224 West 57th Street
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224 West 57th Street, also known as the Argonaut Building and formerly as the Demarest and Peerless Company Building, is a commercial building on the southeast corner of
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
and 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, just south of Columbus Circle. The building consists of two formerly separate structures, the A. T. Demarest & Company Building and the Peerless Motor Car Company Building, both used by automobile companies. Both structures were designed by Francis H. Kimball and erected by the George A. Fuller Company with similar Gothic Revival and
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 ...
architectural details. The portion of the building at the corner of 57th Street and Broadway was built for car manufacturer Aaron T. Demarest and his company. The section belonging to the former
Peerless Motor Company The Peerless Motor Car Company was an American automobile manufacturer that produced the Peerless brand of motorcars in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1900 to 1931. One of the "Three Ps" Packard, Peerless, and Pierce-Arrowthe company was known for buil ...
is an "L"-shaped structure wrapping around the A. T. Demarest Building. 224 West 57th Street is 11 stories tall; the former Demarest section rises nine stories, while the Peerless section contains a partial tenth floor and an additional two-story tower. 224 West 57th Street contains a steel-frame curtain wall, concrete
pier Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th ...
s, and a facade of glazed
architectural terracotta Architectural terracotta refers to a fired mixture of clay and water that can be used in a non-structural, semi-structural, or structural capacity on the exterior or interior of a building. Terracotta pottery, as earthenware is called when not use ...
. Inside, both of the former structures had automotive storerooms at ground level and warehouses and repair facilities on the upper floors. The Demarest and Peerless buildings were constructed simultaneously in 1909. General Motors (GM) bought both buildings in 1918 and combined them internally. After GM constructed other buildings in Manhattan, 224 West 57th Street was renamed the Argonaut Building to avoid confusion. The Hearst Corporation bought 224 West 57th Street in 1977 and housed its Hearst Magazine department there until 2006. 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 a city landmark in 2000. The building was renovated from 2008 to 2011 and subsequently became the headquarters of Open Society Foundations.


Site

224 West 57th Street is on the southeastern corner of
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
and 57th Street, two blocks south of Columbus Circle and
Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. The building carries the addresses 1758–1770 Broadway and 224–228 West 57th Street. The lot occupies an area of , with frontage of on Broadway and on 57th Street. The lot measures along its eastern lot line and on its southern lot line. 224 West 57th Street abuts the American Society of Civil Engineers' Society House to the east and faces
Central Park Tower Central Park Tower is a residential supertall skyscraper at 225 West 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, along Billionaires' Row. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the building rises with ...
to the north. Other nearby buildings include the
American Fine Arts Society The Art Students League of New York Building (also the American Fine Arts Society and 215 West 57th Street) is a building on 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh in the Frenc ...
(also known as the Art Students League of New York building) and
Osborne Apartments The Osborne, also known as the Osborne Apartments or 205 West 57th Street, is an apartment building at Seventh Avenue and 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The Osborne was originally designed by James Edward Ware and constr ...
to the northeast;
Rodin Studios The Rodin Studios, also known as 200 West 57th Street, is an office building at Seventh Avenue and 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It was designed by Cass Gilbert in the French Gothic style and built from 1916 to 1917. Na ...
and 888 Seventh Avenue to the east; and
1740 Broadway 1740 Broadway (formerly the MONY Building or Mutual of New York Building) is a 26-story building on the east side of Broadway, between 55th and 56th Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building is owned by EQ O ...
to the south. In the 20th century, the area was part 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 ...
's "Automobile Row", a stretch of Broadway extending mainly between
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
at 42nd Street and Sherman Square at 72nd Street. Before the first decade of the 20th century, the area was occupied mostly by equestrian industries and was described by ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' as "thoroughly lifeless". By 1907, the ''Times'' characterized this section of Broadway as having "almost a solid line of motor vehicle signs all the way from Times Square to Sherman Square". In the late 1900s and early 1910s, several large automobile showrooms, stores, and garages were built on Broadway, including the B.F. Goodrich showroom (later part of Central Park Tower) and the U.S. Rubber Company Building just north of 224 West 57th Street.


Architecture

Both of the formerly separate buildings comprising 224 West 57th Street, the Demarest and Peerless Buildings, were designed by Francis H. Kimball. The Demarest Company section takes up the corner lot, measuring , while the Peerless Company section occupies an L-shaped lot around the Demarest Building and measures wide on Broadway by wide on 57th Street. The structure was erected by the George A. Fuller Company with
Purdy and Henderson Purdy and Henderson was a New York City-based engineering firm founded by Corydon Tyler Purdy and Lightner Henderson. They were active in the United States and Cuba between 1890 and 1944. Purdy and Henderson was founded in Chicago, and transferr ...
as the consulting engineer. The design of 224 West 57th Street's constituent structures incorporates many Gothic Revival and
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 ...
architectural details, to complement each other and the now-demolished Broadway Tabernacle church building to the south. Most of 224 West 57th Street is nine stories tall, although there is a tenth story atop part of the building. 224 West 57th Street's eastern section, belonging to the former Peerless Building, contains a penthouse rising two additional stories above the main roof. In total, 224 West 57th Street is 12 stories tall and has a roof height of .


Facade

The facade, made almost entirely of
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
, contains many decorative elements created by New York Architectural Terra Cotta. The northern and western elevations or sides of 224 West 57th Street are both subdivided into five groupings, each with three bays, and are connected by a canted corner. The northern two groupings on Broadway and the western four groupings on 57th Street belonged to the Demarest Building, while the southern three groupings on Broadway and the easternmost grouping on 57th Street was part of the Peerless Building. The southern facade, was originally visible behind the
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
of the Broadway Tabernacle. At the first and second stories, each of the five triple-width groupings are subdivided by double-height pilasters with cartouches at their tops. As built, these wide groupings originally contained automotive storefronts or entrances for pedestrians or vehicles. The easternmost grouping on 57th Street has a glass-and-metal doorway under a transom, and is flanked by inscribed bronze plaques with the building's name and address. The corner entrance at Broadway and 57th Street has glass-and-metal door under a transom. The facade has various ornamentation on the third through ninth stories, including
colonettes A colonnette is a small slender column, usually decorative, which supports a beam or lintel. Colonettes have also been used to refer to a feature of furnishings such as a dressing table and case clock, and even studied by archeologists in Roman ...
, arched windows,
cornices 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 ...
, and
brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or ' ...
. The second-southernmost grouping of the Broadway elevation has an oriel window spanning the fifth through seventh floors. Above the ninth floor, there are
pediments Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedime ...
over the six groupings comprising the former Demarest Building, and
parapets A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Wher ...
over the four groupings that make up the former Peerless Building. The southern elevation is clad in terracotta, but because of the presence of a neighboring building, only the westernmost two bays of the southern elevation are visible. The eastern elevation is made largely of tan brick. The two-story penthouse above the Peerless Building's easternmost section is clad in tan brick and contains terracotta trim, quoined pilasters, round arches with keyed surrounds, and tile signs on the western elevation. There were formerly also tile signs on the eastern and northern elevations of the penthouse.


Interior

224 West 57th Street has of usable interior space. This includes at ground level, in the tenth-floor penthouse, and between on each of the other floors. Both constituent structures are supported by an internal steel frame atop concrete foundation piers, with the facade acting as a curtain wall. Upon completion, the corner Demarest Building had offices as well as carriage and automobile warehouses. There was one elevator each for pedestrians and vehicles. The surrounding Peerless Building had a double-height ground-floor salesroom, with a gilded ceiling and marble walls and columns. The second through tenth floors respectively contained vehicle stock, new cars, used cars, an inspection studio, an upholstery department, repair shops, more repair shops, a painting department, and a blacksmith shop. The Peerless Building had two vehicle elevators, one passenger elevator, and a turntable.


History

U.S. Realty, a company associated with builder
George A. Fuller George A. Fuller (1851 – December 14, 1900) was an American architect often credited as being the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and the modern contracting system. Early life and career Fuller was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, near W ...
, purchased five lots at the southeast corner of 57th Street and Broadway in 1902. The lots had come under the ownership of Robert E. Dowling by 1905, when Dowling transferred these lots to the Island Realty Company. Island Realty planned to build an apartment hotel on the site, although this ultimately did not happen. The easternmost section of the lot was sold to the
American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
in 1905 to make room for an extension of their Society House. The Peerless and Demarest companies were among the companies that moved to Automobile Row in the first decade of the 20th century. The Peerless Motor Car Company of New York, a subsidiary of the
Peerless Motor Company The Peerless Motor Car Company was an American automobile manufacturer that produced the Peerless brand of motorcars in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1900 to 1931. One of the "Three Ps" Packard, Peerless, and Pierce-Arrowthe company was known for buil ...
of Cleveland, Ohio, was headquartered at 220 West 41st Street by 1905. The A.T. Demarest Company, founded by Aaron T. Demarest, was headquartered on Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street prior to the construction of its 57th Street showroom.


Construction and early use

By December 1908, the Demarest Company leased the three corner lots at Broadway and 57th Street, intending to build a showroom and shop there. That month, Kimball was hired to prepare plans for a pair of buildings to be occupied by the Peerless and Demarest companies. Doan Realty, a subsidiary of the Peerless Company, bought the two lots surrounding the Demarest Company's land by mid-1909. U.S. Realty also sold off the corner plots under the new Demarest Building to the Matoaka Realty Company. Construction on the buildings commenced in March 1909. The Demarest Company's building was completed by that June, while the Peerless Company's building was completed three months later in September. The Peerless Building represented an investment of $1 million, and collectively employed 250 workers upon completion. Peerless wrote that the new building allowed them to modify, repair, upholster, paint, and store cars "under one roof", and the word "Peerless" was mounted on the northern face of the Peerless Building's tower. One of the Peerless Building's two vehicle elevators was removed in 1912. Both the Demarest and Peerless companies stayed in their respective showrooms for less than a decade after their completion. Peerless had moved out by 1915, and Demarest stopped leasing its showroom by 1917.


General Motors

The Chevrolet Company, the automotive division of General Motors (GM), leased the Demarest Building starting in May 1917, and hired
Henry Janeway Hardenbergh Henry Janeway Hardenbergh (February 6, 1847 – March 13, 1918) was an American architect, best known for his hotels and apartment buildings, and as a "master of a new building form — the skyscraper." Life and career Hardenbergh was born in ...
to renovate the Demarest Building. The following October, Chevrolet bought the Peerless and Demarest buildings at a combined $1.5 million. Sources vary on the sequence of the subsequent renovation. 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 ...
(LPC) and the ''Real Estate Record and Guide'' wrote that GM hired Hardenbergh for the renovations, with plans for the existing elevators and stairs to be taken out and replaced with three passenger elevators. However, ''The New York Times'' stated that the buildings were renovated by J. V. Phelan, and that while the Peerless Building's original vehicular entrance on 57th Street was removed, the Demarest Building's vehicular elevator was left intact. According to the ''Times'', the upper floors were renovated and the blacksmiths' shop became a dining room for executives. The two structures became known as the General Motors Building at 224 West 57th Street, and a tile sign with the words "General Motors Corporation" was added to the Peerless Building's tower. 224 West 57th Street thus served as General Motors' headquarters in New York City, and contained GM's general offices as well as those of Chevrolet, the
General Motors Acceptance Corporation Ally Financial is a bank holding company organized in Delaware and headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. The company provides financial services including car finance, online banking via a direct bank, corporate lending, vehicle insurance, mor ...
, and the General Motors Export Company. By 1926, GM was developing 3 Columbus Circle, a 26-story skyscraper diagonally across from 224 West 57th Street, for use as its New York City headquarters. GM's offices were relocated to 3 Columbus Circle in 1927, and 224 West 57th Street became known as the Argonaut Building. GM continued to use the Argonaut Building as a showroom, opening a Cadillac and LaSalle showroom on the ground level in 1935. At that point, vehicle elevators between the basement and the third floor were installed. According to the building's subsequent owners, the first built-in car radios were sold inside the showroom in 1938. During the 1940s, the Automobile Merchants Association took space in the building, as did the
United States Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
and the ''
Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
''. The ''Voice'' and the Office of War Information had leased all of the office floors during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, but GM retook most of the space after the end of the war. The second and third floors of the Argonaut Building became office space in 1964, and the ground-level showroom operated through the late 1970s. Although General Motors completed a new headquarters and showroom building at
767 Fifth Avenue The General Motors Building (also the GM Building) is a 50-story, office tower at 767 Fifth Avenue at Grand Army Plaza on the southeast corner of Central Park, in Manhattan, New York City. The building occupies an entire city block between Fi ...
in 1968, GM stated that it would retain the Argonaut Building after the completion of the new structure. By the 1970s, GM had moved its divisions in the Argonaut Building to other locations.


Hearst and other office tenants

Hearst Communications started to lease space in the Argonaut Building in 1975, and purchased the property outright two years later in July 1977. The LPC designated 224 West 57th Street, along with the U.S. Rubber Company Building and the Studebaker Building in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, as official city landmarks on December 19, 2000. The terracotta facade was repaired and painted with a white coating in 2006. Although
Christopher Gray Christopher Stewart Gray (April 24, 1950 – March 10, 2017) was an American journalist and architectural historian,Schneider, Daniel B (August 27, 2000)"F.Y.I. Hell's Kitchen in the Raw" ''The New York Times''. March 4, 2010. noted for his week ...
of ''The New York Times'' said conservators usually disapproved of applying coating to terracotta, the facade had already been coated previously, so the modification was approved by the LPC. Also in 2006, Hearst moved its headquarters one block west to the Hearst Tower, following the completion of that building. 224 West 57th Street was leased by foreign developer M1 Real Estate in 2008 for 99 years. At the time,
Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm founded in San Francisco, California, in 1965. In 2021, Gensler generated $1.235 billion in revenue, the most of any architecture firm in the U.S. As of 2021, Gensler operated offices in 49 citi ...
was already planning to renovate the building for $45 million; the building was thus vacated, with ground-floor tenant
Duane Reade Duane Reade Inc. ( ) is a chain of pharmacy and convenience stores owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance. Its stores are primarily located in New York City, and known for high-volume, small store layouts in densely populated Manhattan locations. In 2 ...
moving out. A branch of
TD Bank Toronto-Dominion Bank (french: links=no, Banque Toronto-Dominion), doing business as TD Bank Group (french: links=no, Groupe Banque TD), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. ...
signed a lease for the ground floor space in 2009, and M1 purchased 224 West 57th Street from Hearst for $85 million the next year. Gensler's renovation was completed in 2011 and received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold award from the
U.S. Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a private 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and op ...
. This made 224 West 57th Street one of a few buildings over 100 years old to receive LEED Gold certification.
George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated mo ...
's Open Society Foundations leased all the office space at the Argonaut Building in September 2011, with the former ground-floor showroom housing a bank by that time. Tirmizi Campbell subsequently renovated the interior space for OSF's use, with the project being completed in 2013. Eretz Group purchased 224 West 57th Street from M1 Real Estate in 2015 for $214 million, and the owners secured a $145 million loan for the building in 2018. By mid-2022, Open Society Foundations was still the only office tenant in the Argonaut Building.


Critical reception

Shortly after the Peerless and Demarest buildings opened, ''Architects' and Builders' Magazine'' wrote that the designs complemented the Broadway Tabernacle "in a harmonious and satisfactory manner". The magazine wrote that the Gothic designs differed from each other "in every detail", but "in spirit conveys the same idea". In 2007, Gray wrote in ''The New York Times'' that the facade, which complemented the long-demolished Broadway Tabernacle, "seems a bit out of place amid the traffic at one of the busiest intersections in Midtown".


See also

* List of buildings and structures on Broadway in Manhattan *
List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...


References


Citations


Sources

* * {{Broadway (Manhattan) 1909 establishments in New York City 57th Street (Manhattan) Broadway (Manhattan) Francis H. Kimball buildings General Motors facilities Hearst Communications Midtown Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Office buildings completed in 1909 Office buildings in Manhattan