Tribeca Reveal

The scaffolding and sidewalk bridges recently came down to reveal this six-story mixed Italianate and French Second Empire architectural style building. We fitted the structure with historically accurate Caoba mahogany clipped corner and arched topped windows, storefronts, and doors. The façade is rich in details: cast-iron detailing, segmented pediments, round-arched windows, Ionic and Corinthian columns, and slat shingled mansard roof.

Originally the property was a dwelling and carriage house for Attorney William Alexander, the house was purchased by Elbert Anderson in 1816. Anderson demolished it two years later and constructed a commercial building in 1819. In 1821, Stephen Storm purchased the property. Storm's estate hired architect John B. Snook to design a commercial building to be used for banking and office space. Snook designed the current cast iron building. Early tenants included the Union Pacific Railroad Company and Henry Bischoff & Company.

After years of lobbying by the Friends of Cast-Iron Architecture, the Landmarks Preservation Committee designated 287 Broadway a landmark in 1989. At the designation hearing it was described as one of the last surviving example of a cast-iron building in Second Empire style in New York City.

Timber bracing, then steel, was used from 2007 to 2020 to shore up the building, which was leaning by 0.66 feet. Now, the building is structurally sound, and renovated for ground-level retail space with residential lofts above.  

The front facade of 287 Broadway

New custom mahogany storefronts.

51 White Street | An Evolving Landmark

51 White Street is undergoing a full and transformative renovation. Located between Church Street and Franklin Place and just east of the iconic opaque and wavy TriBeCa Synagogue, the building is in the East TriBeCa Historical District. Constructed in 1857 and 1858 in the Italianate style for Daniel and A.C. Kingsland, prosperous merchants. It served as a textile and dry goods store.

In a rare move by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the building is approved to grow from five stories to seven, with the two new upper stories hidden by an extended “fig leaf” parapet. The new stories will host a penthouse, offices on the ground and cellar levels, and nine apartments on the floors between.

Rendering of 51-53 White Street renovations.

The big reveal as scaffolding is removed.

We have 113 window, door, and storefront units going into 51-53 White Street. Eighteen mahogany Parrett storefront units with tempered and argon-filled insulated glass and low-e coatings. Above the storefronts, 24 mahogany LePage XL double-hung bring classic styling but high performance to the Tuckahoe marble-clad and cast iron front façade.

Restored cast iron columns.

Storefronts going in.

On the rear brick façade, we installed 4 French doors and 44 double-hung high performance mahogany windows, also from LePage. An additional 23 vented high performance double hung windows were installed on the west façade/lot line.   

Rear facade: before.

Rear facade: after.

TriBeCa East’s history

TriBeCa East was designated as a historic district in 1992 by the Landmark Preservation Commission. The district roughly runs from Church Street west to Cortlandt Alley, with a block between West Broadway and Church and White and Franklin. The district is bound by Canal Street to the north and Worth Street to the south.

Originally marshland, the area was used as farmland as early as 1646. First, as the 45-acre Calk Hook Farm, granted to Jan Jansen Damen by Governor Kieft. The land was subdivided and changed hands after Damen’s death, but was reassembled around 1725. The land was ultimately drained via a canal, for which Canal Street is named. Over the next one hundred years, the land was held by Rutgers, Lispernard, Jay, Munro, White, and other famous early New Yorkers.

Residential development began in earnest in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, starting with simple brick or brick and wood frame two and a half and three and a half story homes in the Federal style. One of these homes remains today, 2 White Street, designated a New York City Landmark.

Textile and dry good industries soon moved into the neighborhood, starting to form the recognizable character of the district as we know it today. First, the ground story of a building would be converted to a storefront. As business expanded, four or five additional stories were added, topped with a flat roof and metal cornice at the top story. To accommodate industrial and commercial activity, new buildings were constructed in the store and loft style. Much of the construction in the district utilized cast-iron, a forerunner to the City’s steel skyscrapers. Cast iron framing at the ground floor allowed for large openings to load and unload goods. The first floor was sized to accommodate offices and show areas as well, which could extend to the second floor, too. Typically three additional stories and cellars offered merchandise storage.  

By the late 19th century, increased use of elevators made way for tall office buildings in the neighborhood. By the 1970s, the district saw increased art loft and restaurant space. This decade also saw the use of the TriBeCa moniker when the Office of Lower Manhattan Development designated the neighborhood as Triangle Below Canal (TriBeCa) in 1974.

Read more about the TriBeCa East Historic District designation.

The future of 51 White Street

As the exterior restoration buttons up, the interior gut renovation continues. DAB Investments is overseeing the building’s progress.

Happy birthday, Landmarks Preservation Commission

Fifty-five years ago, New York City Mayor Wagner signed the Landmarks Law, creating the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). The LPC is the largest municipal preservation agency in the nation.

LPC’s mission is to protect New York City's architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites by granting them landmark or historic district status and regulating them after designation. The creation of the LPC came on the heels of the demolition of the Beaux Arts-style Pennsylvania Station in 1963. Designed by McKim, Mead, & White, the train station was razed to make room for Madison Square Garden and an underground rail station.

Since 1965, the LPC has created 149 historic districts across all five boroughs and designated more than 37,000 building and scenic landmarks. Nearly 6,000 buildings were landmarked in the first five years. The first individual structure to be landmarked is the city’s oldest—the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House. During this period, the LPC protected many public structures like City Hall, Grand Central Terminal, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New York Public Library. Since 1965, the LPC has issued hundreds of thousands of permits approving work on historic buildings and new buildings located in historic districts.

Grand Central Terminal’s landmark designation protects it from the fate of the original Pennsylvania Station.

In celebration of 55 years of historic preservation, the LPC has an interactive online timeline, highlighting some of their most notable protected buildings.

Historical Windows of New York was conceived just five years after the Landmarks Law was signed to fill a growing need for historically appropriate windows and doors. Our offerings have evolved over five decades to include high performance technology to make even the oldest buildings energy efficient. We also have expertise navigating the LPC permitting and approvals process on behalf of our clients.

Take a peek at Bertrand's passive window series

When it comes to passive houses, you can’t be passive about your choice in windows. Windows and doors are the enemy of an efficient building envelope, since they’re essentially holes in an otherwise super-efficient wall and roof system. Every window choice is a careful balance of performance and aesthetics.

The Ultratherm Ultima is a wood-aluminum composite with three or four layers of glazing.

Enter Bertrand Windows and Doors. With an entire line of windows dedicated to the science of passive home creation, you can’t go wrong. They’re our exclusive partner for a reason— you don’t have just one option, but four to choose from. Three of their products have triple-glazing and a fourth has four layers of glass to provide the highest performance. With a wide selection of wood species, thermally broken aluminum, and composites they have a solution for every passive house fenestration decision.

Bertrand’s windows are crafted in Poland to European high standards.

Why you want (thermally) broken windows and doors

Generally, broken windows aren’t desirable in our field. Unless you’re talking about thermally broken windows and doors, that is.

Thermally broken refers to the frame of a metal window or door. Metal is an excellent conductor of heat, which doesn’t make for a very efficient window or door. A thermal break is a barrier between the inside and outside frames, “breaking” the conductive properties of the metal frame.

Our partner Brombal specializes in thermally broken metal fenestration systems. Crafted in Italy, they create custom windows, doors, and even curtain walls in thermally broken stainless steel, galvanized steel, cor-ten steel, and brass in a number of finishes. Their products are third-party tested to ensure the highest performance.

Leading the Way with Virtual Reality

We are excited to announce that we’re leading the architectural window and door industry by deploying virtual reality in the design process.

Virtual reality immerses our clients in their projects in a transformative manner, going a step beyond the typical 3-D model. It allows architects and designers, developers, and other professionals in the building and construction sector to safely and efficiently explore conceptual options like exterior colors, window and door styles, glass types, and landmark profiles and projections.

The concepts are easily presented to customers using a virtual reality headset or video, streamlining the design process while fostering transparency, client trust, and social distancing. Building owners, interior designers, public agencies, and other stakeholders can better understand spatial and neighborhood impacts, improving engagement and approval process without the added time and expense of models and mock-ups.  

It's not just for landmark projects, either. With VR, clients will see that you don’t have to sacrifice aesthetics for energy efficiency.