BellTel Lofts
The BellTel Lofts is a mostly residential building at 101 Willoughby Street and 365 Bridge Street in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City. Constructed from 1929 to 1931 as the headquarters for the New York Telephone Company, it is located at the northeast corner of Willoughby and Bridge Streets. It was one of several Art Deco-style telecommunications buildings designed by Ralph Thomas Walker of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker in the early 20th century. The building was renovated into a residential complex in the mid-2000s.
The BellTel Lofts measures tall, with 27 above-ground stories and three basements. Its design is influenced by German Expressionism, with Art Deco detailing, and derives much of its decoration from the arrangement of the bricks. The building's shape features a largely symmetrical massing and numerous setbacks with decorative parapets. At ground level, the main entrance is recessed at the center of the western facade on Bridge Street, while most of the remaining ground-story openings are metal-and-glass storefronts. On the upper stories, the facade is divided vertically into multiple bays and taper to a tower on the top nine stories. When 101 Willoughby Street was constructed, the ground story contained a lobby and auditorium, while the upper stories were used as offices. Since the 2000s, the building has contained 250 residential units, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle.
In 1929, the New York Telephone Company decided to construct 101 Willoughby Street, consolidating operations from several other buildings, including the company's old headquarters at 81 Willoughby Street. Plans for the new structure were filed in November 1929, and the building formally opened on October 28, 1931, as New York Telephone's second-largest building. The New York Telephone Company continued to occupy the building through the late 20th century, with thousands of employees there. Part of the building was renovated into a training center in the late 1980s, and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as a city landmark in 2004. The building was sold in February 2005 to David Bistricer for $68 million, and his company Clipper Equities converted the structure to a residential condominium complex. Although sales of the condo units began in October 2006, many of the apartments remained unsold for several years.
Site
The BellTel Lofts is located at 101 Willoughby Street in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City. It occupies a rectangular land lot on the northeastern corner of Bridge and Willoughby Streets. The site has frontage of on Bridge Street to the west and on Willoughby Street to the south, with an area of. Nearby buildings include the Brooklyn Commons to the north; the Duffield Street Houses to the east; 388 Bridge Street and AVA DoBro to the south; and the Brooklyner and 81 Willoughby Street to the west. In addition, entrances to the New York City Subway's Jay Street–MetroTech station, served by the, are just outside the building.Architecture
The building was designed by Ralph Walker of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker in the Art Deco style. The BellTel Lofts was one of several Art Deco buildings in the New York City area that Walker designed, after the Barclay–Vesey Building, the New Jersey Bell Headquarters Building, and 60 Hudson Street. It was followed by 1 Wall Street and 32 Avenue of the Americas, as well as telephone buildings in Upstate New York. The structure is tall, with 27 stories.Form and facade
The building's facade is made largely of reddish-brown brick, and its massing contains multiple setbacks. Though setbacks in New York City skyscrapers were mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution in order to allow light and air to reach the streets below, they later became a defining feature of the Art Deco style. Some sections of the building are set back at a higher story than others, which gives the massing an irregular appearance, even though Walker had placed the setbacks symmetrically along the exterior. The building contains 27 above-ground stories, with a nine-story base and subsequent setbacks at the 9th, 12th, and 15th stories. Above the 18th floor, the building rises into a smaller "tower". The massing is akin to that at 32 Avenue of the Americas.A brick facade was used for the BellTel Lofts and for Walker's other communications buildings, since he preferred the material for its texture and its flexibility in color combinations. The BellTel Lofts' facade incorporated about 2.649 million bricks and 1,141 windows. The building's decoration was largely derived from subtle changes in the color of the brick, as well as the placement of the bricks themselves. The main elevations of the facade, on Willoughby and Bridge Streets, both contain a central section where the bricks are laid at slightly different depths, giving a curtain-like appearance. In an allusion to German Expressionism, several of the entrances have stepped entrance arches and are surrounded by brickwork laid in a pattern suggestive of weaving. Additionally, the parapets atop some of the setbacks have interlocked, three-dimensional vertical and horizontal motifs and are topped by cast-stone copings. Unlike in his earlier Barclay–Vesey Building where Walker used organic decorations, the BellTel Lofts' design incorporates geometric shapes such as lozenges, starbursts, and chevrons.
Ground level
The water table just above the ground is made of granite, while the rest of the facade is clad in orange brick. The bricks on the ground story are laid such that the header, the narrowest surface of each brick, faces outward. The headers are interrupted at regular intervals by horizontal bands of bricks in which the stretcher, or long narrow surface, of each brick faces outward; the stretchers are laid vertically. At ground level, the western elevation, facing Bridge Street, is divided into twelve double-width openings; each of the ground-story openings corresponds vertically to two bays on the upper stories. The main entrance is the sixth opening from the south and is flanked by a single-width bay on either side. The southern elevation, along Willoughby Street, is divided into four double-width openings; the two outermost openings contain entrances.On the building's western elevation, facing Bridge Street, the main entrance is near the center of the facade. The entrance is through a double-height recessed doorway that contains four doors made of metal and glass. A sign with the words "Bell Telephone" is placed above the center two doors, and a glass-and-metal transom window stretches across the entire doorway. Above the transom window, the bricks are laid in vertical patterns. There are six openings to the left and five to the right of the main entrance. The northernmost openings contains a service entrance with metal doors, framed by brickwork in a woven pattern. The remaining openings on Bridge Street contain tripartite display windows and transom windows with metal frames. Above the transom windows are decorative abstract metalwork that is placed in front of the brick facade.
On Willoughby Street, there are four openings at ground level. The two center openings contain tripartite display and transom windows with metal frames, similar to those on Bridge Street. The two outer openings contain entrances, which are framed by brickwork in a woven pattern, similar to the service entrance on Bridge Street. The doorway to the left contains four metal-and-glass doors topped by transom windows. The doorway to the right is similar but is recessed within a vestibule and has a bronze gate. The vestibule in the easternmost opening is illuminated by a bronze chandelier and contains a set of metal-and-glass doors and transom windows.
Upper stories
On Bridge Street, the upper stories are divided slightly asymmetrically into 26 bays: a northern section of eight bays, a center section of 12 bays, and a southern section of six bays. Each bay contains one aluminum sash window per story. The brickwork in the center section is laid vertically in a manner that resembles undulating curtains. Walker had used a similar effect in his designs for 60 Hudson Street and 1 Wall Street. The middle eight bays of the central section set back at the 9th and 12th stories, while the two bays on either side continue as bulkheads that set back at the 13th story. The center six bays set back again at the 15th story, flanked by two-bay-wide bulkheads that set back at the 17th story. The bulkheads were intended to draw attention to the central bays of the center section. Further setbacks occur at the 18th, 23rd, and 26th stories, where the building tapers into a tower that is only four bays wide.The northern and southern sections on Bridge Street both contain flat facades, which derive their ornamentation by the orientation of the brick. Much of the brickwork on both sections is composed of stretcher bricks. On each story, the sills below the windows and lintels above the windows are connected horizontally by courses of soldier bricks. The northern and southern sections contain symmetrical setbacks at the 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th stories; each setback contains parapets with brick patterns.
The southern elevation on Willoughby Street is ten bays wide above the first story. The six center bays have an undulating brick facade, with setbacks at the 9th, 11th, 13th, and 15th stories; each of these setbacks has a parapet with undulating brick bands. The two outer bays on either side have a flat brick facade, ornamented only by courses of stretcher and soldier bricks. These outer bays set back at the 9th, 12th, and 15th stories. Above the 18th story, the southern elevation of the tower is only four bays wide. The eastern elevation has both undulating and flat brick decoration, similar to the Willoughby and Bridge Street elevations, but the eastern wall does not have many walls. There are several setbacks on the eastern elevation, which taper into the tower above the 18th story. The northern elevation cannot be seen from the street level but has windows. Various equipment is placed above each setback.