8 Spruce Street, previously known as the Beekman Tower and New York by Gehry, is a 76-story skyscraper designed by architect
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions.
His works are considered ...
on
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 ...
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 ...
,
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 ...
.
8 Spruce Street is one of the tallest residential towers in the world, and it was the tallest residential tower in the
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...
at the time of opening in February 2011.
The building was developed by
Forest City Ratner
Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings, shopping centers and apartments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and the greater metropolitan areas of New York Ci ...
, designed by
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions.
His works are considered ...
Architects and
WSP Cantor Seinuk
WSP Global Inc. is a Canadian company with American and British roots, providing management and consultancy services to the built and natural environment. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. After the purchase of New York-headquartered ...
Structural Engineers, and constructed by Kreisler Borg Florman. It contains a public elementary school owned by the Department of Education.
Above that and grade-level retail, the tower contains only residential rental units. The skyscraper's structural frame is made of reinforced concrete, and form-wise it falls within the
architectural style
An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...
of
Deconstructivism
Deconstructivism is a movement of postmodern architecture which appeared in the 1980s. It gives the impression of the fragmentation of the constructed building, commonly characterised by an absence of obvious harmony, continuity, or symmetry. ...
.
Site
8 Spruce Street is located on the south side 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 ...
, between
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, 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 ...
. It is just east of
City Hall Park
City Hall Park is a public park surrounding New York City Hall in the Civic Center of Manhattan. It was the town commons of the nascent city of New York.
History
17th century
David Provoost was an officer in the Dutch West India Company. Hi ...
and south of
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 ...
and the
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
. Immediately to the west are
150 Nassau Street
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 of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is located at the southeast corner of Spruce Street and N ...
and 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, ...
(140 Nassau Street). Prior to 8 Spruce Street's construction, the lot was used as parking for the
NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital
NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital is a nonprofit, acute care, teaching hospital in New York City and is the only hospital in Lower Manhattan south of Greenwich Village. It is part of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System and on ...
immediately to the east.
Design and usage
School
The school is sheathed in reddish-tan
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 covers of the first five floors of the building.
It hosts over 600 students enrolled in pre-
kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...
through eighth grade classes. A fourth floor roof deck holds of outdoor play space.
Apartments
Above the elementary school is a 904-unit luxury residential tower clad in stainless steel. The apartments range from to , and consist of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. All units are priced at market-rate, with no low or moderate income-restricted apartments. All units are rental-only; none are available for purchase.
Hospital
The building originally included space for
New York Downtown Hospital
NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital is a nonprofit, acute care, teaching hospital in New York City and is the only hospital in Lower Manhattan south of Greenwich Village. It is part of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System and one ...
next door.
The hospital was allocated , of parking below ground. It was never used. As of 2016, it is a commercially-operated valet parking garage.
Public space
There are public plazas on both the east and west sides of the building, one and the other somewhat smaller.
Street-level retail, totaling approximately , is included as part of the project.
History
8 Spruce Street opened in February 2011.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City
The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...
in 2020, about one of every five units were vacant. The building's owners,
Brookfield Property Partners and Nuveen, placed the building for sale in November 2021 with an asking price of $850 million.
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to:
People
* Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
* Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
* Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...
reported in late 2021 that
Blackstone Inc. would likely purchase the property for $930 million, and multiple sources have confirmed the sale. Blackstone established 8 Spruce (NY) Owner LLC in December 2021 to serve as owner.
Critical reception
Early reviews of 8 Spruce Street were favorable. In ''
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 ...
'', architecture critic
Nicolai Ouroussoff
Nicolai Ouroussoff (russian: Николай Владимирович Урусов; born October 3, 1962) is a writer and educator who was an architecture critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times''.
Biography
Born in Cambridg ...
praised the building's design as a welcome addition to the skyline of New York, calling it: "the finest skyscraper to rise in New York since
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
's
CBS Building
The CBS Building, also known as Black Rock, is the headquarters of the CBS broadcasting network at 51 West 52nd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 38-story, building, the only skyscraper designed by Eero Saari ...
went up 46 years ago". ''
New Yorker
New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to:
* A resident of the State of New York
** Demographics of New York (state)
* A resident of New York City
** List of people from New York City
* ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925
* ''The New ...
'' magazine's
Paul Goldberger
Paul Goldberger (born in 1950) is an American author, architecture critic and lecturer. He is known for his "Sky Line" column in ''The New Yorker''.
Biography
Shortly after starting as a reporter at ''The New York Times'' in 1972, he was assign ...
described it as "one of the most beautiful towers downtown". Comparing Gehry's tower to the nearby
Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is an early skyscraper, early American skyscraper designed by architect Cass Gilbert located at 233 Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was the tallest building in ...
, completed in 1913, Goldberger said, "It is the first thing built downtown since then that actually deserves to stand beside it."
CityRealty architecture critic Carter Horsely hailed the project, saying "the building would have been an unquestioned architectural masterpiece if the south façade had continued the crinkling and if the base had continued the stainless-steel cladding. Even so, it is as majestic as its cross-town rival, the great neo-Gothic Woolworth Building designed by Cass Gilbert at 233 Broadway on the other side of City Hall Park." Gehry designed both the exterior, interiors and amenities spaces, along with all 20 model apartments.
The building received the
Emporis Skyscraper Award
The Emporis Skyscraper Award was an award for architectural excellence regarding the design of buildings and their functionality.
The award was presented annually by Emporis, a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany ...
for 2011.
See also
*
11 Hoyt
*
MIRA Tower
*
List of tallest buildings in New York City
New York City, the most populous city in the United States, is home to over 7,000 completed high-rise buildings of at least , of which at least 95 are taller than . The tallest building in New York is One World Trade Center, which rises ...
*
List of tallest buildings in the United States
The world's first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1885. Since then, the United States has been home to some of the world's tallest skyscrapers. New York City, specifically the borough of Manhattan, notably has the tallest skyline in the cou ...
*
List of tallest buildings in the world
This list of tallest buildings includes skyscrapers with continuously occupiable floors and a height of at least . Non-building structures, such as towers, are not included in this list (for these, see ''List of tallest buildings and structur ...
*
List of works by Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry is a Pritzker Prize-winning architect. His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions. His style is sometimes described as Deconstructivist or postmodern, although he has rejected the second term.
Comp ...
*
List of tallest residential buildings in the world
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) defines a residential building as one where 85 percent or more of its total floor area is dedicated to residential usage.
The tallest residential building in the world is Central Park Tow ...
References
External links
*
{{Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry buildings
Residential skyscrapers in Manhattan
Residential buildings completed in 2010
Apartment buildings in New York City
Forest City Realty Trust
Civic Center, Manhattan
Financial District, Manhattan
2010 establishments in New York City