14th street and union square preservation plan - Columbia ...

(FORMER) TAMMANY HALL
Tammany Hall is the former
headquarters of the infamous
political machine by the same
name, which occupied the
building from 1928 to 1940. It
also served a second life as the
headquarters for the International
Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.
Their use of this building, and 40. TAMMANY HALL.
particularly Roosevelt Hall,
established the building as a center of labor union activity and contributes to this aspect
of Union Square’s history. Architecturally, the building serves as an imposing example
of Neo-Colonial architecture in its emulation of Pierre L’Enfant’s 1789 Federal Hall in
New York City. The structure, with its grand order, monumental rise, and pedimented
portico, was designed by Charles B. Meyers and Thompson, Holmes and Converse in
1928. The details of Flemish bond Harvard brick, corncob and wheatstalk cartouches,
and images of the “Tammany Brave” and Christopher Columbus present a nostalgic
and patriotic image. Its architectural value, combined with its important role in the
political development of New York City, make Tammany Hall a significant part of the
built fabric of Union Square and New York City as a whole. (Figure 40)
(FORMER) SCHIRMER’S STORE
Gustav Schirmer’s store (D & J Jardine, 1880) is one of the few mostly intact vestiges
of the high end retailers, particularly of music goods, that once occupied Union Square
and served the musical and theatre community that developed there. Schirmer’s was a
prominent business, noted for being the first to publish the
works of Wagner in America. His building contributed to the
architectural eclecticism of its unique block by employing
a stripped, almost abstracted classicism in its facade. The
structure reflected the transitional nature of architecture in
the 1880s as it moved away from facades of cast iron toward
brick here experimenting with the structural expressivity of
the Neo Gréc and the ornament of Queen Anne (sunflowers
bookend the spandrels, and a triangular parapet once
crowned a garlanded cornice). Gustav Schirmer’s store is a
singular survivor that conveys a largely lost piece of Union
Square musical history, and records the transitional work of a
masterful New York architecture firm. (Figure 41)
41. SCHIMER’S STORE.
SIGNIFICANT RESOURCES: UNION SQUARE
50 EAST 14 TH STREET
Emery Roth’s 20-story office tower
of 1929 is the only Art Deco tower
on Union Square—and stands,
with the Salvation Army and
Bankers’ Trust Company Building,
as one of the few examples of the
style on 14 th 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 and a unique castellated
cornice on the uppermost tier. 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. The original entrance
of the building, which once
included a portal to the subway,
42. 50 EAST 14 TH STREET.
features a handsome mural of
stylized birdflight and foliate motifs. Roth’s plan for the building carefully regulated
the unusual space dictated by the lot lines, arranging stores on the floors behind the
façade screen, and offices and lofts on the upper levels. Filed for the relatively modest
cost of $700,000 in 1927, Roth produced a building of great efficiency and utility, but
also up-to-date style. Emery Roth’s Union Square tower stands as the only Art Deco
building in its eclectic context, and exemplifies the speculative boom of the twenties in
the hands of a master, constrained by budget though he was. (Figure 42)
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