Bush Tower
The Bush Tower is a building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, just east of Times Square. Designed by Frank J. Helmle and Harvey Wiley Corbett of the firm Helmle & Corbett, the building occupies a plot at 130–132 West 42nd Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue.
The Bush Tower was built for Irving T. Bush's Bush Terminal Company, which operated Bush Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York City. The 30-story section of the tower facing 42nd Street was developed between 1916 and 1918. A 10-story wing, completed in 1921, extends south to 41st Street. The Bush Tower's design combined narrowness, height, and Neo-Gothic architecture, and the massing contains several setbacks to comply with the 1916 Zoning Resolution. The facade contains trompe-l'œil brickwork, which creates vertical "ribs" with a false "shade" pattern to enhance the building's verticality. It originally contained a buyer's club on its three lowest stories and exhibits on its upper stories.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company foreclosed upon the tower in 1938 and the upper floors were subsequently converted for regular office usage. By the early 1980s, the Bush Tower had deteriorated significantly and the owners considered demolishing the building. It was instead renovated and was designated as a city landmark in 1988 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission., China Vanke has a controlling ownership stake in the Bush Tower, while Tribeca Associates and Meadow Partners hold a lease on the land.
Site
The Bush Tower is at 130–132 West 42nd Street, on the southern side of the street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. The building extends southward to 41st Street, where it carries the alternate address of 135–137 West 41st Street. The building's land lot has a frontage of about along 42nd Street and on 41st Street, extending further west than the 42nd Street frontage. and covers. The site is near the Knickerbocker Hotel to the west, 1095 Avenue of the Americas to the east, 4 Times Square to the northwest, and Bank of America Tower to the northeast.Architecture
The Bush Tower was developed between 1916 and 1918 by Irving T. Bush's Bush Terminal Company, which sought to bring buyers, manufacturers, and designers to a common marketplace. The architects, Frank J. Helmle and Harvey Wiley Corbett of the firm Helmle & Corbett, gave the Bush Tower a neo-Gothic appearance that was somewhat similar to the nearly contemporary Woolworth Building. The main contractor was the Thompson-Starrett Company, while the terracotta contractor was the South Amboy Terra Cotta Company. Various firms were involved in furnishing the interior.The building measures approximately from ground to roof. The tower is described as being 30 stories tall, or 29 stories if its double-height top story is counted as one floor.
Form
The Bush Tower was the city's first skyscraper to be constructed following the passage of the 1916 Zoning Resolution. Because the zoning ordinance greatly restricted the massing of buildings, it was characterized by contemporary writers as possibly the last skyscraper to ever be built in New York City. Instead, it came to impact the designs of other skyscrapers with setbacks. Even though several other architects at the time believed that the plans may have been adjusted in response to the 1916 Zoning Resolution, Corbett wrote that the inclusion of setbacks at the Bush Tower was part of the original design, which predated the resolution. The design for the massing was characterized by Fiske Kimball as being like an "arrow".The building's "shaft", which rises to the 22nd floor, measures only wide on 42nd Street and deep. At the center of the eastern facade is a recessed light court, which was designed to illuminate the offices at the center of the tower. A similar light court exists on the western side of the shaft. Because of the narrowness of the lot, the light courts take up significant space within the shaft. The 41st Street wing is ten stories tall and contains a light court on its eastern lot line, adjacent to the shaft. A penthouse is atop the roof of the 41st Street wing's 10th story.
For the top stories, Corbett wrote that he wanted "an appropriate finish which would give the entire building the appearance of a soaring cathedral tower". Therefore, the top eight stories were designed as a six-story octagonal shaft set back from all sides, with a two-story roof pavilion. A water tower and elevator equipment is hidden behind the mansard roof above the pavilion. According to Corbett, the placement of mechanical equipment in the roof was a new idea for the time; he recalled a conversation with an unnamed client who was surprised at the feature. The roof itself is clad with copper and was originally designed with finials on each end.
Facade
The architects stated that they wanted to make the Bush Tower "a model for the tall, narrow building in the center of a city block". During the design process, the lot's small frontage presented an issue of whether the building would be seen as an "infill" structure in the center of the block or as a distinct tower. The neo-Gothic design of the facade was a cheap solution to the design dilemma, being intended to emphasize the vertical lines of the facade. The Bush Tower's frontage and function as an office building precluded the need for conventional skyscraper fenestration, or window arrangement.North and south facades
The primary elevations face north along 42nd Street and south along 41st Street. Entrances to the Buyer's Club on the lower floors, as well as the upper office floors, were placed on both streets. The base of the 42nd Street side originally contained three double-story, high-pointed-arched Gothic windows and a Gothic-style entrance. The current windows, removed in 1938 and reinstalled in 2015, are replicas of those in the original design. Following the 1938 modifications, the first and second stories at 42nd Street had rectangular window and door openings flanked by vertical limestone piers. A cornice runs above the third floor on 42nd Street; it is supported by corbels with nautical designs, which were manufactured by John Donnelly & Co., Inc. The spandrels above the fourth floor windows contain similar nautical designs.The base at 41st Street is twice as wide and lacks corbels. It is divided into two 50-foot-wide sections; the western section was constructed as part of an annex in 1921, but the eastern section is part of the original tower. The western section resembles the original design, while the eastern section resembles the 1938 modification.
The remaining spandrels above each window are simple in design. Several primary and secondary vertical "ribs" are used to articulate both facades of the shaft between the first and 20th floors. The ribs divide the shaft into three vertical bays; the center bay on either side has three windows per story, while the side bays each have two windows. Above the 20th story is a horizontal band of panels, which wrap around to the eastern facade. Above the 22nd floor, there are copper lanterns at each corner of the shaft, as well as finials atop each of the facade's ribs. The top floor, within the roof pavilion, contains double-height pointed-arched windows with Gothic tracery. The top floor was illuminated at night in what Corbett described as "publicity of the most convincing sort".
Side facades
With the exception of the light court, the east and west walls of the shaft are left largely blank, as Helmle & Corbett had assumed the adjacent lots would be developed in the future. This belief also prevented the inclusion of any cornices on the side facades, as they would overhang the lot line.To give emphasis to the side walls, the architects used trompe-l'œil brickwork. Three tones of brick are used to provide aesthetic emphasis to the side walls, giving the impression that the piers wrapped around all sides of the building. The facades are mostly made of buff brick, but dark brick is used for shadows and light brick is used for highlights. Vertical "ribs" are installed on the side walls from the ground to the top story. This aesthetic effect was coordinated according to the shadows cast by the average angle of the sunlight. On the 41st Street wing, the eastern wall contains similar trompe-l'œil brickwork to the shaft, while the western wall is clad in buff brick.
Features
The Bush Tower contains over of interior space. There are seven elevators in the building. When built, it contained four elevators, which were on the right side of the 42nd Street entrance vestibule.The Bush Terminal Company was intended as a central marketplace where merchants or their buyers could examine and select samples of goods without having to go to the warehouse. A promotional document by the company promised a wide variety of merchandise, including various clothes, furnishings, furniture, household appliances, machinery, groceries, toys, musical instruments, and travel and sporting goods. Displays and sales were held at the Bush Tower, but shipping and forwarding service occurred at the Bush Terminal facility in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Structural features
The foundation of the structure extends deep to the underlying rock layer. These foundations carry a total load of, distributed across 24 columns. The underlying ground conditions included irregular rocks and boulders within a layer of blue clay, as well as a stream about below ground.The upper stories lacked interior partitions and therefore could not have any diagonal struts concealed in the walls. Instead, the superstructure columns contain strong braces where they intersect horizontal ceiling and floor beams. Because wide column spacing was necessitated on the lowest three floors, the fourth story was carried by two columns that carry ; these columns rested on two cross girders deep. Generally, each story contains a ceiling height of, but the ceilings on some stories are slightly higher. The superstructure is designed to withstand a wind pressure of on the exposed sides of the facade. The superstructure can carry a live load of, as well as a dead load of on its I-beams and on its columns.