| New Era Building | |
|---|---|
 New Era Building (center) in 2011 | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Art Nouveau |
| Location | 495 Broadway Manhattan, New York City, New York |
| Completed | 1893 |
| Height | 116 feet (35 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 8 |
| References | |
| [1] | |
The New Era Building is an 1893 Art Nouveau commercial loft building at 495 Broadway, between Spring Street and Broome Street, in the SoHo section of Manhattan in New York City.
The eight-story brick and masonry building has been described as a "gem" and a "gorgeous example" of Art Nouveau architecture. [2] Eschewing the then-popular Beaux Arts style, this is one of the few and possibly the earliest Art Nouveau building in Manhattan still standing. [3] Four squat rounded Doric columns seem to support five stories with three vertical rows of large windows separated by brickwork and iron ornamentation, culminating in three large arches at the sixth floor. This is topped with a two-story copper fronted mansard roof, now coated with verdigris, reminiscent of Parisian architecture. [4] [5] The 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) building is served by a freight elevator and two passenger elevators. Average floor size is 10,000 square feet (930 m2). [6] The building goes through the block west of Broadway so that it also fronts on Mercer Street, which is parallel to Broadway.
Sources differ as to the architect, developer, and year of construction. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, in its 1973 report on the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, says the building, at 495 Broadway, was designed by Alfred Zucker for Augustus D. Juilliard and was completed in 1893. Several other sources shown below say the building was designed by Buchman & Deisler for Jeremiah C. Lyons, who had previously developed real estate in other areas of Manhattan, and was completed in 1897. However, many of these same sources mistakenly show the address as 491 Broadway. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission says 491 Broadway, the somewhat thinner 12-story building adjacent to the south of the New Era Building, is the 1897 Buchman & Deisler building.
Although its lofts were originally intended for the New Era Printing Company, [7] the building was soon occupied by an office of the Butler Brothers company, an early mail-order business that had 100,000 customers at the time they moved in. Later, in 1927, they began franchising the Ben Franklin Stores. [8]
At the time this building opened, fashionable retail businesses were already moving further uptown. Soon the area was home to businesses such as manufacturers and waste paper dealers. [2]
On December 29, 1927, a fire in the building caused a million dollars worth of damage. It burned for two hours before being noticed and causing the partial collapse of eight floors [9] toward the rear, or Mercer Street side, of the building. The fire began among some crates in the company's basement shipping room. The collapse was caused when three unprotected hollow cast iron support columns 14-inch (36 cm) in diameter buckled because of excessive heat, bringing down the eight stories above. Fire-resistant insulation might have prevented the collapse. [10]
As of 2011, tenants included a clothing retailer, fashion consultants, a publisher, a golf and fitness club, [6] a retail drug store, and the Swiss Institute.
The Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York occupied the third floor loft from 1994 until 2011. [11] In September 2011 the institute moved to 18 Wooster Street, nearby.
SoHo, sometimes written Soho, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and has also been known for its variety of shops ranging from trendy upscale boutiques to national and international chain store outlets. The area's history is an archetypal example of inner-city regeneration and gentrification, encompassing socioeconomic, cultural, political, and architectural developments.
NoHo, short for North of Houston Street, is a primarily residential neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is bounded by Mercer Street to the west and the Bowery to the east, and from East 9th Street in the north to East Houston Street in the south.
The American Surety Building is an office building and early skyscraper at Pine Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, across from Trinity Church. The building, designed in a Neo-Renaissance style by Bruce Price with a later expansion by Herman Lee Meader, is 388 feet (118 m) tall, with either 23 or 26 stories. It was one of Manhattan's first buildings with steel framing and curtain wall construction.
The Equitable Life Assurance Building, also known as the Equitable Life Building, was the headquarters of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, at 120 Broadway in Manhattan, New York. Arthur Gilman and Edward H. Kendall designed the building, with George B. Post as a consulting engineer. The Equitable Life Building was made of brick, granite, and iron, and was originally built with seven above-ground stories and two basement levels, with a height of at least 130 feet (40 m). An expansion in 1885 brought the total height to 155 feet (47 m) and nine stories.
Henry Engelbert (1826–1901) was a German-American architect. He was best known for buildings in the French Second Empire style, which emphasized elaborate mansard roofs with dormers. New York's Grand Hotel on Broadway is the most noteworthy extant example of Engelbert's work in this style. Many of his commissions were Lutheran or Roman Catholic churches.
The Corbin Building is a historic office building at the northeast corner of John Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. It was built in 1888–1889 as a speculative development and was designed by Francis H. Kimball in the Romanesque Revival style with French Gothic detailing. The building was named for Austin Corbin, a president of the Long Island Rail Road who also founded several banks.
The W New York Union Square is a 270-room, 21-story boutique hotel operated by W Hotels at the northeast corner of Park Avenue South and 17th Street, across from Union Square in Manhattan, New York. Originally known as the Germania Life Insurance Company Building, it was designed by Albert D'Oench and Joseph W. Yost and built in 1911 in the Beaux-Arts style.
Gilsey House is a former eight-story 300-room hotel located at 1200 Broadway at West 29th Street in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is a New York City landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.
Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York (SI) is an independent non-profit contemporary art organization founded in 1986. SI is located at 38 St. Marks Place, at the corner of Second Avenue, in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.
The Western Union Telegraph Building was a building at Dey Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The Western Union Building was built with ten above-ground stories rising 230 feet (70 m). The structure was originally designed by George B. Post, with alterations by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. It is considered one of the first skyscrapers in New York City.
Spring Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, which runs west–east through the neighborhoods of Hudson Square, SoHo, and Nolita. It runs parallel to and between Dominick, Broome, and Kenmare Streets, and Vandam and Prince Streets. Address numbers ascend as Spring Street travels westward from the Bowery to West Street along the Hudson River.
The Cable Building is located at 611 Broadway at the northwest corner with Houston Street in NoHo and Greenwich Village, in Manhattan, New York City. Since it spans a block, the Cable Building also has addresses of 2-18 West Houston Street and 178-188 Mercer Street.
Albert Buchman (1859–1936) was an American architect in practice in New York.
287 Broadway is a historical building on the corner of Broadway at Reade Street in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by John B. Snook in 1871 using cast-iron in mixed Italianate and French Second Empire style, it was completed in 1872 for the Stephen Storm estate. The landmark, which "graphically illustrates the transformation of lower Broadway in the 19th century from a residential boulevard into the city's commercial center", was leaning approximately 8 inches (20 cm) by 2008. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024.
319 Broadway, also known as the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Home Office, is a five-story office building on the corner of Broadway and Thomas Street in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is a cast-iron building in the Italianate architecture style, built in 1869–70 and designed by D. & J. Jardine. It is the lone survivor of a pair of buildings at 317 and 319 which were known as the "Thomas Twins". The cast iron for these mirror-twin buildings was provided by Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Works. The building was designated a New York City landmark on August 29, 1989.
The Spingler Building is an eight-story Romanesque building at 5–9 Union Square West, between 14th and 15th Streets, in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1897 by William H. Hume & Son, it replaced a five-story building of the same name, which burned down in 1892. The Spingler Building occupies an L-shaped lot wrapping around 15 Union Square West to the north, and is also adjacent to the Lincoln Building to the south.
889 Broadway, also known as the Gorham Manufacturing Company Building, is a Queen Anne style building located at Broadway and East 19th Street in the Flatiron District of Manhattan in New York City, within the Ladies' Mile Historic District. Built in 1883–1884, it was designed by Edward Hale Kendall.
The Home Life Building, also known as 253 Broadway, is an office building in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is in Manhattan's Tribeca and Civic Center neighborhoods at the northwest corner of Broadway and Murray Street, adjacent to City Hall Park.
The Madison Belmont Building, also known as 183 Madison Avenue, is a commercial building at the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 34th Street in Murray Hill, Manhattan, New York. It was designed by Warren & Wetmore in the Neoclassical style and built in 1924–1925. The Madison Belmont Building has a "transitional" design that deviates from Warren & Wetmore's other commissions, combining elements of the Neoclassical style and more modern influences from the Art Deco style.
The Apple Bank Building, also known as the Central Savings Bank Building and 2100 Broadway, is a bank and residential building at 2100–2114 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed as a branch of the Central Savings Bank, now Apple Bank, from 1926 to 1928, it occupies a trapezoidal city block bounded by 73rd Street to the south, Amsterdam Avenue to the east, 74th Street to the north, and Broadway to the west. The Apple Bank Building was designed by York and Sawyer in the Renaissance Revival and palazzo styles, patterned after an Italian Renaissance-style palazzo.