Apple Bank Building
The Apple Bank Building, also known as the Central Savings Bank Building and 2100 Broadway, is a bank and residential building at 2100–2114 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed as a branch of the Central Savings Bank, now Apple Bank, from 1926 to 1928, it occupies a trapezoidal city block bounded by 73rd Street to the south, Amsterdam Avenue to the east, 74th Street to the north, and Broadway to the west. The Apple Bank Building was designed by York and Sawyer in the Renaissance Revival and palazzo styles, patterned after an Italian Renaissance-style palazzo.
The base of the exterior is clad with rusticated stone blocks. Above the first floor, there are double-height arches on all four sides with ornamental ironwork by Samuel Yellin. The fifth and sixth stories are treated like a loggia, with windows separated by pilasters, while the roof is made of Spanish tile. Inside, entrances on 73rd Street, Broadway, and 74th Street lead to ornamental vestibules. The rectangular banking room next to Amsterdam Avenue has sandstone walls, a marble floor, large niches, and a coffered, barrel-vaulted ceiling. A mezzanine overlooks the banking room to the west. The building's basement, formerly a bank vault, serves as a gym. The upper stories contain 29 condominium apartments.
The Central Savings Bank Building opened on December 8, 1928, as an uptown branch of the bank, which at the time was headquartered in Union Square, Manhattan. The upper floors were originally rented out as offices, while the bank occupied the ground floor. The building's facade was made a New York City designated landmark in 1975, and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The Central Savings Bank merged with the Harlem Savings Bank in 1981, and the building continued to operate as a neighborhood bank branch. The banking room was designated as a New York City landmark in 1993. The upper-story offices were converted into condo apartments from 2004 to 2007. Contrary to other large bank buildings in New York City, the Apple Bank Building still contains a bank branch.
Site
The Apple Bank Building is at 2100–2114 Broadway, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It occupies a trapezoidal city block bounded by Broadway to the west, 74th Street to the north, Amsterdam Avenue to the east, and 73rd Street to the south. The land lot covers, with a frontage of on Broadway and a depth of. The building is near several other structures, including The Ansonia apartments to the west, The Dorilton apartments one block south, and the Hotel Beacon and Beacon Theatre to the north. Directly south of 2100 Broadway is Verdi Square and an entrance for the New York City Subway's 72nd Street station.Historically, the bank building's site was part of a 19th-century development called Harsenville. The southern part of the site, formerly lot 26, was previously occupied by the five-story Sherman Apartments. James Butler and Peter McDonnell had bought these structures in 1905. The northern part of the site was labeled as lot 32. Thomas J. Powers had bought the northern part of the site in 1861 and sold it to 4 & 6 West 93rd Street Corporation in 1921.
Architecture
The Apple Bank Building, originally the Central Savings Bank Building, was designed by bank architects York and Sawyer for the Central Savings Bank. The structure was designed in the Renaissance Revival and palazzo styles and was patterned after an Italian Renaissance-style palazzo. Prior to the building's construction, York and Sawyer had designed the Bowery Savings Bank Building at 110 East 42nd Street, the Greenwich Savings Bank Building, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building. The building was constructed by general contractor Hegeman-Harris Company. Though the Central Savings Bank Building was designed as a neighborhood branch, its architecture evoked that of a large headquarters such as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.The Apple Bank Building houses a branch of the Apple Bank for Savings. In addition, there are 29 condominiums on the upper floors. Though the Apple Bank Building originally contained six full stories excluding mezzanines, the ceilings were so high that the structure was equivalent to an eight- or nine-story building.
Facade
Each elevation, or side of the building, has a different arrangement of window openings. The facade is divided horizontally into four sections on all elevations: a one-story base, two intermediate sections, and a seventh-story attic. The northwestern corner is a diagonal chamfer.Ground floor
The base of the facade is made of rusticated blocks of limestone. Each limestone block measures up to across. Above the ground floor is a frieze with a torus molding. The frieze is inscribed with the phrases "Central Savings Bank", "Chartered MDCCCLIX" and "Erected MCMXXVIII". These phrases are arranged in different orders on each elevation.There are entrances along 73rd Street, 74th Street, and Broadway, all surrounded by large stone frames and topped by heavy cornices with denticulation. The center entrance on Broadway is flanked by square windows with metal grilles. A secondary entrance to the building's apartments is at the north end of the Broadway elevation, with the address 2112 Broadway. The northwestern entrance on 74th Street and Broadway contains a wheelchair access ramp. The southern entrance on 73rd Street contains a recessed doorway with a grille in front. Above the 73rd Street entrance's cornice is a clock with a lion to either side; the firm of Ricci and Zari carved the clock and lion out of Indiana limestone. The north elevation on 74th Street has an entrance near the building's northeastern corner. The east elevation on Amsterdam Avenue has square windows with grilles; there are no entrances.
Upper stories
On the second to fourth stories, each elevation is faced in rusticated limestone blocks similar to those at the base. The second and third stories have double-height arched windows that overlook the banking room. The bottoms of the arches contain wrought-iron grilles with gargoyle heads, manufactured by Samuel Yellin of Philadelphia. The primary elevation faces west on Broadway and contains three arched windows. The east elevation on Amsterdam Avenue has five arched windows. A panel with the inscription "Central Savings Bank 1859–1928", with shields on either side flanked by garlands, is placed above the center arch on both Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. The outermost bays on Amsterdam Avenue contain rectangular windows on the second and third floors.The north elevation on 74th Street has a single arched window on its left section. To the right are four bays of rectangular windows on either of the second and third floors, of which three bays are clustered together. The south elevation on 73rd Street has one arched window that takes up much of the facade. A sign displaying the time and temperature is also placed on the 73rd Street elevation. The keystones above these arches have cartouches shaped like shields. Each shield contains a depiction of a caduceus, as well as a flagpole extending diagonally from the top of the shield.
Above the arches, the fourth story has fourteen rectangular windows on Broadway, eighteen on Amsterdam Avenue, eight on 74th Street, and five on 73rd Street. On all sides, there is a horizontal band course above the fourth-story windows. On each elevation, the fifth and sixth stories are treated like a loggia and are divided into the same number of bays as on the fourth story. Each bay contains double-height tripartite windows spanning both stories, with iron spandrels separating the windows on either story. There are also balustrades in front of the lower section of each double-height window, at the fifth story. The bays are separated vertically by pilasters, which in turn are overlaid on rusticated piers. Above is a cornice with modillions, which projects from the facade. The seventh story, above the cornice, includes pairs of windows that correspond to the bays below. There is a sloped Spanish tile roof above.
Bank interior
Most of the bank is aligned with the axes of Amsterdam Avenue, 74th Street, and 73rd Street. Because Broadway runs diagonally to all three streets, the bank's Broadway entrance vestibule is perpendicular to that street. An entrance foyer, between the Broadway entrance vestibule and the rest of the bank, curves 40 degrees.Vestibules
On the west side of the ground floor, leading from Broadway, is a vestibule shaped as an irregular quadrilateral. This vestibule has a floor of polychrome marble strips, surrounded by a black slate border. The walls are made of sandstone paneling above black-slate baseboards and have wrought-iron radiator grilles. The north wall is wider and contains an inscription relating to the building's construction, a gift from the Broadway Association. The metal double doors facing Broadway are flanked by sidelights, which are held in place by iron mullions. The coffered ceiling is made of plaster, which is painted to appear like iron, and contains an iron lantern at its center.From the Broadway entrance vestibule, a doorway leads east to an foyer with an irregular octagonal plan. A metal-and-glass revolving door, with an incision on its interior, takes up two-thirds of the doorway, while a single plate-glass door occupies the other third. Above these doors is a transom window with six panes; the bottom section of each pane contains wrought-iron flowers, and the panes are held in place by iron mullions. This foyer also has a polychrome marble floor with a black-slate border. As with the vestibule, the walls are made of sandstone paneling above black-slate baseboard and have wrought-iron grilles. The coffered ceiling is also made of plaster and painted to appear like iron. An openwork iron lantern hangs from the center of the ceiling. The east wall of the entrance vestibule contains an architrave on its eastern wall, made of Mondragone marble; this links to the banking room.
There are two more entrance vestibules facing 73rd and 74th Street, which open directly into the banking room and are similar in style. The vestibules consist of revolving doors with incisions on their interiors. The vestibule floors are made of travertine with tesserae, surrounded by a strip of black slate. The vestibules also include plate-glass doors with metal frames. Above each revolving door are plate-glass transoms with ornamental iron panels.