Whitehall Building
The Whitehall Building is a three-section residential and office building next to Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, New York City, near the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The original 20-story structure on Battery Place, between West Street and Washington Street, was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, while the 31-story Whitehall Building Annex on West Street was designed by Clinton and Russell. The original building and annex are both at 17 Battery Place. Another 22-story addition at 2 Washington Street, an International Style building located north of the original building and east of the annex, was designed by Morris Lapidus.
The original Whitehall Building and its annex has a Renaissance Revival style facade, and the two original structures' articulations consist of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column—namely a base, shaft, and capital. Since the building is located on landfill along the Hudson River, its foundation incorporates a non-standard design.
The Whitehall Building is named after the nearby estate of New Amsterdam colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant. The original building was built as a speculative development in 1902–1904 for Robert A. and William H. Chesebrough, a real estate company. The annex was built in 1908–1910, and 2 Washington Street was built in 1972. In 2000, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Whitehall Building as an official city landmark. The upper floors of the original building and annex were converted to apartments, while the lower floors remain in use as an office building.
Site
The Whitehall Building is located near the southernmost point on Manhattan Island, closer to its western shore. The original building faces West Street to the west, Battery Place to the south, and Washington Street and the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel portal to the east. It is adjacent to the Downtown Athletic Club building at 20 West Street to the north, which occupies the entire width of the block between West and Washington Streets. The annex on West Street and the 2 Washington Street addition each occupy half the width of the block between Washington and West Streets.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 Whitehall Building was not filled until 1835, when debris from the Great Fire of New York was dumped there. These filling operations also led to the expansion of Battery Park, directly to the south. The site of the Whitehall Building 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
Original structure and annex
The original structure is a 20-story building on Battery Place. It was designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh, and according to Moses King, had 400 offices. The Whitehall Building's annex, also known as the Whitehall Extension or Greater Whitehall, is a 31-story skyscraper on West Street, north of the original Whitehall Building's western section. Designed by Clinton and Russell, it was the largest office building in New York City at the time of its completion. Both structures contain Renaissance Revival facades with colorful granite, brick, limestone, and architectural terracotta cladding, which in turn was inspired from the sites' highly visible location at the southern tip of Manhattan Island.Form
The original building measures along Battery Place to the south. Due to the irregular shape of the lot, its western boundary along West Street is long and the eastern boundary on Washington Street is long.The annex occupies a lot measuring along West Street, with a depth ranging from. A two-bay-wide, two-story section facing West Street, as well as an elevator structure toward the center of the block between West and Washington Streets, connect the annex and original building. The elevator structure is the same height as the annex and consists of a convex section with cast-iron cladding, as well as a straight section with brick facade. The original structure and annex form an "L" shape and appear as two slabs, as viewed from Battery Park.
Facade
The facade of the original structure is designed into three horizontal layers: a base, tower, and crown. The original structure is composed of 12 vertical bays facing Battery Place; the center six bays are slightly recessed, and at ground level, contain three double-width, double-height entrance arches with ornate lintels. The base, which is composed of the basement, first floor, and mezzanine, have a facade of rusticated blocks of limestone. The second through fifth floors contain a facade of tan brick and stone, and a cornice above the fifth floor. The fourth-floor windows on Battery Place are elaborately ornamented, with cast-iron railings in the six center windows on Battery Place, and pediments above the remaining windows. On the sixth through sixteenth floors, the center six bays on Battery Place are faced with red brick and mortar, while the outer bays and the side facades have a facade of yellow brick with pink strips. The terracotta-faced eighteenth floor acts as a transitional story. Above the 20th story is a large cornice with brick piers that emulate the base's articulation, and above the Battery Place facade, a triangular brick pediment with an ornate depiction of an oculus.The West Street facade of the original building is five bays wide and contains similar materials and symbolic elements as on the Battery Place facade. The first floor and mezzanine are faced with rusticated limestone, the second through fifth floors contain a facade of tan brick, and the upper floors are faced with yellow brick. The center bay on West Street contains four steps, leading to a window that replaced a former entrance. The metal cornices atop the building on West and Washington Streets have been removed. The northern facade is faced with plain brick. The original building's Washington Street facade is four bays wide, but otherwise is the same as the West Street facade in design.
The annex has its principal facade on West Street, which is eleven bays wide. The annex has a base of limestone that rises to the sixth story, and as with the original building, the basement, first floor and mezzanine consist of rusticated blocks of limestone. The seventh through 23rd floors each contain two rectangular window openings per bay, and have a brick facade; there are cornices at the top and bottom of the 23rd floor. On West Street, the 24th through 29th floor windows are slightly recessed behind an arched arcade that wraps around the rest of the annex, and contain decorated terracotta detailing; the 29th floor windows are rounded and semicircular. The 30th floor contains elaborate terracotta detailing, with two windows per bay, and a 31st floor contains penthouses recessed behind a balustrade. At the top of the tower that rises above the annex, there is a south-facing rounded pediment and a water tower.
The northern elevation of the annex contains a three-bay-wide largely plain yellow-brick facade. The piers at each corner are rusticated. The outer bays contain a single window on each floor. The 24th through 29th floor windows are arranged as in an arcade, the 30th-story windows are round headed, and the 31st-story windows are square-headed. The eastern facade of the annex has similar ornamentation as on West Street.
Features
The original building measures to its rooftop while the annex measures to its rooftop. Underlying the site, a layer of hardpan was present between below the ground, while rock was below the ground. The foundation of the original building was dug by 48 pneumatic caissons sunk to below the curb. Of these, 32 were cylindrical while the other 16 were rectangular. The original building's caissons support 53 steel columns in the original building's superstructure. Air shafts and air locks for the workers were inside the caissons.The basement of the annex, which contains the building's boiler room and electrical equipment, was dug by timber and steel caissons. The annex basement is enclosed in a concrete cofferdam with walls, made of caissons joined from end to end. While the basement floor is below sea level and consists of a concrete layer, the walls of the cofferdam descend below the floor of the basement. Other portions of the foundation included I-beam grillages and distributing girders. The annex superstructure contains 71 main columns, 53 of which sit atop forty-five granite foundation piers. The other 18 main columns are inside the boiler room walls and are carried down directly to the hardpan. As with the original building, the annex's caissons contained air shafts and air locks.
The annex incorporates 30 elevators, of structural steel, of brick, and of cement. The superstructure of the annex contains a steel frame with floors made of inverted concrete arches; tile partitions; copper windows; and steel stairs with marble treads.