Battery Tower (Manhattan)

Last updated

Battery Tower was the name of a proposed initial unit of a $50,000,000 1929 residential development on West Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City, near Battery Park. [1] It would have been the first hotel-apartment completed in the Financial District. [2] It became one of a number of skyscraper projects left unfinished. Battery Park City was built on the site of the proposed development, nearly six decades later. [3]

Contents

History of the proposed site

During the first half of the 19th century this locale, bounded by Battery Place, Liberty Street, West Street, Greenwich Street, Carlisle Street, Washington Street, Morris Street, Albany Street, Rector Street, and Cedar Street, was primarily taken up by private residences. In the early years of the 19th century the larger theaters were downtown, notably one on Park Row. Battery Park was a public walkway for the wealthy of the era. The older buildings in the region, which became tenements, still retained vestiges of the appearance which were earmarks of their original high estate. Such features were American colonial architecture doorways and interiors, along with window lintels and cornices. These details were indicative of construction in the distant past. [4]

Architectural design

Thompson & Churchill, architects, drew the plans for the envisioned building. One of them, Henry S. Churchill, commented about the emphasis on mass in the construction of the edifice, to the exclusion of superficialities. Its flat surfaces would be embellished by the inclusion of exterior color contrasts. The plans designated six lower floors for stores and offices and the upper thirty-five for residential living space. This schematic would enable the lowest level apartments, on the seventh floor, to be comparatively free from street noises. A number of terraces were planned to overlook the Hudson River. Stores and offices would have separate entrances and elevators.

Aside from business space the apartment hotel was to offer 428 suites and 255 bachelor rooms. Suites would range in size from one-room bachelor apartments to four rooms and two baths. A ten-room suite with terraces would occupy the entire fortieth floor. Each of the suites would have radio outlets and some would have fireplaces. Amenities would include handball courts, a swimming pool and gymnasium in the basement, a solarium, and sun terraces. The building was to have a total of fifty two terraces.

Battery Tower was to be constructed entirely of brick [5] and steel. [2] The bricks would be in four shades of buff and two in red. They would be arranged in vertical lines to produce a captivating effect. Battery Tower would have been 435 feet (133 m) high on a plot of 29,000 square feet (2,700 m2). The main portion of the building was to be centered on West Street and would have been twenty stories high. The design allocated 7,000 square feet (650 m2) per floor in the tower, which would have been situated on the exact center of the plot. The penthouse apartment was designated to house machinery. Its inclusion made for a total of forty-three stories in height. The penthouse was conceived to be constructed of white brick with a gold cap of terra cotta. It would have been illuminated at night. [5]

Ownership

The forty-story structure, [1] an apartment hotel, [6] was initiated by Downtown Homes, Inc. at a cost of $10,000,000, starting in 1929. [1] The J.H. Taylor Construction Company and Downtown Homes, Inc., were organized by a syndicate which was controlled by General Realty and Utilities Corporation. By October 1929 the syndicate acquired 102,000 square feet (9,500 m2) of ground for the building of a group of apartment hotels at the center of an old tenement district. [5] The Gening Company and A.M. Bing & Son interests also became involved in the project's completion. [7]

Excavation

Wrecking operations on the site began on August 12, 1929, according to Albert Mayer, president of Downtown Homes, Inc. The Greenhouse Company, Inc., removed four-story structures which were on the site, 32 to 42 West Street, through to 56 to 66 Washington Street. Demolition was completed over a twenty-five-day span, followed by soundings, and construction work. [6] A five-story building and a group of tenements at 56 to 58 Washington Street through to 32 to 43 West Street were razed.

The J.H. Taylor Construction Company began sinking foundations with a target date of fall 1930 for complete occupancy. [8] Interlocking steel sheeting was employed in a new foundation process used on Battery Tower. This prevented water seepage. Excavation work was carried out by Moran & Proctor, engineers. They excavated entirely to the bedrock rather than using the normal procedure of digging to a partial depth and then sinking caissons to bedrock. Construction was hampered by difficult digging which had to penetrate crib pier remnants, and old docks, known to be beneath the site. Sinking of a pile foundation, needed for the West Side Elevated Highway, was halted in the first week of December 1929. This occurred when workers ran into 40 feet (12 m) of old bulkheads, sunken docks, and ships. [9]

Ambitious architectural era

A February 1930 Syracuse Herald-Journal article contained an architect's drawing of Battery Tower. The caption read still another skyscraper will be added to the famous group at the lower end of Manhattan Island. It was pictured alongside artistic renditions of the Chrysler Building and a Francis S. Swales' sketch of a group of skyscrapers which were envisioned to arise in the Municipal Center of New York. [10] The years 1929 - 1930 were replete with new development ideas. Louis Adler aspired to construct a 105 story building at 80 Wall Street. Cities Service official Henry Latham Doherty acquired $3 million and 4 acres (16,000 m2) worth of real estate in the mid-1920s at the lower tip of Manhattan, around Battery Park. He considered spending close to $100,000,000 to build an independent business center for shipping and foreign interests. He conceived of a Battery Park dominated by two pyramidal skyscrapers and topped by the Cities Service logo. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">70 Pine Street</span> Residential skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

70 Pine Street is a 67-story, 952-foot (290 m) residential building in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Built from 1930 to 1932 by energy conglomerate Cities Service Company, the building was designed by the firm of Clinton & Russell, Holton & George in the Art Deco style. It was Lower Manhattan's tallest building and the world's third-tallest building upon its completion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">40 Wall Street</span> Office skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

40 Wall Street is a 927-foot-tall (283 m) neo-Gothic skyscraper on Wall Street between Nassau and William streets in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. Erected in 1929–1930 as the headquarters of the Manhattan Company, the building was designed by H. Craig Severance with Yasuo Matsui and Shreve & Lamb. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP); it is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, an NRHP district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of New York City</span>

The building form most closely associated with New York City is the skyscraper, which has shifted many commercial and residential districts from low-rise to high-rise. Surrounded mostly by water, the city has amassed one of the largest and most varied collection of skyscrapers in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Majestic (apartment building)</span> Residential skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

The Majestic is a cooperative apartment building at 115 Central Park West, between 71st and 72nd Streets, adjacent to Central Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 1930 to 1931 and was designed by the firm of Irwin S. Chanin in the Art Deco style. The Majestic is 30 stories tall, with twin towers rising from a 19-story base. The building is a contributing property to the Central Park West Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places–listed district, and is a New York City designated landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aqua (skyscraper)</span> Residential skyscraper in downtown Chicago, Illinois

Aqua is an 82-story mixed-use skyscraper in Lakeshore East, downtown Chicago, Illinois. Designed by a team led by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, with James Loewenberg of Loewenberg & Associates as the Architect of Record, it includes five levels of parking below ground. The building's eighty-story, 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) base is topped by a 82,550 sq ft (7,669 m2) terrace with gardens, gazebos, pools, hot tubs, a walking/running track and a fire pit. Each floor covers approximately 16,000 sq ft (1,500 m2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Century (apartment building)</span> Residential skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

The Century is an apartment building at 25 Central Park West, between 62nd and 63rd Streets, adjacent to Central Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 1930 to 1931 at a cost of $6.5 million and designed by the firm of Irwin S. Chanin in the Art Deco style. The Century is 30 stories tall, with twin towers rising from a 19-story base. The building is a contributing property to the Central Park West Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places–listed district, and is a New York City designated landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">500 Fifth Avenue</span> Office skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

500 Fifth Avenue is a 60-story, 697-foot-tall (212 m) office building on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon in the Art Deco style and constructed from 1929 to 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown</span> Skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

The Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown, also known as 30 Park Place, is a hotel and residential skyscraper in Tribeca, Manhattan, New York City. At 926 feet (282 m), the tower is one of the tallest residential buildings in Lower Manhattan. The top floors of the 82-story building, known as the Four Seasons Private Residences New York Downtown, have 157 residences, ranging from one to six bedrooms, all reached through a dedicated residential lobby at 30 Park Place. Below is a 189-room Four Seasons Hotel, with its own lobby on Barclay Street, which opened in September 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Edge Tower</span> 440-foot-tall residential skyscraper in Seattle, Washington

2nd & Pike, also known as the West Edge Tower, is a 440-foot-tall (130 m) residential skyscraper in Seattle, Washington. The 39-story tower, developed by Urban Visions and designed by Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig Architects, has 339 luxury apartments and several ground-level retail spaces. The 8th floor includes a Medical One primary care clinic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cullen Center</span> Building complex in Houston, Texas, U.S.

Cullen Center is a skyscraper complex in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The complex is now managed by Brookfield Properties. Previously Trizec Properties owned all four office buildings. The complex includes the headquarters of the Houston Fire Department and KBR, and it formerly included the headquarters of Continental Airlines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">200 West Street</span> Office skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

200 West Street is the global headquarters of the Goldman Sachs investment banking firm in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The building is a 749-foot-tall (228 m), 44-story building located on West Street, between Vesey and Murray Streets in Lower Manhattan. It is adjacent to Brookfield Place and the Conrad Hotel, the Verizon Building, and the World Trade Center. It is the only office building in Battery Park City north of Brookfield Place, and it is also the tallest building located within Battery Park City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilshire Grand Center</span> Skyscraper in Los Angeles, California, United States

Wilshire Grand Center is a 1,100-foot (335.3 m) skyscraper in the financial district of downtown Los Angeles, California, occupying the entire city block between Wilshire Boulevard and 7th, Figueroa, and Francisco streets. Completed in 2017, it is the tallest building west of Chicago. Though the structural top of the Wilshire Grand surpasses L.A.'s U.S. Bank Tower by 82 ft (25 m), the roof of the U.S. Bank Tower is still 90 ft above the Wilshire Grand's. The Skyscraper Center lists the Wilshire Grand Center as the 15th-tallest building in the U.S. and the 95th-tallest in the world. It won the Structural Engineering Award 2019 Award of Excellence from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helios (building)</span> Residential skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington

Helios, also known as 2nd & Pine, is a residential skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington. The 40-story tower is 440 feet (130 m) tall with 398 luxury apartments. Plans for the project were first proposed in 2013 and construction began in late 2014. It is located at the intersection of 2nd Avenue and Pine Street near the Pike Place Market and the city's retail core.

45 Broad Street is a 68-story, 1,039-foot (317-meter) supertall residential skyscraper being constructed in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. The building will become Lower Manhattan's tallest residential tower. Excavation started in 2017, but as of 2020, construction is on hold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hotel Marguery</span> Hotel in Manhattan, New York (1917–1957)

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ritz Tower</span> Residential building in Manhattan, New York

The Ritz Tower is a luxury residential building at 465 Park Avenue on the corner of East 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was built from 1925 to 1926 as an apartment hotel and was designed by Emery Roth and Thomas Hastings for journalist Arthur Brisbane, who was the developer. The Ritz Tower is about 541 feet (165 m) with 41 stories, making it the tallest residential building in New York City upon its completion. Because it was initially classified as an apartment hotel, the building was constructed to a greater height than was usually permitted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaux-Arts Apartments</span> Residential buildings in Manhattan, New York

The Beaux-Arts Apartments are a pair of apartment towers on 307 and 310 East 44th Street in the East Midtown and Turtle Bay neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Raymond Hood and Kenneth Murchison, the Beaux-Arts Apartments were constructed between 1929 and 1930. The complex was originally designed with 640 apartments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">275 Madison Avenue</span> Office building in Manhattan, New York

275 Madison Avenue is a 43-story office building in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is along the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 40th Street, near Grand Central Terminal. The building, constructed from 1930 to 1931, was designed by Kenneth Franzheim in a mixture of the Art Deco and International styles.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Housing Unit Named Battery Tower". The New York Times. May 25, 1929. p. 13. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  2. 1 2 "URGES ARCHITECTS TO KEEP PURE FORMS; H.S. Churchill Says "Notions" Are "Borrowed Uncritically From European Sources." ASSAILS USE OF "TRICKS" Codesigner of Battery Tower Calls for Skyscraper Progress Along American Lines". The New York Times. October 20, 1929. p. N4. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  3. 1 2 Willis, C.; Abramson, D. (2000). Skyscraper Rivals: The AIG Building and the Architecture of Wall Street. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 207. ISBN   978-1-56898-244-1 . Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  4. ↑ "BATTERY MAY REGAIN FAME AS HOME AREA; New Building Plans Will Help to Rehabilitate Section, Says Kennelly". The New York Times. October 20, 1929. p. W19. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 "APARTMENT HOTEL AT BATTERY BEGUN; $10,000,000 Structure to Rise Forty Stories Is First Unit in Huge,Residential Project. TO BE READY LATE IN 1930 Building Will Contain 428 Suites and 255 Bachelor Rooms, Besides Business Space". The New York Times. October 6, 1929. p. N23. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  6. 1 2 "START CLEARING SITE FOR BATTERY TOWER; Wreckers Racing Old Buildings to Make Way for Big Downtown Apartment House". The New York Times. August 13, 1929. p. 49. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  7. ↑ "TWO SKYSCRAPERS TO COST $12,000,000; Gening Corporation Buys Site Near the Curb Market for Forty-Story Offices. PROJECT FOR 29 BROADWAY 32-Story Structure Planned to Replace the Columbia Building at Morris Street". The New York Times. November 20, 1929. p. 58. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  8. ↑ "PUSH DEMOLITION WORK.; Contractors Due to Clear Battery Tower Site by Sept. 7". The New York Times. August 25, 1929. p. RE1. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  9. ↑ "EXCAVATIONS BEGUN.; Steel Sheeting Is Being Used for Battery Tower Work". The New York Times. December 8, 1929. p. RE8. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  10. ↑ New York's Skyscrapers Rise to Hearing Distance of Angels' Music, Syracuse Herald, Sunday Morning, February 2, 1930, pg. 91.

40°42′28″N74°00′55″W / 40.7077°N 74.0153°W / 40.7077; -74.0153

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.