15 Union Square West @ 15th St - Condo - by Eran Chen of Perkins Eastman

[krulltime]

Plans to convert 15 Union Square West





15-NOV-06

Brack Capital Real Estate USA has acquired the six-story, 80,000-square foot Amalgamated Bank Building at 15 Union Square West on the southwest corner at 15th Street for $80 million and reportedly plans to erect a residential condominium building on the site.

Bill Shanahan of CB Richard Ellis was the broker in the transaction.

According to an article in today’s edition of The New York Post by Lois Weiss, “Perkins Eastman Architects have been hired to handle the architecture while Vicente Wolf will work on the modern interior flairs.”

The article included a statement from Brack Capital that the building “will be woven into the urban tapestry of Union Square Park, evoking its colorful lie and history.” A call to Brack Capital seeking further details today was not returned.

The bank is relocating and the building can be demolished or expanded by 20,000 square feet under existing zoning.

In an article in the July 2, 2006 edition of The New York Times, Christopher Gray wrote that “the politest thing to say about the blocky white blob of a building at the south corner of 15th Street and Union Square West is that it’s homely,” adding that “buried beneath the 1953 façade is the 1870 building of Tiffany & Company,” a cast-iron building designed by John Kellum. Tiffany moved from this location in 1903 to 401 Fifth Avenue at 37th Street and is now at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Perkins Eastman’s other New York projects have included 455 Central Park West.

Brack Capital Real Estate’s other New York projects have included the Element, the Olcott on West 72nd Street, 90 West Street and 230 Riverside Drive.


Copyright © 1994-2006 CITY REALTY.COM INC.

[londonlawyer]

I hope that it's torn down. It's ugly.

I am really amazed though that the horrible building near McDonald's and Starbucks on the northwest side of the square are standing. What a waste of prime real estate. They're probably owned by something like the Estate of Sol Goldman in which kids may be fighting and preventing the sale of horrifically dilapidated properties in prime areas.

[antinimby]

Be patient london, those will get redeveloped in due time. Not every eyesore can be wiped out at once.

Anyway, back to this building. What a shame to hear that this building was once elegant and home to Tiffany.

The 50's and 60's are forgettable periods architecturally.

[lofter1]

Originally Posted by krulltime

In an article in the July 2, 2006 edition of The New York Times, Christopher Gray wrote that “the politest thing to say about the blocky white blob of a building at the south corner of 15th Street and Union Square West is that it’s homely,” adding that “buried beneath the 1953 façade is the 1870 building of Tiffany & Company,” a cast-iron building designed by John Kellum. .

That ^^^ article is posted in this thread ...

Kellum's Tiffany cast iron building (bottom):

[Fabrizio]

Wtf...omg! Could you imagine being a Village queen back in 1953 and seeing that happen to your favorite building?

[londonlawyer]

That's depressing. Then again, years from now, people will look back at the building on B/Way and 72nd and note that only philistines in 2006 could have stripped a beautiful building and replaced it with crap.

[Fabrizio]

Yep.

[lofter1]

Just so you know he was no slouch, John Kellum was also the architect for the Tweed Courthouse at 2 Chambers Street ...



http://www.nyu.edu/classes/finearts/...all/tweed.html

and 502 Broadway (formerly home of Canal Jeans, now Bloomingdales SoHo) ...



http://www.nyu.edu/classes/finearts/...2broadway.html

John Kellum was also the original architect for Garden City, Long Island when being developed by Alexander T. Stewart in the 1860s.

***

[pianoman11686]

What a shame. I don't even want to think of how many similar anonymous gems have met a similar fate.

[lofter1]

And, finally, some newspaper articles from 1871-72 on John Kellum's death (July 24, 1871) and the contest surrounding his will:

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read...-01/1074570893

[lofter1]

ps: John Kellum also did the original 5-story 565 Broadway building on the SW corner of Prince / Spring
(now home to Victoria Secrets and site of the original "Real World" 1993 shoot for MTV):

[ZippyTheChimp]

June 12, 2007

Peel Off the Layers, and Tiffany Peeks Out


Tiffany & Company
The facade as it was when
Tiffany & Company was still there.


Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
The work at 15 Union Square West
proceeds under black netting.


Reconstruction at 15 Union Square West has revealed
some traces of a former occupant of the building: the
curved third-floor windows of the old Tiffany cast iron facade.
The jeweler left Union Square in 1905


By DAVID W. DUNLAP

Hidden beneath decades of modernization, the physical past often re-emerges to tell its story of old New York.

Rarely does it come with an aura of robin’s egg blue.

But construction at 15 Union Square West has revealed part of the cast-iron facade of the five-story building that housed Tiffany & Company during the glittering end of the 19th century.

“Just when you think the past is consumed, it rears its lovely head,” said Stephen E. v. Gottlieb, an architect who was among the first to recognize the Tiffany cast iron.

Don’t go looking for diamonds. All you will find is a white-brick building under black-shrouded scaffolding. However, there is a sliver of original architecture to be seen along the 15th Street side, where the 20th-century brickwork has been removed.

Perhaps most recognizable from the Tiffany era are the gently curving third-floor windows.

Tiffany, founded in Lower Manhattan in 1837, moved to Union Square in 1870 to keep pace with the seat of fashion. It built in cast iron, The New York Times reported at the time, “as a preventive of fire, in consideration of the vast treasures” within.

While the company was at Union Square, Charles Tiffany bought the 287.42-carat gem that came to be known as the Tiffany Diamond. But the store carried more than rocks.

“Wandering through Tiffany’s spacious galleries in Union Square,” The Times said in 1873, “and stopping to admire the marble or bronze copies of the antique, a piece of majolica, a Limoges enamel, or a superb set of Henry Deux brass work, it is difficult to realize the fact that one is actually in a place of business and that each and every one of the beautiful objects of art can be your own, if you only have the cash wherewith to pay for it.”

(That was a big “if” then. It is a big “if” today.)

Feeling that Union Square had coarsened, Tiffany decamped in 1905 for Fifth Avenue and 37th Street. Twenty years later, the Union Square building was taken over by the Amalgamated Bank. In 1953, after a passer-by was fatally injured by a piece of loose cast iron, Amalgamated had the structure stripped and reclad.

According to city permits now posted at the construction site, the plan is to remove the facade entirely, add seven floors and convert the building to apartments.

So keep your eye on 15 Union Square West. More will undoubtedly be revealed. This is New York City. More will always be revealed.


Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

[lofter1]

This building is in a historic district with oversight by LPC ...

Normally when any original historic building structure is found during a renovation within a historic district the discovery must be reported to LPC --and work usually stops while an investigation is made of the existing conditions.

Today after I read the Times article I went by 15 USW -- At @ 1PM workers were going full tilt gutting the place.

And original structure could be seen within the brick.

It will be interesting to see if LPC steps in and does anything to save the original Tiffany building here.

(Doubt it)

[lofter1]

A picture partially showing the old Tiffany Building at 15 USW from 100 + years ago ...

Rockwood's New York City Location

... Below is a photograph of Union Square, where Rockwood's building sign can be seen at 17 Union Square West (red arrow), his studio location during the late 1870s until about April 1891 ... The large five story building across the street is Tiffany & Co. ...

Below a modern view of Union Square

***

[Tectonic]

To bad we can't implode in NYC. Demolition takes quite some time.