150 Nassau Street
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150 Nassau Street, also known as the Park Place Tower and the American Tract Society Building, is a 23-story, building in the
Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
of
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It is located at the southeast corner of
Spruce Street Spruce Street is a three-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. It starts at Park Row, near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, and runs east to Gold Street, intersecting with Nassau Street. History Sp ...
and Nassau Street, next to
8 Spruce Street 8 Spruce Street, previously known as the Beekman Tower and New York by Gehry, is a 76-story skyscraper designed by architect Frank Gehry on Spruce Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. 8 Spruce Street is one of the tal ...
, the former
New York Times Building The New York Times Building is a 52-story skyscraper at 620 Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eighth Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets, on the west side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Its chief tenant is the New York Times Company, publis ...
, and
New York City Hall New York City Hall is the Government of New York City, seat of New York City government, located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, Park R ...
. 150 Nassau Street was built in 1894–1895 as the headquarters of the
American Tract Society The American Tract Society (ATS) is a nonprofit, nonsectarian but evangelical organization founded on May 11, 1825, in New York City for the purpose of publishing and disseminating tracts of Christian literature. ATS traces its lineage back thro ...
(ATS), a nonprofit, nonsectarian but
evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
organization that distributed religious tracts. Designed by the architect R. H. Robertson, it is one of the first skyscrapers built from a steel skeleton and was among New York City's tallest buildings when it was completed. 150 Nassau Street is located near Park Row, which contained several newspaper headquarters. The building failed to make a profit during ATS's occupancy, and the
New York Life Insurance Company New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) is the third-largest life insurance company in the United States, the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States and is ranked #67 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United State ...
foreclosed Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...
on the building in 1914. After ATS moved out, the New York ''
Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
'' occupied the building from 1914 to 1919. The building's 10th through 23rd floors were converted into condominiums between 1999 and 2002. In 1999, it was designated as a city landmark by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
. The American Tract Society Building is also a contributing property to the
Fulton–Nassau Historic District The Fulton–Nassau Historic District is a federally designated historic area of New York City roughly bounded by Broadway and Park Row, Nassau, Dutch and William Streets, Ann and Spruce Streets, and Liberty Street, in lower Manhattan. It c ...
, a
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
district created in 2005.


Site

150 Nassau Street is located in the
Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, just east of
New York City Hall New York City Hall is the Government of New York City, seat of New York City government, located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, Park R ...
and the
Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...
. The building is located on a parallelogram-shaped plot that abuts Nassau Street to the west for and
Spruce Street Spruce Street is a three-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. It starts at Park Row, near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, and runs east to Gold Street, intersecting with Nassau Street. History Sp ...
to the north for . The
Morse Building The Morse Building, also known as the Nassau–Beekman Building and 140 Nassau Street, is a residential building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, at the northeast corner of Nassau and Beekman Streets. The Morse Building, ...
is immediately to the south, while a public plaza and
8 Spruce Street 8 Spruce Street, previously known as the Beekman Tower and New York by Gehry, is a 76-story skyscraper designed by architect Frank Gehry on Spruce Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. 8 Spruce Street is one of the tal ...
is located to the east. The
Potter Building The Potter Building is a building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The building occupies a full block along Beekman Street with the addresses 38 Park Row to its west and 145 Nassau Street to its east. It was designed ...
and 41 Park Row are located across Nassau Street and
Pace University Pace University is a private university with its main campus in New York City and secondary campuses in Westchester County, New York. It was established in 1906 by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace as a business school. Pac ...
is located across Spruce Street.


Architecture

150 Nassau Street was designed by
Robert Henderson Robertson Robert Henderson Robertson (April 29, 1849 – June 3, 1919) was an American architect who designed numerous houses, institutional and commercial buildings, and churches. Life and career Robertson was born in Philadelphia of Scot ...
in the
Romanesque style Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this later ...
. The building is tall with 23 stories. 150 Nassau Street was one of New York City's first skyscrapers to employ a steel skeletal frame. It is designed with elements of
Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...
and
Renaissance Revival architecture Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...
.


Form

Much of the building is 20 stories high, except for its northwestern corner, which contains a small three-story tower with a
pitched roof Roof pitch is the steepness of a roof expressed as a ratio of inch(es) rise per horizontal foot (or their metric equivalent), or as the angle in degrees its surface deviates from the horizontal. A flat roof has a pitch of zero in either insta ...
. The top of the main roof is tall, but the top of the pitched roof is . The floors above the first story are U-shaped, with a small
light court In architecture, a lightwell,light well, light-well sky-well,skywell, sky well or air shaft is an unroofed or roofed external space provided within the volume of a large building to allow light and air to reach what would otherwise be a dark or ...
facing south. Two
water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...
s were located above the main roof, but were removed. The Nassau Street side consists of a three-story arcade, meant to complement 41 Park Row to the west, with an open-air top story.


Facade

At the time of 150 Nassau Street's construction, the facades of many 19th-century
early skyscrapers The earliest stage of skyscraper design encompasses buildings built between 1884 and 1945, predominantly in the American cities of New York and Chicago. Cities in the United States were traditionally made up of low-rise buildings, but significan ...
consisted of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a
column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
, namely a base, midsection, and
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
. 150 Nassau Street contains six horizontal layers, divided by
band course A course is a layer of the same unit running horizontally in a wall. It can also be defined as a continuous row of any masonry unit such as bricks, concrete masonry units (CMU), stone, shingles, tiles, etc. Coursed masonry construction arranges ...
s and
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
s: of these, two are in the base, three in the midsection, and one at the capital. Both principal facades contain five vertical
bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
. The main entrance, located in the center bay on Nassau Street, consists of a double-height archway supported by two pairs of columns, one on each side. Underneath the arch is an elaborate
entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...
and a semicircular
transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...
. The windows are mostly
sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...
s. The principal facades are the northern and western facades, which are made of self-supporting
masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...
on the ground through fifth floors, and
brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
and
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
supported by the building's box girders on the upper floors. The basement on the Spruce Street side is visible due to the downward slope of the lot from west to east. On the lowest two floors of both principal facades, each bay contains an arched window. On each of the third through 20th floors, there are two sash windows in each bay. The 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th floors are framed by cornices on their tops and bottoms, and divide the midsection into three distinct horizontal segments. The 19th through 23rd floors form a "capital"; the 19th and 20th floors cover the entire lot area and are similar in design to the lower floors, but the 21st floor contains an arched, open-air arcade measuring two bays wide on Spruce Street and five bays wide on Nassau Street. The 21st through 23rd stories constitute the building's tower: 21st and 22nd stories contain tile walls and rectangular windows, while the 23rd floor contains a pitched roof with
dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...
s. The southern and eastern facades are made of self-supporting brick below the 13th floor and are supported by
lattice girder A lattice girder is a truss girder where the load is carried by a web of latticed metal. Overview The lattice girder was used prior to the development of larger rolled steel plates. It has been supplanted in modern construction with welded o ...
s above that point. These facades mostly lack ornament. The lower five stories of the eastern facade served as a
party wall A party wall (occasionally parti-wall or parting wall, also known as common wall or as a demising wall) is a dividing partition between two adjoining buildings that is shared by the occupants of each residence or business. Typically, the builder ...
to a now-demolished building on Spruce Street. Terracotta, possibly created by New York Architectural Terra Cotta, was used for decorative detail on the facade. When built, the top story contained further ornamentation such as a flagpole and
finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...
s, which caused the building to stand out on the skyline. The winged figures on the facade's uppermost portion were similar to that of Robertson's previous
Corn Exchange Bank The Corn Exchange Bank was a retail bank founded in 1853 in New York state. Over the years, the company acquired many community banks. History In 1855, the Corn Exchange Bank moved into an existing building in New York City at the northwest ...
building at
William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
and Nassau Streets.


Foundation

The ground directly underneath 150 Nassau Street was made of a layer of fine red
sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
extending deep, then a layer of
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
, followed by another layer of fine sand. The layer of
bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
was located underground, and the builders decided against digging to the depth of the bedrock using pneumatic caissons. During construction, the
foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
was excavated to a depth of . The builders then drove
pilings A deep foundation is a type of foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a vertical structural element ...
into the ground. Each piling was made of
spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...
tree trunks between long and wide. Atop each piling was granite blocks, then vertical brick piers, and finally cast-iron footings for the building's columns. Along portions of the south and west walls, the builders could not install pilings to provide foundations for the columns. These columns were instead supported by
cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
s made of
truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...
es; six pairs of cantilevers were used. Several neighboring buildings, including the Morse Building, were underpinned while the foundation was being built. The columns are generally spaced apart.


Features

150 Nassau Street uses some of metal. Generally, each floor is supported by pairings of
I-beam An I-beam, also known as H-beam (for universal column, UC), w-beam (for "wide flange"), universal beam (UB), rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially in Polish language, Polish, Bulgarian language, Bulgarian, Spanish language, Spanish ...
s, with each pairing spaced about apart. The I-beams under the basement through third floors are thick, while the I-beams under the remaining floors are thick. Box girders are also located under the 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th floors, and
plate girder A plate girder bridge is a bridge supported by two or more plate girders. Overview In a plate girder bridge, the plate girders are typically I-beams made up from separate structural steel plates (rather than rolled as a single cross-section), ...
s are under the 19th floor. The floors themselves are made of flat brick arches deep. The columns were wrapped with of brick to provide fireproofing. 150 Nassau Street features six elevators arranged around a semicircular space in the northwest corner of the building. Of these, two were originally "express elevators" running non-stop to the upper floors. The building's only fire staircase is located on the opposite side of the semicircular elevator lobbies on each floor. Upon the building's completion, the ATS described the new facilities as "convenient or necessary for an office of the highest standard". These included radiators under every window, as well as steam, electric and gas services. Two storefronts were located at ground level and there was space for four additional stores in the basement; the 22nd floor also contained a restaurant. The rest of the building had space for more than 700 offices. As built, each floor had 36 offices, which could be rented either as singular units or as part of a multi-unit suite. The corridors in the building were built to a relatively narrow width to maximize office space. Since the building's 2002 renovation, the lowest nine floors contain 80 corporate offices. The 10th through 23rd floors contain 45 luxury
condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
s, most of which are two- or three-bedroom units. The top three floors contain a
penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...
unit with of space, an outdoor deck, a private terrace on the roof, and ceilings tall. The penthouse, dubbed the "Skyhouse", was designed by David Hotson and Ghislaine Viñas, and includes features such as geometrical designs and an slide. As originally planned, the 23rd story was to be used as condominiums.


History


Planning

The American Tract Society, or ATS, was established in 1825 as a nonprofit, nonsectarian but
evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
organization. It was the first organization in the U.S. formed specifically to give out religious tracts. ATS bought land in 1825 at the southwest corner of Nassau and Spruce Streets, completing its four-story Tract House the next year. The house's addresses were subsequently changed to 144 Nassau Street in 1827, and then to 150 Nassau Street in 1833. A five-story Tract House was built on the same site in 1846–1847. ATS subsequently went into financial decline after the
Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the "Lon ...
. By 1886, the society had voted for a "thorough examination of all tsaffairs and business". In 1894, ATS's executive committee proposed relocating uptown to
Madison Square Park Madison Square is a public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for Founding Father James Madison, fourth President of the United States. ...
, stating that most of New York City's commerce had relocated further north. Two years later, ATS decided instead to build a new
speculative Speculative may refer to: In arts and entertainment *Speculative art (disambiguation) *Speculative fiction, which includes elements created out of human imagination, such as the science fiction and fantasy genres **Speculative Fiction Group, a Per ...
skyscraper on its current land, calling the site "a safe and remunerative investment". During the late 19th century, the surrounding area had grown into the "Newspaper Row", as several newspaper headquarters had been built on the adjacent Park Row, including the ''New York Times'' Building, the
Potter Building The Potter Building is a building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The building occupies a full block along Beekman Street with the addresses 38 Park Row to its west and 145 Nassau Street to its east. It was designed ...
, the
Park Row Building The Park Row Building, also known as 15 Park Row, is a luxury apartment building and early skyscraper on Park Row in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The , 31-story building was designed by R. H. Robertson, a ...
, and the ''New York World'' Building. Meanwhile, printing was centered around Beekman Street, less than one block south of 150 Nassau Street.


Construction

ATS bought two nearby lots in March 1894 and Robertson announced plans for a new 23-story skyscraper on the site the following month. Robertson submitted these plans to the
New York City Department of Buildings The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is the department of the New York City government that enforces the city's building codes and zoning regulations, issues building permits, licenses, registers and disciplines certain construction tra ...
in May 1894. The structure was expected to cost $1 million. ATS financed the project by mortgaging its existing property. Construction began almost immediately afterward. William Williams Crehore was the engineering consultant, John Downey was the general contractor, and George R. Read served both as construction supervisor and managing agent. Keystone Bridge Works was the steel supplier, Atlas Iron Construction was the steel contractor, and Louis Weber Building was the masonry contractor. The structure was erected with the largest
derrick A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower, and a ...
utilized in the city at the time, completing two stories per week. Two double-drum engines were installed on the seventh floor of the light court to bring up the material: one with and the other with . There were fears that the adjacent Morse Building was structurally unstable when a crack appeared in the facade due to 150 Nassau Street's construction, though engineers said it was not serious. During the new building's construction, ATS was exempt from real-estate taxes. In early 1895 the under-construction building was assessed at $300,000, of which $6,000 of taxes would have normally had to be paid. The
New York Life Insurance Company New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) is the third-largest life insurance company in the United States, the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States and is ranked #67 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United State ...
offered ATS a $1.25 million
mortgage loan A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any p ...
on the property that July. The project was completed by September 1895. At that point, it was among the city's tallest buildings, behind only the
Manhattan Life Insurance Building The Manhattan Life Insurance Building was a tower on Broadway in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. History The original structure at 64–66 Broadway was completed in 1894 to the designs of the architects of Kimball & Th ...
, the ''World'' Building,
Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...
, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. However, 150 Nassau Street contained usable space up to its top story, while the other structures' top sections were composed mainly of spires or domes. 150 Nassau Street was largely a
speculative development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. ...
, relying on businesses from the nearby
Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...
neighborhood to occupy the structure. Upon the building's completion, the New York City Department of Public Works leased the basement, 17th floor, and one of the two ground-level storefronts.


American Tract Society use

The construction of the new headquarters caused ATS to go into debt. From its opening, 150 Nassau Street was beset with "painful disappointments", in part because of its inability to attract tenants. Several major elevator accidents also occurred at the building. In one such accident, a cab dropped from a lower floor to the cellar, and in another, a cab dropped from the eighth to the fifth floor without slowing down; however, no serious injuries were incurred in either incident. The third such incident occurred in November 1896, when a cab dropped from the 10th floor to the basement, injuring three people. ATS replaced the
Otis Otis may refer to: Arts and entertainment Characters * Otis (Superman), in the films ''Superman'' and ''Superman II'' and related DC Comics media ** Otis Graves, in the TV series ''Supergirl'' * Otis (The Walking Dead), Otis (''The Walking Dead' ...
elevators with Crane elevators in early 1897. Despite this, in September 1897, another elevator dropped 19 floors, killing the two occupants. The coroner's jury did not find anyone culpable in the 1897 incident, but highlighted a need for a "competent" elevator maintenance engineer. The elevator accidents, which were covered intensively by the media, were among the reasons why tenants were reluctant to rent space in the building. By 1900, 150 Nassau Street had over 3,000 employees. In subsequent years, 150 Nassau Street was occupied by ATS's publishing and administrative offices, as well as several "tenants of questionable character", which in turn led to accusations of mismanagement. ATS defaulted on the mortgage in 1913, and after unsuccessfully attempting to raise funds, gave the structure to the New York Life Company the following year.


Later history

In August 1914, it was announced that the New York ''
Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
'' would move into 150 Nassau Street and demolish its former headquarters nearby at Nassau and Frankfort Streets. The ''Sun'' started moving into the building in July 1915, taking space in the basement and the second through fifth floors. Around the same time, 150 Nassau was placed for sale. The New York Life Insurance Company filed a lawsuit to foreclose on the building's $1.25 million mortgage. In 1916, a
New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
judge appointed a referee to oversee the foreclosure, and New York Life took over the building. The building was damaged the same year by a fire at a nearby low-rise building on Beekman Street. The ''Sun'' moved to
280 Broadway 280 Broadway – also known as the A.T. Stewart Dry Goods Store, the Marble Palace, and the Sun Building – is a seven-story office building on Broadway, between Chambers and Reade Streets, in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan i ...
during 1919, the same year that 150 Nassau was sold to the 150 Nassau Street Corporation. Tenants during this time included the
Woodrow Wilson Foundation The Woodrow Wilson Foundation was an educational non-profit created in 1921, organized under the laws of New York, for the "perpetuation of Wilson's ideals" via periodic grants to worthy groups and individuals. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the chai ...
, founded in 1921. 150 Nassau Street Corporation defaulted on the building's mortgage in 1936, and New York Life took back the building. New York Life retained ownership of 150 Nassau until January 1945, when David S. Meister bought the building. Meister then resold the property in November 1946 to a group of investors represented by Ralph Freidus. The ''New York World'' and ''Tribune'' buildings immediately to the north were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s, and Pace College (later
Pace University Pace University is a private university with its main campus in New York City and secondary campuses in Westchester County, New York. It was established in 1906 by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace as a business school. Pac ...
) built 1 Pace Plaza on the site of the latter. Pace also acquired 150 Nassau Street and other nearby buildings in 1967, with plans to destroy them and build an office tower. These plans did not proceed and Pace University sold 150 Nassau Street in 1982. Nassau Equities bought the building in 1998 and proposed renovating the upper stories with offices and residences. A controversy ensued when Nassau Equities' executive Jack Lefkowitz attempted to evict all the tenants at once. The next year, on June 15, 1999, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
designated the building as an official city landmark. Renovations took place during 2001 and were completed the next year. On September 7, 2005, the building was designated as a contributing property to the
Fulton–Nassau Historic District The Fulton–Nassau Historic District is a federally designated historic area of New York City roughly bounded by Broadway and Park Row, Nassau, Dutch and William Streets, Ann and Spruce Streets, and Liberty Street, in lower Manhattan. It c ...
, a
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
district. The penthouse unit went unsold until 2007 when it was purchased by Google engineering director
Craig Nevill-Manning Craig Graham Nevill-Manning (né Nevill) is a New Zealand computer scientist who founded Google's first remote engineering center, located in midtown Manhattan, where he was an Engineering Director. He also created Froogle (now Google Shopping) ...
and his wife. By 2013 the penthouse was on sale for $20 million. That same year, residents filed a lawsuit to prevent a
Denny's Denny's (also known as Denny's Diner on some of the locations' signage) is an American table service diner-style restaurant chain. It operates over 1,700 restaurants in many countries. Description Originally opened as a Diner, coffee shop un ...
restaurant from opening in the building. The restaurant moved to 150 Nassau Street anyway, but closed permanently in 2018.


Critical reception

Lower Manhattan's late-19th century skyscrapers generally received mixed reception. Negative criticism focused mainly on the layered design of the facade. A writer for the ''
Architectural Record ''Architectural Record'' is a US-based monthly magazine dedicated to architecture and interior design. "The Record," as it is sometimes colloquially referred to, is widely-recognized as an important historical record of the unfolding debates in a ...
'' said that 150 Nassau Street had a "repetition of motif".
Sarah Landau Dr. Sarah Bradford Landau (born 1935) is a noted architectural historian who taught for many years in the Department of Art History at New York University. Landau earned her B.F.A. at the University of North Carolina (1957). She earned her M.A. ...
, summarizing critics' general sentiments toward the building, said that "detractors object dto the breaking up of the street elevations into six horizontal divisions and to the considerable diversity of treatment from top to bottom", but that the layers were typical of Robertson's designs.
Montgomery Schuyler Montgomery Schuyler AIA, (August 19, 1843, Ithaca, New York – July 16, 1914, New Rochelle, New York) was a highly influential critic, journalist and editorial writer in New York City who wrote about and influenced art, literature, music ...
praised the design of the building's top, but was critical of the facade's six-part horizontal division, saying that it was "arbitrary" and failed to "correspond to any actual requirement, mechanical or aesthetic". The building also received praise because of the facade's layering, rather than in spite of it. An ''Engineering News'' article stated that, as a result of the inclusion of details such as belt courses, "the general treatment of the building by its designer is very good and the appearance is quite pleasing". Robertson himself found skyscrapers to be "uninteresting architecturally", but that despite the many restrictions that he felt to be a hindrance to skyscraper design, "something monumental could be made out of the building". The Landmarks Preservation Commission wrote that the building was architecturally notable as the result of a "contemporary search for an appropriate solution for the architectural expression for a skyscraper".


See also

*
List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan below 14th Street The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), formed in 1965, is the New York City governmental commission that administers the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. Since its founding, it has designated over a thousand landmarks, cla ...


References


Citations


Sources

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External links

* * {{Financial District, Manhattan 1895 establishments in New York City Apartment buildings in New York City Civic Center, Manhattan Historic district contributing properties in Manhattan Financial District, Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Residential buildings completed in 1895 Residential skyscrapers in Manhattan Robert Henderson Robertson buildings Romanesque Revival architecture in New York City Renaissance Revival architecture in New York City