Whitehall Building
The Whitehall Building, also known as 17 Battery Place, is a three-section residential and office building near the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, adjacent to Battery Park in lower Manhattan. 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 22-story 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 due to high demand for space in the original building, 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 18–20 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. As a result of the land filling, neighboring buildings such as 21 West Street were constructed without a basement. 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 combined to build larger commercial buildings.
History
Initial construction
The Real Estate Record and Guide reported in 1901 that a land plot measuring on the north side of Battery Place, on West Street, and on Washington Street, had been sold. The buyer was Century Realty Company, which intended to resell the land to Battery Place Realty Company. The Battery Place Realty Company, which would develop what would become the Whitehall Building, was led by Robert Chesebrough, a chemist known for discovering Vaseline, along with his son William A. Chesebrough. At the time, building sites near Broadway, two blocks east of the Whitehall Building, were considered to be optimal for development, especially after the 1907 completion of the U.S. Custom House at Broadway and Battery Place. The Whitehall Building's location across from Battery Park ensured a direct view of the New York Harbor, since the park faced the harbor on its other end.The original building was constructed from 1902 as a speculative office building designed by architect Henry Hardenbergh. The initial structure opened in May 1903, and was completed in 1904. The structure was named for Peter Stuyvesant's 17th-century home, "White Hall", which had been located nearby. The Battery Place Realty Company had expanded its land holdings by 1904, so that they owned 150 feet of the block frontage on West and Washington Streets. The company purchased the addresses 4-7 West Street and 6 & 7 Washington Street, thus controlling a lot of over though the firm publicly stated that it had "no intention of erecting any addition to the building". By 1906 all land acquisition had been completed.
Rents per square foot at the Whitehall Building were generally lower than those on Broadway, and so the building soon became fully occupied. The Battery Place Realty Company started soliciting construction bids for an annex to the Whitehall Building in 1908. Clinton and Russell had been hired to plan the structure, which was initially set to be 36 stories. The following year, the United States Realty and Improvement Company bought the Battery Place Realty Company's stock and took over the construction process. By then, United States Realty had on West and Washington Street, but intended to build the annex as a 31-story structure on West Street, a smaller 16-story section on Washington Street, and the 36-story tower in the center, rising. At the time, the annex was to be the largest single office building in the city. The combined lot area for the two buildings was to be. The annex was completed in 1910, excluding the section facing Washington Street, which was not constructed during that time. The annex was cited as being "one of the largest commercial structures in the world" and the largest individual office structure in Manhattan, with of space.
Later years
The Whitehall Building was owned by the Whitehall Improvement Corporation until 1950 when it was sold to the New York Life Insurance Company. By then, the building was known as the "Whitehall-Sheraton Building". On the Washington Street side of the block, east of the annex and north of the original building, the twenty-two-story 2 Washington Street was erected in 1971. The newest addition was originally called One Western Union International Plaza because Western Union employees worked there. In 1974, a fire at 2 Washington Street forced the evacuation of 5,000 office workers across the entire Whitehall complex; The New York Times reported that the computers of one tenant, securities firm Hayden, Stone & Co., continued to handle transactions automatically during the evacuation.In 1997, the developer Allen I. Gross bought the original building, annex, and 2 Washington Street for $70 million and proposed converting the original structure and annex's upper stories into a hotel and condominiums, retaining commercial uses on lower floors. The first through 13th floors were to be purchased by SL Green Realty and operated as office space; the 14th through 23rd floors would be a Ritz-Carlton hotel, and the annex above the 24th floor would contain residences. At the time, 30% of the of usable space was not occupied. The hotel proposal failed in 1998, and SL Green ultimately paid $59 million for the second through 13th floors in the original building and annex, as well as the entirety of 2 Washington Street. In 1999 the Moinian Group paid $42 million for the basement, ground floor, and the 14th through 31st floors of the older two buildings. The group intended to convert the upper floors to a rental-apartment building called the Ocean, with the address One West Street. The ground floor was to be used as a business center, while the residential structure would contain a parking lot, health club, and rooftop deck.
The Whitehall Building and Annex were designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on February 8, 2000. SL Green sold the original building later that year to an unnamed buyer. In 2005, the southernmost portion of West Street was reconstructed, including the portal over the Battery Park Underpass directly to the west. As part of the reconstruction project, a public plaza was erected outside the Whitehall Building, east of West Street. By 2019, the Moinian Group had purchased 2 Washington Street and intended to convert it into a residential structure with 345 units. At the time, part of the building was owned and occupied by Nyack College.
Design
Original structure
The original structure, also called 17 Battery Place or just the Whitehall 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. According to Moses King, the original building had 400 offices.The facade of the original structure is designed into three horizontal layers: a base, tower, and crown. On Battery Place the original structure is composed of 12 vertical architectural bays; 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.
Annex
The annex, also known as Greater Whitehall, is a 31-story skyscraper located on West Street, north of the Whitehall Building's western portion. Designed by Clinton & Russell, it was the largest office building in New York City at the time of its completion. It measures to its rooftop, with a boiler room located below ground level. The annex incorporated 30 elevators, of structural steel, of brick, and of cement. The basement is enclosed in a waterproof foundation that consisted of timber and steel caissons and a concrete cofferdam, and contains the building's boiler room and electrical equipment.The annex is connected to the original building by a two-bay-wide, two-story section facing West Street, as well as by an elevator lobby toward the center of the block between West and Washington Streets. The elevator lobby 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 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.
2 Washington Street
2 Washington Street, also known as 17 Battery Place North or the Western Union International Plaza was built in 1972 and measures with 22 floors. The structure was designed by Morris Lapidus in the International Style, and unlike the other two sections, does not have official landmark protection. The facade is a simple glass curtain wall. On the eastern side of 2 Washington Street is a privately owned public space.Tenants
In 1910, it was announced that the annex would house the Whitehall Club on its top four floors. The club was intended as a lunch club for merchants and businesspersons in lower Manhattan. This lunch club became the premier maritime club in New York City during that era and hosted famous shipping figures. In the late 20th century, the club's membership declined significantly, from 1,000 in the 1960s to 600 in 1990. The Whitehall Club shuttered in the mid-1990s.One office tenant in the mid-20th century was the Moran Towing Company, operator of a fleet of tugboats. In the days before radio dispatching, a man high in the building would watch with a telescope for incoming ships, and then use a six-foot megaphone to shout instructions to the Moran tugboats docked at the Battery. By the 1970s, the Moran Towing Company had moved to the World Trade Center, while the McAllister Brothers, a rival firm, had occupied the Whitehall Building's 15th floor. Other tenants included Tidewater Oil, as well as Western Union at 2 Washington Street. The consulate of Germany in New York City also occupied 17 Battery Place, but moved out in 1941; the prior year, the building had been bombed by opponents of the Nazis.
In the 21st century, tenants have included New York Film Academy, which since 2014 has occupied the first floor of 17 Battery Place. In addition, Nyack College moved into 2 Washington Street in 2013.