49 Chambers
49 Chambers, formerly known as the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank Building and 51 Chambers Street, is a residential building at 49–51 Chambers Street in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was built between 1909 and 1912 and was designed by Raymond F. Almirall in the Beaux-Arts style. The building occupies a slightly irregular lot bounded by Chambers Street to the south, Elk Street to the east, and Reade Street to the north.
49 Chambers was the largest bank building in the United States upon its completion. It was the first skyscraper to use the "H" layout, which provided light and air to more parts of the building. The basement through second floor fill the entire lot, while the third through fifteenth floors contain the "H" layout and are designed to resemble a pair of towers. The facade is made largely of Indiana Limestone, as well as some brick and granite. Inside, the first and second floors constitute a former banking hall, used as an event space called Hall des Lumieres. The upper floors were used as offices before being converted to 99 residential condominiums.
The current building is the third built by the Emigrant Savings Bank on the same site; the bank had previously erected structures in 1858 and 1885–1887. 49 Chambers' banking hall was occupied by the bank until 1969, while office tenants occupied the upper floors. The building was subsequently owned by the government of New York City until 2013, and it was converted to condominiums in 2017. 49 Chambers was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and both the exterior and the first floor interior were designated New York City landmarks in 1985.
Site
49 Chambers is in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan, just north of City Hall Park. It has frontage along Chambers Street to the south and Reade Street to the north; in addition, 49 Chambers faces a parking lot and Elk Street to the east, and 280 Broadway to the west. Other nearby buildings and locations include the Broadway–Chambers Building and 287 Broadway to the west; the Ted Weiss Federal Building and African Burial Ground National Monument to the north; the Surrogate's Courthouse to the east; and the Tweed Courthouse and New York City Hall, within City Hall Park, to the south. The site measures on Chambers Street and on Reade Street, with a depth of.The ground slopes downward from north to south; the original ground elevation was below Reade Street and close to sea level. The surrounding area contains evidence of the interment of individuals, mostly of African descent, and some of these corpses may remain under the Emigrant Savings Bank Building site. Within the area, a frame church at 47 Chambers Street was built in 1801 by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. The frame church was replaced with a brick church in 1818. The current building is the third erected by the bank on the site of the churches and burial ground.
Architecture
49 Chambers was built from 1909 to 1912 and was designed by Raymond F. Almirall in the Beaux-Arts style. It was built by contractor Charles T. Wills Inc. The of steel was supplied by Post and McCord; the foundations were made by the O'Rourke Engineering and Construction Company; and the brick was supplied by the Harbison Walker Refractories Company.The building is tall with 17 above-ground stories. At the time of completion, it was the largest bank building in the United States. The Emigrant Building's exterior is made mostly of Indiana Limestone, with granite at the lowest stories.
The first three stories fill the whole lot, while the remaining stories utilize an "H" layout, creating "light courts" to increase natural light exposure. At the time the Emigrant Savings Bank Building was constructed, skyscraper developers in New York City were generally looking for layouts that could maximize naturally-lit floor space. Before the Emigrant Savings Bank Building's completion, developers frequently bought surrounding low-rise buildings to preserve their structures' views; alternatively, architects would design the upper floors to be smaller than the lower floors to compensate for large rooftop cornices.
Facade
The facade is set atop a raised basement containing a stone course. On the Chambers Street elevation, at the first and second floors, rusticated granite piers and engaged columns subdivide the facade into nine bays. There is a double-height window in each bay; on the six outermost bays, there are swags beneath the windows and a stylized keystone above them. The primary entrance is in the central bay and contains a granite surround underneath an ornate arched pediment with the word. The secondary entrances on both ends contain a simpler granite surround, with the street address above the door. There is an entablature above the second floor, which is interrupted by a plaque of the bank's name in the three center bays. A stepped pediment runs above the second floor, and a large coat of arms sits atop the pediment in the central bay.There are also three entrances on Reade Street. The center entrance contains a granite surround topped by the word, while the smaller entrances on either end are topped by their street addresses. The first and second floors of the Reade Street side are divided by brick pilasters into seven bays, with the central bay being wider than the others. The piers support a plain frieze above the second floor, with the bank's name in the center. A small pediment protrudes above the central bay.
The upper floors contain the H-shaped plan and are designed to resemble a pair of three-bay-wide towers on both the Chambers and Reade Street sides. The windows facing the streets are rectangular, while the windows facing the light courts are progressively rounded and angled toward the interior of the light courts. There are nine bays facing the light court on Chambers Street and seven facing the Reade Street light court. The third floor is treated as a "transitional" story and contains windows connected by geometric designs. The following ten floors, between the fourth and the thirteenth stories, consist of square-headed, copper-framed windows set back slightly between limestone piers. The fourteenth floor, another "transitional" story, sits atop a small cornice, and the windows are flanked by brackets supporting a much larger cornice. The fifteenth floor is designed as an attic with dormers. Heavy pediments atop the ends of both towers contain bee motifs evocative of the Barberini mercantile family, as well as large stone carvings of eagles and urns. The western and eastern walls are relatively plain brick walls with few windows. These walls contain painted signs with the bank's name, which date from the 1960s.
Interior
49 Chambers initially had a banking hall on the first and second floors, and was split up into office space above the second floor. Since its 2017 residential conversion, the building has had 99 condominium apartments, ranging from one to three bedrooms. Each unit contains at least. Entrances to the building's residential condominiums are on Chambers and Reade Streets.49 Chambers' foundation is carried upon caissons, extending to the layer of gravel below the curb. The cellars extend deep. The floors carry a load of at the ground floor and basement, and on the upper floors. The floors are made of segmental terracotta, while the ceilings are hung below the floor slabs. All columns below the first floor, except for the side wall columns, are filled with concrete. Each interior column is fireproofed with of concrete held in place by of brickwork.
The basement contains several resident amenities, such as a residents' lounge, swimming pool, gym, steam room, sauna, and virtual golf simulator. As built, 49 Chambers had three vaults, but two were removed during the building's residential conversion. There is also a residents' rooftop deck, covering. As built, the Emigrant Savings Bank Building contained ornamental bronze staircases.
Banking hall
The first floor, formerly the banking hall, contains ceilings high, marble floors and walls, and floor-to-ceiling windows. It is aligned on a largely north–south axis; anterooms, originally used as officers' quarters, extend west and east from the southern end of the banking room. The interior of the banking hall is made of Arena Pola limestone blocks brought from Istria. Since conversion, the banking hall has contained a three-bedroom "model apartment" as well as a separate event space.The banking hall is accessed from the central doorway on Chambers Street, which leads to a foyer with marble geometric-patterned floors. A curved marble screen, containing three sets of revolving doors, separates the foyer and the banking hall, and is faced with polished limestone on the banking hall side. Anterooms extend west and east, while the main banking hall extends north, nearly the whole length of the buildings. The walls of the anterooms contain panels with Greek fret designs, as well as bronze plaques with the bank's name and the dates of the bank's founding and the building's year of completion. The northern end of the banking room contains a marble staircase descending to the central doorway on Reade Street.
The main section of the banking hall is rectangular in plan. On the western and eastern walls, the banking hall had marble-and-iron cages for bank tellers. Two mezzanines, enclosed within frosted glass and ornamental bronze, run atop the tellers' cages. The tops of the walls contain an elaborate cornice, which is interrupted at some places by pilasters within the walls. The ceiling is supported by six pairs of large piers, as well as several minor piers on each side; all the piers are attached to the walls, except for the four freestanding piers in the center. At the tops of the piers, arched ribs divide the ceiling into three main parts. The ceiling contains large oval skylights made of stained glass, which depict allegorical figures in various industries. On either side of the banking hall, there are smaller plain-vaulted ceiling sections with rosettes and overhanging chandeliers. The large girders spanning the first floor are enclosed with concrete averaging thick.