90 West Street
90 West Street is a 23-story residential building in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Located on West Street just south of the World Trade Center, the building was designed by Cass Gilbert, with Gunvald Aus and Burt Harrison as structural engineers, and John Peirce as general contractor. It was erected for the West Street Improvement Corporation, led by transportation magnate Howard Carroll.
The Gothic styling and ornamentation of 90 West Street served to emphasize its height. The design combined elements of the three-section "classical column" arrangement of 19th-century buildings with the "romantic tower" of Gilbert's later structures such as the Woolworth Building. Its waterfront site necessitated the installation of pilings deep into the ground. Other features included a terracotta facade with granite at the two-story base, as well as terracotta fireproofing inside the building. The building's design was widely praised when it was originally completed. The building is a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
90 West Street was built in 1905–1907 as an office building called the West Street Building. "The Garret Restaurant", on the structure's top floors, was marketed as the highest restaurant in the world. The building underwent numerous ownership changes in the 20th century, and was known after its long-term owner, Brady Security and Realty Corporation, during the middle of the century. Following the collapse of the adjacent World Trade Center in the September 11, 2001, attacks, the West Street Building was severely damaged. The building was subsequently extensively refurbished and it reopened as a residential building called 90 West in 2005.
Site
90 West Street is located on a plot facing West Street to the west, Cedar Street and the World Trade Center to the north, and Albany Street to the south. The lot is roughly parallelogram-shaped. The building shares its block with 130 Cedar Street, a 19-story hotel. The building carries the address numbers 87–95 West Street, inclusive, as well as odd address numbers 21–25 Albany Street and even address numbers 136–140 Cedar Street.When built, the West Street Building overlooked the North River to the west. Until the construction of the World Trade Center in the 1970s, the West Street Building was one of the tallest buildings on Lower Manhattan's Hudson River shoreline. By the 1980s, Battery Park City was built on filled land along the shore of the river, cutting off the West Street Building from a view of the waterfront.
Architecture
The West Street Building is tall and contains 23 above-ground floors. It was designed by Cass Gilbert, who had designed numerous public structures and government buildings in the Beaux Arts style. From the start, Gilbert intended the West Street Building as "a machine that makes the land pay". In an article for the Engineering News-Record, he wrote that in general, "architectural beauty, judged even from an economic standpoint, has an income-bearing value".The West Street Building was one of the first skyscrapers to consistently use neo-Gothic-style decoration. At the time, it was still relatively rare for a steel-skeleton skyscraper to contain terracotta cladding, as the West Street Building did. The decoration was inspired by the Gothic architecture of Belgium, using religious models such as the St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen, as well as secular models such as Brussels Town Hall. Furthermore, in his initial plans, Gilbert wanted to create a five-story tower that rose from the center of the structure, topping the height of the Flatiron Building. This five-story tower was canceled by Carroll, presumably to save money, but the idea inspired the seven-story upper section of the building, topped by a mansard roof.
Form and facade
At the time of the West Street Building's construction, the facades of many 19th-century early skyscrapers consisted of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column, namely a base, shaft, and capital. This contrasted with Gilbert's later skyscraper designs, which tended toward a "romantic tower" style. The West Street Building was one of four important Gilbert skyscrapers in the early 20th century, the others being the Second Brazer Building, the Broadway–Chambers Building, and the Woolworth Building. The West Street Building used a reduced version of the tripartite facade layout; compared to previous commissions, the "base" was scaled down, the shaft was emphasized by tall vertical piers, and the capital was emphasized by its Gothic-style mansard roof.The West Street Building contains a base clad with granite. On the upper stories, the facade consists mostly of beige terracotta tiles manufactured by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company. The terracotta facade is highlighted by red, green, blue, and gold tiles. To comply with the building laws of the 1900s, which required buildings over to be able to withstand of wind pressure, the West Street Building's steel superstructure was braced to protect against wind gusts. The curtain walls on the exterior were reinforced by hollow brick, while portal bracing was used for the steel frame.
The lower floors occupy the whole parallelogram-shaped lot, while the upper floors contain a C-shaped floor plan, with a small "light court" facing east toward the middle of the block. There are seven bays on the Cedar Street elevation, nine bays along West Street, and six bays on Albany Street. The upper portion of the eastern elevation is divided by the light court into two wings: the northern wing contains four bays and the southern wing contains two bays. The eastern elevation is mostly concealed from view, but the visible portions contain a similar design treatment to the three other elevations.
Base
The base is three stories tall and clad with Fox Island granite. There are segmental arches at ground level, and a cornice runs above the second story. At West Street, there are single-width arches within the outermost bays and double-width arches in all the other bays. The center bay consists of a double-height arched entrance flanked by red marble columns, foliated bosses with tracery, and a sign saying. The Albany and Cedar Street facades are largely set up similarly at the base, with single-width arches in the outer bays and double-width arches in the inner bays. The Cedar Street side has an offset arched entrance that is similar to the West Street entrance, with signage saying, while the Albany Street side has a driveway that leads down into a basement garage. On all three sides, the remaining arches are double-height and contain wood, aluminum, or cast-iron storefronts.The third story is designed as a transitional story with a cornice above the top. Between the window openings in each bay, there are granite panels, as well as foliated bosses at each corner of the window openings. The outermost bays contain one window each and are framed by more elaborate surrounds, while all the other bays contain two windows each. There are marble panels below the cornice, and single-story engaged columns at each corner of the building. Some of the granite lintels are spalled because they had been burned in the September 11 attacks.
Upper stories
The shaft comprises the fourth through sixteenth stories. As with the base, the outer window bays consist of one window per floor, and the inner bays contain two windows per floor. Between each floor are terracotta spandrels, which are recessed behind the piers. Each bay is separated by three-quarter piers that rise from the fourth to the fifteenth stories. There are iron balconies on the 14th floor. At the 15th floor, the piers end in foliated capitals, and the tops of the windows end in elaborate arches. The 16th floor serves as another "transitional story" and its windows are surrounded by complex ornamentation. A cornice runs above the 16th floor.The crown comprises the 17th through 20th floors. The 17th through 19th floors are designed as a triple-height arcade. The spandrels between the floors are decorated with multicolored floral motifs, while there is another ornate cornice above the 19th floor. On the 20th floor, there are groupings of two windows in the outer bays and three windows in the inner bays, with an elaborate colonette. There are figures of griffins separating each window bay.
The top three stories consist of a copper-clad mansard roof. There are dormer screens containing small balconies on the 21st floor, while the 22nd and 23rd floors contain dormer windows. These windows are covered by polygonal dormer roofs. Above the 23rd floor is an asphalt roof surface containing mechanical equipment as well as bulkheads. The dormers, as well as decorative tourelles, added to the aesthetic of the building when it was originally viewed from the waterfront.
Foundation
The site was difficult to develop, as the bedrock layer was an average of below the ground level of the site. The ground above the bedrock was composed of of clay directly above, then a layer of sand, and finally of mud and silt at ground level. Construction was further hindered by the difficulties in constructing caissons due to the frequent fires and air-pressure-related injuries associated with such structures. Gunvald Aus, the structural engineer, dismissed the original plans for the foundation, which called for the usage of pneumatic caissons so that the foundation would be deep inside the rock. Instead, he decided to use pilings because he felt that it was sufficient for the layers of rock and hardpan to be immediately adjacent. Pilings had been previously used in two other Lower Manhattan buildings: the New York Produce Exchange and the Havemeyer Building.The foundation consisted of pilings that descended at least, except at the boiler room where they descended. A layer of concrete, approximately thick, was then placed atop the pilings. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the underwriter for general contractor John Peirce, initially did not insure the project because of concerns that the foundation would settle unevenly. Metropolitan Life finally agreed to insure the project after Aus performed a test, which found that a pile would settle when loaded with of pig iron.
Seventy-four columns were drilled down to the rock. Due to the varying loads carried by each column, their sizes ranged from square, composed of clusters of between 4 and 25 piles. Additionally, in the layer of concrete above the piles, there was a series of I-beams that was encased in the concrete. Since the boundaries of the lot did not intersect at right angles, the columns carried varying weight distributions. The foundation work proceeded at an average depth of below the Hudson River's mean high water, requiring extensive waterproofing. This contract was outsourced to the Sicilian Asphalt Paving Company, one of Carroll's companies.