Consolidated Edison Building
The Consolidated Edison Building is a neoclassical skyscraper in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The 26-story building was designed by the architectural firms of Warren and Wetmore and Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. The building takes up the western two-thirds of the block bounded by 14th Street to the south, Irving Place to the west, 15th Street to the north, and Third Avenue to the east. It serves as the headquarters of energy company Consolidated Edison, also known as Con Ed.
The site formerly contained Tammany Hall and the original Academy of Music, as well as the offices of Con Ed's predecessor, Consolidated Gas. The gas company was originally headquartered at 15th Street and Irving Place, but had outgrown its original building by the 1910s. As a result, Hardenbergh designed an expansion for the existing headquarters, which was constructed from 1911 to 1914. This expansion was later incorporated into a larger structure built by Warren and Wetmore between 1926 and 1929. Upon completion, the building's design was lauded by local media, and its "Tower of Light" became a symbol of the local skyline. In 2009, the building was declared a New York City designated landmark.
Site
The Consolidated Edison Building is in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, near Union Square. The land lot spans the entirety of a rectangular city block bounded by Irving Place to the west, 15th Street to the north, Third Avenue to the east, and 14th Street to the south. The site covers, measuring wide along 14th and 15th Streets and wide along Irving Place and Third Avenue. The building is officially located at 4 Irving Place, though the building also takes up the lots between 2 and 10 Irving Place. It is near Zeckendorf Towers to the west, Irving Plaza and the Daryl Roth Theatre to the northwest, and Christ Church Lutheran to the north.The site was originally occupied by the Lenape Native Americans until 1651, when a large tract from Bowery to the East River between 3rd and 30th Streets was given to New Netherland director-general Peter Stuyvesant. While the Stuyvesant family retained much of their land through the 18th century, some of the Stuyvesant estate were bought in 1748 by Cornelius Tiebout, whose widow later passed ownership of the land to her son, Cornelius T. Williams. The current building's site includes land from Stuyvesant, Williams, and auctioneer David Dunham. When the Manhattan street grid was laid out with the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, space was provided for what would become Union Square, one block west of the present-day Consolidated Edison Building, which opened in 1839. To the east of the square, between Fourth and Third Avenues, a community of rowhouses as well as a north–south street called Irving Place were developed by Samuel B. Ruggles.
The block now occupied by the Consolidated Edison Building was originally occupied by buildings of various uses, including rowhouses on 15th Street, the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, and the New York University School of Medicine on 14th Street. The Manhattan Gas Light Company purchased land at the southeast corner of 15th Street and Irving Place in 1855, where it erected a Renaissance Revival office structure. Just south of the Gas Light Company's office was the Academy of Music, New York's third opera house, which opened in 1854. The structure burned down in 1866, destroying the blockfront on 14th Street between Third Avenue and Irving Place. The Academy of Music was rebuilt and continued to serve as an opera site until 1887, when it was turned into a movie theater. The Tammany Hall political organization purchased the former medical school site and built its headquarters building there. Another building on the present Consolidated Edison Building's site, a mansion at 2 Irving Place, served as headquarters for the Lotos Club.
History
In the 1880s, at a time when competition between New York City's gas companies was high, the Manhattan Gas Light Company and several other gas companies combined to become the Consolidated Gas Company. By 1910, the original offices at 15th Street proved to be insufficient for the company's operations, and it had opened offices in several other buildings on the block, including the old Lotos Club house.Construction
Consolidated Gas hired Henry Janeway Hardenbergh to design a 12-story office building on that site in late 1911. The building was to be erected in two phases to avoid interrupting the company's operations. The architect had previously constructed a showroom for the company. The site had a frontage of on Irving Place and on 15th Street. Plans for a 12-story structure on that site were filed with the Manhattan Bureau of Buildings in December 1910, and the George A. Fuller Company was hired as the general contractor. The first phase of construction, between January and September 1911, entailed erecting a edifice on the center of the block at 124–128 East 15th Street. By that October, Consolidated Gas had begun relocating its offices into the annex. Consolidated Gas president George B. Cortelyou was the last employee to relocate to the new building, doing so in December 1911.The original headquarters and the Lotos Club house were originally retained as offices, but this soon proved insufficient. By December 1911, Consolidated Gas had modified its plans and wished to replace the old structures. The company wanted to erect a new building with 19 stories, including a penthouse. Consolidated Gas bought additional property to the east in June 1912; the purchase was finalized that November, giving the company a lot measuring nearly wide. The day after the sale was finalized, Hardenbergh filed plans for an addition to the building, costing $1.5 million. The relatively new headquarters at 124–128 East 15th Street had not been intended to support additional stories, as Consolidated Gas had erroneously assumed that the structure would be sufficient for the company's needs. As such, a 19-story wing was built on either side of the existing 12-story structure, and seven additional stories were suspended from girders above the existing structure. The first of these girders was installed in August 1913.
The building, which ultimately cost $2.5 million, housed 2,000 Consolidated Gas employees across five departments. After the 19-story building was finished in 1914, Consolidated Gas rented out some of the additional space in the building; at the time, the company did not need to use the entire floor area. Among the tenants were the Dahlstrom Metallic Door Company, which had manufactured the building's doors, partitions and trim. A two-story building at 144 East 15th Street was added in 1915 and was used for showrooms. This showroom measured and was made of brick and steel.
Expansion
By the 1920s, Consolidated Gas had expanded into the outer boroughs, and there was need for even more office space. In August 1925, the company purchased the Academy of Music, which hosted its last show in May 1926. Consolidated Gas hired Warren and Wetmore, which had previously designed some of the company's branch offices as architects. T.E. Murray, Inc., which built boiler plants and power-generating stations, were the general contractors. Blueprints for a 26-story annex, plus alterations to the existing building, were submitted to the New York City Department of Buildings in October 1926. A set of bells, measuring about, was hoisted to the top of the Consolidated Edison Building's clock tower in December 1927. A massive telephone switchboard at the building was dedicated in April 1928, and the 20-story wing was completed that November.The Tammany Hall building on 14th Street was sold to Joseph P. Day and J. Clarence Davis, of real estate syndicate D&D Company, in December 1927. The society planned to relocate to the nearby 44 Union Square East, which was then under construction. D&D sold the Tammany building again to Consolidated Gas in January 1928. There were allegations that Tammany leaders profited from the sales, which Tammany leader George Washington Olvany denied. Day, a long-time member of Tammany Hall, eventually agreed to give the $70,000 profit from the sale to Tammany. Tammany Hall remained in its old headquarters until July 4, 1928, so it could celebrate the U.S. Independence Day at that location. Immediately afterward, it moved to a temporary space at 2 Park Avenue.
Plans for an annex were submitted to the Department of Buildings in September 1928. The next month, Consolidated Gas bought two houses on Third Avenue, giving the new building an exit on that avenue. After Consolidated Gas acquired the Brooklyn Edison Company in 1928, employees of the Edison Company began relocating to the Consolidated Gas Building in May 1929. The top of the building's tower was first illuminated on July 4, 1929, and the annex was finished by that November. After the completion of this expansion, the building contained of floor area, used by 7,000 employees.
Later usage
The ground floor space was rented out to various tenants, including First National City Bank, which opened a bank branch there in 1928. A 1932 guidebook stated that Consolidated Gas had become the "largest company in the world providing electrical service". Consolidated Gas was incorporated as the Consolidated Edison Company of New York in 1936, and its headquarters were renamed accordingly. The 15th Street facade was reconfigured in 1954, and various components have been replaced and installed over the years.In 1965–1966, the facade was repainted with about of paint and given an acrylic emulsion. By the 1970s, the headquarters had 6,000 employees. Con Ed continued to expand into adjacent states, though it still retains its headquarters at Gramercy Park. In 1975, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña, a Puerto Rican nationalist group, claimed responsibility for a bombing that caused minor damage to the building, but injured no one. The group also claimed responsibility for a similar bombing at the same site in 1978, which also caused little damage. The Con Edison Energy Museum existed in the building in the late 20th century.
The light bulbs on the tower's clock were replaced in 1994. The tower and facade were repaired once again from 1997 to 2001, and the light bulbs on the facade were replaced in 2008. In 2010, it was officially designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. By then, the space was occupied by such tenants as the New York Sports Club, the Apple Bank for Savings, and a Raymour & Flanigan furniture store.