108 Leonard
108 Leonard is a residential structure in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Built from 1894 to 1898, the building was constructed for the New York Life Insurance Company. Stephen Decatur Hatch created the original plans while McKim, Mead & White oversaw the building's completion. The building occupies a city block bounded by Broadway to the west, Leonard Street to the north, Lafayette Street to the east, and Catherine Lane to the south. It is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The exterior is largely made of marble, and each elevation of the facade is divided vertically into multiple bays. Although the main entrance is on Leonard Street, the western and eastern ends also contain entrances and are clad with rusticated stone blocks. On the upper stories, band courses run horizontally across the facade, and there are arched and rectangular windows. Along Broadway, above the 12th story, is an ornate clock tower, with a mechanically wound clock. A two-story penthouse is placed above the original roof. Inside the building are 152 condominium residences. The entrances lead to various lobbies, stairs, and hallways, some of which are elaborately decorated. In addition, there is a banquet hall within a former banking room near Lafayette Street; former executive offices on the lower floors; and residential amenities in the cellar and on the roof.
The present building at 346 Broadway was constructed in two phases, replacing a previous structure built in 1870. The eastern section was completed in 1896 as an annex of the previous building, while the western section was built in 1898 to replace the older building entirely. New York Life occupied the rebuilt edifice for three decades, moving to 51 Madison Avenue in 1928, although the firm continued to own the building until 1945. Clothing firms also rented space in the building during the early 20th century, and 346 Broadway hosted various U.S. federal and New York state government offices from the 1930s to the 1960s. After the government of New York City acquired the building in 1967, the structure housed the Summons Court and other judicial functions, as well as an art gallery. The Peebles Corporation and El-Ad Group bought the building for $160 million in 2013 and renovated it for residential use. Following various legal issues, the first condominiums in the building were sold in March 2018.
Site
108 Leonard is in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, at 346 Broadway. It occupies a city block bounded by Broadway to the west, Leonard Street to the north, Lafayette Street to the east, and Catherine Lane to the south. The land lot is trapezoidal and covers. The site is long and narrow, measuring about wide on both Leonard Street to the north and Catherine Lane to the south. However, it only measures wide on Broadway and about wide on Lafayette Street. There are vaults under the sidewalk on Broadway, Catherine Lane, and Leonard Street. Nearby sites include 319 Broadway to the southwest; 33 Thomas Street to the west; 359 Broadway and 361 Broadway to the northwest; and the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building to the south.Prior to the development of the current building, the site had been occupied by the Appleton Building, designed by Frederic Diaper and built from 1838 to 1840. The building housed the New York Society Library until 1856, when publishing firm D. Appleton & Company moved into the space. The D. Appleton structure burned down in 1867 and was replaced with the first New York Life building on the site, designed by Griffith Thomas and completed in 1870. Until 1894, the site also contained a firehouse for Engine 31 of the New York City Fire Department, at 116 Leonard Street, as well as the clubhouse of the Merchant's Club at 108 Leonard Street.
Architecture
108 Leonard was constructed as the New York Life Building and was finished in two phases. The eastern part of the building was built from 1894 to 1896 and was initially designed by Stephen Decatur Hatch, who died midway during construction. McKim, Mead & White oversaw the completion of the eastern section. The western part of the building, including a three-story clock tower, was constructed from 1896 to 1898 and was designed solely by McKim, Mead & White.108 Leonard occupies its entire block and has a narrow massing. The site slopes downward from west to east, so the building is 12 stories tall at its western end and 13 stories tall at its eastern end. Including the clock tower, the building has 15 physical above-ground stories; the top three stories are within the clock tower. There are also two below-ground levels: a basement is at the same height as the ground on Lafayette Street, as well as a cellar completely below ground. Mezzanines above the cellar and the 12th story are excluded from the floor count. A two-story penthouse structure was constructed above the 12th story in the 2010s. The penthouse contains setbacks at both its lower and upper levels. The top of the clock tower is physically equivalent to the 17th story, while the primary roof is above ground. The basement through 17th story are numbered as floors 1 through 19, respectively; floor number 13 is skipped.
Facade
108 Leonard's facade is largely made of white Tuckahoe marble, except the southern elevation, which is made of brick and terracotta. The facade is divided vertically into 26 bays to the north and south, three bays to the west, and five bays to the east. The northern and southern elevations are flanked by end pavilions measuring three bays wide, and there is also a four-bay-wide entrance pavilion at the center of the northern elevation. There are three residential entrances, one each on Broadway, Leonard Street, and Lafayette Street. In addition, there is an entrance on Broadway leading to retail space; an entrance on Leonard Street, leading to a community facility and banking hall; a garage door on Leonard Street; and three service entrances on Catherine Lane.The exterior walls are made of marble, granite, terracotta, and brick, while the windows are generally made of glass and aluminum. Surrounding the entire building at the 13th story are stone parapets, which are decorated with openwork motifs of interlocking circles. In addition, floors 16 and 17 are surrounded by glass-and-aluminum parapets.
Broadway pavilion
The western end of 108 Leonard comprises a pavilion measuring three bays wide on Broadway, Catherine Lane, and Leonard Street. All three elevations of this pavilion are clad with rusticated blocks of marble. The main entrance on Broadway is designed to resemble a portico, with double-height pilasters and freestanding columns topped by an entablature with a balustrade. The portico originally contained six freestanding columns that projected from the facade, but these were removed in 1912 at the request of the government of New York City. Each of the polished-granite pillars weighed over and measured long by across. The capitals of each column are decorated with rosettes and swags in a modified Ionic order. Recessed within this main entrance is a double-height curved vestibule, which includes two archways with acanthus and scallop decorations. The archways themselves contain cast-bronze window frames above the doors, while the vestibule's ceiling contains a coffered ceiling with an eagle motif at the center. On either side of the entrance are panels with acanthus motifs.The third story contains round-arched windows, separated by lions' heads and garlands; the corners are decorated with cartouches. A cornice with modillions runs above the 3rd story, above which is a bronze railing. Band courses run horizontally across the facade above the 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th, and 10th stories, thereby dividing the facade into alternating sections of one and two stories. In addition, the windows on the 7th and 10th stories are flanked by panels with acanthus-leaf motifs. At the 11th and 12th stories, the window openings are composed of double-height arches. Above this is a deep cornice with modillions. The attic is surrounded by a balustrade with stone eagles at each of its corners, which represent New York Life. This balustrade supports a clock tower that rises another two stories above the main roof.
Lafayette Street pavilion
The eastern end of 108 Leonard comprises a pavilion measuring five bays wide on Lafayette Street and four bays wide on Catherine Lane and Leonard Street. On the eastern elevation, the center bay projects slightly from the facade. At ground level, there is a low archway with two columns on either side. The center windows on the 1st and 2nd stories contain colonnettes, which divide the archways there into three segments. The other bays each contain one round-arched window on the 1st story and one square-headed window on the 2nd story.There are two windows per bay in the remaining stories; the windows on the 3rd, 4th, 10th, and 12th stories are round-arched, while the other windows are square-headed. Band courses and cornices run horizontally across this pavilion above each of the first four stories and above the 6th, 7th, 9th, and 10th stories. As in the Broadway pavilion, there are relief panels between the windows on the 7th and 10th stories. The parapet above the 12th story contains a clock tower with one face, which measures across. The dome of this tower contains a copper roof.
Leonard Street and Catherine Lane
For the most part, the Leonard Street and Catherine Lane elevations are divided into bays with two windows per story. At the center of the Leonard Street elevation, there is a three-bay-wide entrance pavilion that projects slightly from the facade. At ground level, the main entrance is through a double-height round arch. The doors in this arch are topped by spandrel panels with foliate patterns. The main entrance is flanked by two pairs of two single-story pilasters, one stacked above the other. The bays on each side of the doorways contain round-arched openings. Above the basement, the central bay of the entrance pavilion contains three windows per story, while the other bays contain two windows. The windows on the upper stories are largely similar in design to those on the rest of the facade.The remainder of the Leonard Street elevation is divided by band courses at the same levels as on the Lafayette Street pavilion. There are nine bays to the west of the entrance pavilion, excluding the Broadway pavilion. In the western bays, the 1st and 2nd stories contain square-headed windows with composite columns between them. There are seven such bays to the east of the entrance pavilion, excluding the Lafayette Street pavilion. These bays contain double-height archways on the 1st and 2nd stories, since these originally overlooked the general office. The windows on the other stories are separated by flat pilasters; the windows on the 3rd, 4th, 10th, and 12th stories are round-arched, while the other windows are square-headed. Above the 12th story is a balustrade with a parapet.
The Catherine Lane elevation is mostly clad in gray brick and terracotta, with the exception of the three westernmost and four easternmost bays, which are respectively part of the Broadway and Lafayette Street pavilions. There are two rectangular windows in each bay, except in the end pavilions. As with the Leonard Street elevation, the central three bays project from the facade. There are nine bays to the west and seven bays to the east, excluding the pavilions on either end. The 11th and 12th stories contain round-arched windows above a cornice with modillions.