Downtown Athletic Club
The Downtown Athletic Club, also known as the Downtown Club, was a private social and athletic club that operated from 1926 to 2002 at 20 West Street, within the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The Downtown Athletic Club was known for issuing the Heisman Trophy, an annual award for outstanding college football players that was named after John Heisman, the club's first athletic director.
The Downtown Athletic Club was founded in 1926 as an all-male club. The club bought land for their building near the Hudson River in 1927 and completed the structure in 1930. The building was sold off in 1936 following the club's bankruptcy, but was reacquired in 1950. The club started admitting female members in 1977, and after facing further financial troubles in the late 1990s, sold off part of its building. After the September 11 attacks on the nearby World Trade Center, blockades in the neighborhood rendered the clubhouse largely inaccessible; the club filed for bankruptcy and then shut down.
The 35-story Downtown Athletic Club building was designed in the Art Deco style by Starrett & van Vleck, who also designed the adjacent 21 West Street at the same time. The building housed all of the club's athletic activities, as well as living and dining spaces. Its architectural features include several setbacks to allow light to reach the street, as mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution, in addition to the design of the brickwork and the different architectural concessions made for the building's various facilities. 20 West Street was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as an official city landmark in 2000. After the club closed, the building was converted to the Downtown Club, a residential building with condominiums.
Site
The Downtown Club building is located near the southernmost point on Manhattan Island, closer to its western shore. It faces West Street to the west, and Washington Street and the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel portal to the east. The building officially carries the address 20 West Street, but also includes all address numbers on 18-20 West Street, inclusive, and even address numbers on 28-32 Washington Street, inclusive. It is bounded by the Whitehall Building to the south and 21 West Street to the north; both are also New York City designated landmarks, though the landmark designation only applies to 17 Battery Place's western and southern sections.The building stands on filled land along the shore of the North River. The surrounding neighborhood, the Financial District, was the first part of Manhattan to be developed as part of New Netherland and later New York City; its population growth led city officials to add land on Manhattan's shore by filling and land reclamation in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the North River shoreline was deeper and had a denser concentration of buildings than the East River shoreline on the east side of Manhattan Island, the land under the Downtown Club building was not filled until 1835, when debris from the Great Fire of New York was dumped there. As a result of the land filling, neighboring buildings such as 21 West Street were constructed without a basement. The site of the Downtown Athletic Club was first occupied by small landowners who built houses in the area. The surrounding neighborhood became a financial and shipping hub during the late 19th century, and as the Financial District became more densely developed, the residential landowners moved uptown and their former lands were replaced with larger commercial buildings.
Architecture
The Downtown Club building was designed in the Art Deco style by Starrett & van Vleck, who simultaneously designed the adjacent 21 West Street in the same style. The two buildings were constructed for different purposes and accordingly have different appearances; namely, the facade of the Downtown Athletic Club is darker than that of 21 West Street. Starrett & van Vleck had already designed several New York City department stores, including the Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale's, and Saks Fifth Avenue buildings. Including attics, the Downtown Club has 39 above-ground stories and is tall.As originally designed, the Downtown Club building included different facilities and living spaces on each of its floors: the lower floors were mostly reserved for athletic facilities and the upper floors contained bedrooms. The design of an athletic club in a skyscraper was characterized by architect Rem Koolhaas as an "instrument of the Culture of Congestion".
Form
The Downtown Club building extends the entire block between West and Washington Streets. Though the Downtown Club building was designed first, Starrett & van Vleck examined the relationship of the Downtown Club's and 21 West Street's designs on the surrounding neighborhood and on each other. The facade of the Downtown Club building is of slightly darker brick, with more recessed setbacks on both West and Washington Streets, compared to 21 West Street. The Downtown Club is the tallest building on the block.The building contains setbacks as mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution; the locations of the setbacks are based on the original uses of the interiors. The bottom stories were the largest, occupying nearly the entire land lot. The 4th through 19th stories, which included the athletic facilities, were set back on the western and eastern facades. Another setback existed above the 26th story, which contained the club's private hotel rooms.
Facade
The facade of the Downtown Athletic Club building consists of mottled, patterned orange brick that is used to provide texture. The color contrasts with the multicolored brick designs of the adjacent 21 West Street. Sections of the facade are punctuated with vertical brick segments, and the brick is especially prominent around the windows, the corbels around the entrance, and the parapets on the roof. Other features include window sills and parapet caps made of stone, as well as spandrels made of zinc and lead in a chevron layout. The facade design also reflects the building's interior use. The hotel stories above the 20th floor had smaller windows, while the athletic facility floors between the 4th and 19th stories had larger windows. Some of the facilities, such as the squash courts, did not require windows and so are placed in windowless sections of the building.Base
The lowest four stories comprise the base. The facades of the base on both West Street and Washington Street are divided into three vertical bays. The main entrance is on West Street, where three brick columns rise to either side of the central entrance bay. A set of metal doors is located at the center of the entrance bay, above which is a metal marquee, followed by a large window opening with four rows of three chevron-patterned glass panels. Atop that large window are a stone panel and a large brick panel, with rows of corbelled bricks in between. On the second and third floors of the West Street facade, there are two windows on either side of the large entrance bay.The Washington Street entrance is less elaborate: it contains a set of metal doors topped by a metal marquee, but the window above is only one story high with three chevron-patterned panels. The center entrance bay protrudes from the facade only slightly. On the first floor, there are two doors to the north of the central doorway and two windows to the south. On the second floor, there is one window on either side of the doorway, with an additional vent grate to the left. The third floor contains seven windows.
Tower
On West Street to the west, the building is set back above the fourth story. The north bay contains a separate window arrangement with one window on the 4th floor and two small windows on each of the 5th through 15th floors. The facades of the center and south bays are combined, and contain recessed windows, with varying placements and designs of the spandrels above the windows on each floor. On the center and south bays, each story from the 7th through 15th stories contains five windows; the 5th story contains five window grates; and the 4th and 6th stories contain no windows at all. Above the 16th story, there are four windows per floor. There are further setbacks above the 16th floor of the center and south bays, and above the 17th floor of the north bay, with smaller setback portions on the south side of the 18th story and the north side of the 20th story. Another setback on the 26th story contains a limestone-capped parapet.On Washington Street to the east, the building is set back above the fourth story. As with the West Street facade, the north bay contains a separate window arrangement and the facades of the center and south bays are combined. The center and south bays have an identical window arrangement to their counterparts on West Street, being five windows wide, but the north bay on Washington Street has only one window per floor on each of the 5th through 15th floors. The 16th floor contains only ventilation grates; the building has another setback at the 17th floor, with a glass balcony rail. Above the 16th story, there are four windows per floor; there is another setback at the 29th story with a stone parapet.
The northern facade is largely blocked by 21 West Street, while the southern facade has a similar window arrangement to the western and eastern facades. On all sides, the 35th story has a brick band, chevrons above each of the window bays, and a parapet with limestone caps. There is a three-story mechanical tower above the northern part of the roof, with decorative brickwork and three recessed brick panels on each of its four facades.
Interior
The lower floors were devoted mostly to recreation. The ground floor contained the lobby and offices, and the lobby hosted exhibitions such as a Staten Island Museum show on ferries in New York City and displays of the Heisman Trophy. The third floor contained billiard tables and cardrooms, while the fifth floor contained bowling alleys. The fourth and sixth floors contained racquetball, handball, tennis, and squash courts; the seventh floor, a miniature golf course; and the eighth floor, a gym. The twelfth floor had a swimming pool, which was described as the world's highest aquatic facility when it was built. The 10th floor had medical rooms, and the 13th through 19th floors contained dining rooms and lounges. There were also kitchens on the 13th through 15th floors, a balcony with greenhouse on the 15th floor, and maintenance facilities on the 16th through 19th floors.On the 20th through 32nd floors were 143 private hotel rooms. The rooms had been occupied by guests such as boxer Muhammad Ali, baseball players Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, comedian Bob Hope, and Heisman Trophy winners. The water tank and mechanical equipment occupied the top three stories. There was also a staircase along the building's northeastern corner, as well as six passenger elevators and one freight elevator.
Interior designers Barnet Phillips and Duncan Hunter were responsible for the interior design. Design elements included "unusual lighting" as well as Meso-American style murals and geometrically patterned flooring. The style was highly praised as being among the era's "finest high style" and was equated with the ornate designs of steamship rooms. Christopher Gray of The New York Times said that "the scale and sophistication of the work made it one of the most developed Art Deco interiors in New York."