the streamlined form of the attenuated smoked-glass-andbronze chandeliers, similar to those hanging in the lobby of the Barclay-Vesey Building. The lobby boasts extensive use of elaborate bronzework: as a decorative covering for the metal elevator doors, as the structural frame for the main entrance doors giving out onto 14th Street, and two monumental filigree grilles, one set in the wall of the vestibule, the other set in the far wall of the lobby, between the elevator banks. The office lobby of the former Bankers’ Trust Co. building is a stunning embodiment of the modernist concept of “total design,” and a virtuosic display of Art Deco handicraft carried out in an array of sumptuous materials.

6. Mechanics & Metals National Bank Building

• (Currently the New York Ear & Eye Infirmary)
• Address: 230 Second Avenue
• Architect/Builder: Hoggson Brothers Incorporated
• Date: 1923

This Mechanics & Metals Bank branch was built at a time when New York was a world leader in banking and the Federal Reserve System saw the highest number of commercial banks being established. Noble Foster Hoggson and William J. Hoggson started as decorating contractors before specializing in the design and construction of banks and then expanded their business to libraries, houses, churches, hotels and multi-story office towers. The Hoggson Brothers became prolific bank designers and builders and by 1914 they had projects all over the United States. The Hoggson Method of Building provided, “one capable and financially responsible organization for the planning as well as execution of the work,” and a single contract which included, “all professional services, as well as labor and material required for the planning and execution of the work.”

The Mechanics & Metals Bank Building was designed as a three-story bank and speculative office building. The façade is composed of rough red brick with a base of granite. The trim, pilasters, window surrounds, entablature and cornice are all limestone. The Second Avenue façade follows a triumphal arch motif, which was used to inspire confidence in the institution within, with a two-story arched cast iron and glass entrance is recessed from edge of the building. The four Corinthian pilasters, rising from the extended granite base to the entablature and cornice, divide the façade into three unequal parts. Above the cornice the limestone trimmed roofline steps up from both sides to its highest point over the center. One double pane window with a broken scroll pediment is set between each pair of pilasters on the first level, which act as secondary arches within the triumphal arch theme. The windows on the second and third level are unornamented double pane windows. The 14th Avenue façade continues the pattern of window from the Second Avenue façade.

Academic classicism was a popular style for banks from the 1893 Columbia Exposition until World War I. The Mechanics & Metals Bank Building is representative of a shift after the war to the colonial revival Georgian style that was frequently seen in the late-eighteenth century, when the United States was just becoming established. Historical revival styles were popular for their familiarity during this transitional period although many banks continued to be designed in the academic classical style. This building also signifies an important shift in the banking industry. It was one of the first to take advantage of the new Federal Reserve ruling that allowed branch banking for national institutions through consolidation. According to Bankers’ Magazine, the location of this bank was indicative of the, “valuation which this institution places on the business district surrounding Stuyvesant Square.”

7. Greenwich Savings Bank

• (Currently an HSBC Bank Branch)
• Address: 531 Sixth Avenue
• Architect: Halsey, McCormack & Helmer
• Date: 1952

The former Greenwich Savings Bank was built in 1952 by prominent New York bank architects Halsey, McCormack & Helmer, who also designed the Williamsburg Savings Bank in 1929, and is a very late example of classicizing Art Deco bank architecture. The one-story granite and limestone bank sits prominently on the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue and 14th Street, and the chamfered-corner form of its tripartite façade clearly addresses the busy intersection. The focal point of the building’s monumental, geometric composition is a clock embedded above the main entry doors on the middle façade.

Triangular clefts cut into the limestone on either side of the entry doors, and also on both ends of the flanking facades, reiterate the faceted nature of the tripartite massing, and shadows created by these clefts accentuate the building’s abstract planarity. The building’s exterior is remarkably intact, and its simple architectural vocabulary evokes the stability and staid conservatism of the savings bank industry.

Although not being proposed for designation at this time, the interior the Greenwich Savings Bank is notable. In 1954 a one hundred ten-foot by ten-foot mural by Virginia artist Julien Binford titled, “A Memory of 14th Street and Sixth Avenue,” was installed in the Greenwich Savings Bank. Commissioned by the Midtown Galleries, it was possibly one of the longest murals in the city at this time and remains intact today.27 Despite alternations in the 1980s and 1990s to accommodate automated teller machines, the original terrazzo flooring, coffered ceiling and bank teller counters are largely intact.

8. 50 East 14th Street/837 Broadway

• Architect: Emery Roth
• Date: 1929

Emery Roth’s twenty-story office tower of 1929 is the only Art Deco tower on Union Square—and stands, with the Salvation Army and County Trust Building, as one of the few examples of the style on 14th Street. From street level to roofline, Roth’s design is remarkably free of ornament except for a cast iron and glass “screen” treatment on the third through fifth floors. The metalwork permits the lower five stories of the building to read almost as a separate mass, allowing the shaft of the office tower to dissolve out of the pedestrian’s focus. The architecture of the tower displays a strong vertical emphasis typical of art deco designs, as well as setbacks required by the 1916 zoning resolution, but remains conspicuously plain. Subway access was provided by the original public entrance of the building, but the portal has since been bricked closed. However, the original Art Deco lobby remains largely intact, and although the walls are rather modest, the ceiling is covered in a very handsome mural featuring stylized birdflight motifs and abstracted foliate forms. Even though Roth’s tower doesn’t exude the virtuosity that made him famous, it stands as a unique Art Deco entry in its context, the sole building constructed with 1916-required setbacks on Union Square, and a contributor to the eclecticism of its prominent environs.

9. 527 Sixth Avenue

• Architect: Theo Thomson
• Date: 1896

527 Sixth Avenue is a handsome Romanesque Revival commercial building commissioned by Albert Wyckoff, designed by Theo Thomson, and erected in 1896. Although it appears to be one building, it is actually three separate buildings erected on three contiguous lots clustered on the southwest corner of 14th Street and Sixth Avenue. The design and materials of the building took into account the presence of the Sixth Avenue elevated train, which arrived on 14th Street in 1881. As early as 1889, The New York Times was printing articles citing disgruntled building owners suing the railroad company for damages to foundations caused by the movement of the train. Recognizing that the massive amounts of noise and vibration created by the El precluded a residential use for the lot, Albert Wyckoff commissioned 527 Sixth Avenue for use as retail and office space and architect Theo Thompson designed a building meant for stores and offices, with a heavily reinforced foundation.

Although this building is small, its presence is mighty. The four-story structure is load-bearing masonry construction, in contrast to the transitional steel-frame construction of the larger commercial buildings being built at the time, such as the 14th Street Store located across the street. The solidity of its form is expressed by a continuous façade that wraps around the corner, giving the building a fortress like quality. The street level entrance was originally built on a bayed corner, framed by Corinthian columns. Crowning the corner is a tower that begins at the third floor, topped by a turret, announcing the building’s corner location.

There is a simple stringcourse, defined by a round-arch/ square-arch rhythm, marking each story. The windows are framed by a continuous drip lintel, further delineating the building’s exterior form. Floor height decreases at each story towards the top of the building to create the illusion of a taller building. The materials used in the building’s construction are substantial. The building was built in buff-colored, hard-baked brick laid in Flemish bond, and the foundation as well as the ornamental stringcourse and lintels were executed in granite. These materials speak of the building’s significance. During a time when such stone was usually reserved for monumental buildings, applying these materials to a building the size of 527 Sixth Avenue was unusual.

By the 1890s, when 527 Sixth Avenue was built, the elevated train was a very popular means of transportation. Its height above the ground (approximately fifteen feet) allowed for uninterrupted pedestrian traffic on the streets and sidewalks, but caused pollution and drastically affected the way buildings were viewed. Because 527 Sixth Avenue was basically surrounded by train tracks, architect Theo Thomson designed the building’s two street facades to be viewed both from the ground and from the elevated train. From the ground level, pedestrians would see the main entry surrounded by Corinthian columns, and the heavily ornamented doors and windows capped by the first-level stringcourse. From the Elevated tracks, viewers could look up and see the corner tower with its turret, rising above the secondlevel stringcourse and solidly articulated in buff colored brick and heavily rusticated details.

The plan of 527 Sixth Avenue is unusual, given that it comprises three separate structures. Each of the three units composing this building are separated by a brick wall, allowing more rooms per level to be rented out to separate parties. The bottom two levels were store space, while the upper floors were loft areas. It was the intention of the owner at the time to create a building with numerous and separate rooms so they could be rented to many parties rather than one large company. If the building was rented out to just one big company, the risk of losing money was more significant in the case of tenant turnover due to loss of business. The monumental form and heavy ornamental expression of this Richardsonian Romanesque building lend it a prominence that transcends its small size, and speak of a hope for permanence and of optimism that this building form would become the norm.

10. The Spingler Building

• Address: 5-9 Union Square West
• Architect: William H. Hume & Son
• Date: 1896

The Spingler Building is located on the west side of Union Square, between the Lincoln Building and what once was the Tiffany’s cast iron building headquarters. This Classical-inspired building was built in 1896 by architects William H. Hume & Son, appointed by the firm of James L. Libby & Son, who designed it as a commercial building that housed a variety of uses such as stores, showrooms, manufacturing enterprises and industrial lofts. It represented a new typology in the distribution of space required by the flourishing garment industry of the area, which demanded spaces for showrooms and manufacturing processes, all in the same place. The building’s façade was made out of limestone at its base, and buff brick and terra cotta in the remaining stories. The terra cotta displayed an array of classical inspired designs dating back to the Renaissance. The disposition of the “coupled windows” on the building’s side bays were of Renaissance origin as well, following the ideal of proportion and rhythm.

The building’s design followed the “tripartite scheme”, the lower two stories representing the base, a body unified by a series of continuous piers uniting the central windows in vertical rows and joined at the top by arches, and a highly ornate attic floor and cornice that made up the terminating third part. It reflected the style set forth by the World’s Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago in 1893, one that proposed the idea of the “White City”, which included a series of guidelines to be followed by architects and engineers, one of which was that the buildings should be within the Classical Style, using such materials as iron, wood, glass, buff brick and staff. The building itself represents a transition, its structure being built at a time when Union Square was changing its character and appearance, no longer the site of fine residences, luxury hotels and theatres, but rather a more commercial, manufacturing and even publishing place, making it an important element of its built fabric, a reflection of its character and an important vestige of its history.