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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

PAVILION—UNION SQUARE UNION HALL The Italian Renaissance inspired pavilion in Union Square was designed for the New York City Parks Department in 1931 by the Department’s architect Charles Schmieder. Schmieder joined the Parks Department as a draftsman in 1912 and served as Department architect from 1922 until his death in 1950. During this time he designed many structures in parks throughout the city, including a boathouse in Central Park and a field house in Inwood Hill Park, in 1931 and 1933 respectively. The Pavilion was part of greater park improvements made during subway construction, and at its inception housed a bandstand and comfort station. The pavilion has since served as a meeting point, a playground, a restaurant and a “soap box” for political protesters. (Figure 43) 27-29 Union Square West, the union meeting and offices, represents the rise of the trade and labor unions in the 1950’s. Its architectural style is representative of vernacular modern architecture. (Figure 45) HARTFORD BUILDING This eleven-story corner building built in a neo-Renaissance style was designed by Youngs, Bergesen, and Cornell in 1894. Built as a speculative office and loft building by Charles Wadsworth to meet the increasing demand of the wholesale and manufacturing establishments that moved to Union Square since the 1880’s, the Hartford Building represents the transition of Union Square’s built fabric and character, going from residential to commercial in the late nineteenth century. (Figure 46) 43. PAVILION—UNION SQUARE. 46. HARTFORD ZECKENDORFF TOWERS BUILDING. 24-30 UNION SQUARE EAST Once four individual Greek Revival rowhouses, these buildings are an excellent example of the evolution of New York architecture from residential to commercial. The re-cladding of the structures in cast iron, designed by architect Henry Fernbach, characterizes the shift from traditional masonry facades to a progressive style of the late nineteenth century. (Figure 44) These large-scale, residential mixeduse towers on the southwest corner of Union Square were built by the prominent real estate developer Zeckendorff in 1988. Its significance lies in the fact that it played a large part in the revitalization of Union Square, an area which had been in decline since the 1960’s. (Figure 47) 47. ZECKENDORFF TOWERS. 44. 24-30 UNION SQUARE EAST. 45. UNION HALL. SIGNIFICANT RESOURCES: UNION SQUARE 18
FOURTH TO FIRST AVENUES This neighborhood located between First Avenue and Fourth Avenue is characterized by surviving immigrant presence manifested in tenements, ethnic stores and cultural support networks. It is a transitional “valley” between Union Square and Stuyvesant Town, and still retains vestiges of affluent mid-nineteenth-century residential development. ENGINE COMPANY NO. 5 Built in 1880 by architect Napolean LeBrun, Engine Company No. 5 is the earliest firehouse built during a wave of New York City firehouse construction to still be used for its original purpose and maintains its original appearance. The austerity and simplicity of this early design, illustrative of the professionalization of the latenineteenth-century Fire Department, provides interesting and valuable contrast to his later, more ornate firehouses, several of which have already been designated. Engine Company No. 5, located on the south side of 14 th Street between First and Second Avenues, is one of the last functioning firehouses remaining from the major 1880s firehouse building campaign. (Figure 48) 48. ENGINE COMPANY NO. 5. (FORMER) ITALIAN LABOR CENTER Dating from 1920-21, the (former) Italian Labor Center building is a significant reminder of the Italian- American working class community which flourished in New York City in the early to mid-twentieth century. One of the few extant examples of a labor unionbased community service center in New York City, the (former) Italian Labor Center’s notable façade, designed by Bronx-based architects John Caggiano, Matthew Del Gaudio, and Anthony Lombardi is modeled after well-known Italian architectural ideas. Originally constructed for the members of the International Ladies’ Garment Worker Union (I. L. G. W. U.) Local 48 with a public store on the ground floor, more recently the Ukrainian Center for Social Research, and now a six-story apartment building with a theme-based bar on the first floor, the building has long been a gathering place for New Yorkers. Further, it, like the Triangle shirtwaist factory, is a “reminder of the period at the beginning of the twentieth century when the garment industry was the largest employer 49. ITALIAN LABOR CENTER. in New York City.” Notable features include intact breccia pernice wainscoting detail on the first and second floor interiors and, most strikingly, two decorative terra-cotta bas reliefs depicting scenes of Italian, family, and labor-related significance located between the second and third floors. The eastern panel clearly shows a content working family. The western panel illustrates the naked Roman goddess Minerva, patroness of craftspeople, in the foreground before a shirtless laborer. An early work in the career of Matthew Del Gaudio, the (Former) Italian Labor Center acknowledges the versatility of this architect, who was later recognized for his work on both the Williamsburg Houses and the Civil Courthouse of the City of New York (with William Lescaze). (Figure 49) SIGNIFICANT RESOURCES: FOURTH TO FIRST AVENUES 19
Page 1 and 2: 14TH STREET AND UNION SQUARE PRESER
Page 3 and 4: STATEMENT OF PURPOSE As first-year
Page 5 and 6: its manufacturing use to the narrow
Page 7 and 8: SIGNIFICANT RESOURCES 1 4th Street
Page 9 and 10: NINTH TO SEVENTH AVENUES Surrounded
Page 11 and 12: LITTLE SPAIN 11. JEANNE D’ARC. 20
Page 13 and 14: SEVENTH AVENUE TO UNIVERSITY PLACE
Page 15 and 16: (FORMER) BAUMANN BROTHERS’ STORE
Page 17 and 18: FIFTH AVENUE COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS T
Page 19: (FORMER) TAMMANY HALL Tammany Hall
Page 23 and 24: THE CONSOLIDATED GAS COMPANY BUILDI
Page 25 and 26: 602 EAST 14 TH STREET As a “taxpa
Page 27 and 28: BALANCING PUBLIC & PRIVATE INTEREST
Page 29 and 30: ENCOURAGING SENSITIVE DEVELOPMENT T
Page 31 and 32: wide lots. Through its modern inter
Page 33 and 34: structure. This would not require t
Page 35 and 36: Materials Assessment and Proposals
Page 37 and 38: Example: The Dix Building The consi
Page 39 and 40: the West Side Highway that divides
Page 41 and 42: CONCLUSION What we hope will be ins

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?