Civic Center
the Civic Center is part of New York City, New York, United States.Interesting places in Civic Center:
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NYC - Civic Center: Woolworth Building
Made by wallyg
The Woolworth Building was built in 1911-1913 for the Woolworth retail chain company. Frank W. Woolworth bought the long-coveted tract of land on Broadway opposite City Hall Park in 1909 and hired Cass Gilbert as architect; Gilbert urged his client to make the new headquarters the tallest building in the world. Woolworth, in turn, influenced by his travels to Europe, wanted his architect to design it in neo-Gothic style. After several redesigns, one higher than the other, finally to exceed the rivalling Metropolitan Life Tower, the foundations were laid in August 1911 and, at the rate of one and a half storeys a week, the 60-storey building was completed two years later. Rising from a 27-storey base, with limestone and granite lower floors, the tower is clad in white terra-cotta and capped with an elaborate set-back Gothic top, with the spire rising to the height of 241.5 m. It was to be the tallest building in the world for 17 years, until the 40 Wall Street exceeded its height. The building boasts a highly decorated, three-storey marble lobby in the plan form of a latin cross, with semicircular arches, bronze ornaments and sculpted corbels on the walls (one of which represents Mr. Woolworth himself counting his dimes) and the vaulted ceiling decorated with glass mosaic in Byzantine style. No wonder the building was dubbed the Cathedral of Commerce. The building was opened in April 1913 with a gala for 800 persons, and the building's lights were switched on by President Wilson from the White House in Washington, D.C. In 1980 the building exterior was restored to its original splendour, an assignment that cost more than the original construction work. The Woolworth chain eventually went out of business and its successor, the Venator Group, sold the building to the Witkoff Group for $155 million in June 1998. The NY University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies will expand to the first three office floors of the building (8,700 m²), with a separate entrance lobby on Barclay Street, equipped with new escalators. Also the top half of the building is facing new use, the space being converted into 145 luxury condominiums, designed by Costas Kondylis. In 2007, the Woolworth Building was ranked #44 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list. National Register #66000554
NYC: The Municipal Building
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The Municipal Building (1 Centre St.), designed by William M. Kendall of McKim, Mead & White, was built in 1909-1915 as the joint administration offices for the Greater New York, created after the annexation of Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island to Manhattan in 1898. After two inconclusive design competitions to replace the City Hall in 1888 and 1893, and after a law was signed that prohobited the replacement of the old City Hall in 1894, the site of the 1907 competition was shifted to a plot to the north-east, originally meant for an extension of the Brooklyn Building trolley terminal. The selection was made in 1908 and the next year work on this behemoth with 60,400 m² of office space -- a feature that helped the design to win the competition -- was begun. The first occupants moved to the building in January 1913, two years before work on it was completed. The building was influenced by the fashionable City Beautiful movement of the 1890s which promoted plans for creating public buildings in landscaped parks. The mid-part of the 25-storey tripartite facade is a U-shaped mass of austere light-toned granite over a high colonnade that forms the building's base and separates a front yard from the sidewalk. The top portion of the building features a colonnade of Corinthian columns and pilasters. The 16-storey top, above the middle section of the building, consists of a set-back tiered lantern on top of a square base, flanked by four smaller pinnacle turrets, symbolizing the four boroughs joined to Manhattan. At the height of 177 m stands the 6 m high statue Civic Fame by Adolph A. Weinman, New York City's second largest statue after the Statue of Liberty. This building impressed Josif Stalin so much that the Moscow University main building (1949-1953) was later based on it -- as well as, in general, the whole grandiose public building style in the Soviet Union. The building has an entrance to the Chambers Street subway station (1915), the first of many such connections to come. An archway leads through the mid-facade (a closed portion of Chambers St.) to the Police Headquarters across the landscaped Police Plaza. National Register #72000879
07-11-25 Muni roof lights, some sconce
Made by justindula
Muni building in New York is one of my favorites, specifically for this tiled subway entrance. 11/25/07
contemporary
Made by opus bucket
Kim Jones dances for Choreographing Space.
Municpal Bulding from City Hall Park
Made by Triborough
Municpal Bulding from City Hall Park
Nearest places of interest:
| Tweed Courthouse New York City Hall Federal Detention Center NYPD Headquarters | Foley Square Site of the Collect Pond EPA Region 2 New York Law School |
