Thursday, July 15, 2004
Bank of the Metropolis Building placed on National Register
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Among the new designees to the National Register of Historic Places is the former Bank of the Metropolis at 31 Union Square West, neighbor of the Decker Building (see T&V, June 17,2004). If you have had a meal at the Blue Water Grill, its ground floor tenant, you no doubt have been charmed by the splendor of the marble halls that transport the visitor into another era.
The building, designed by Bruce Price, an early skyscraper proponent, was built in 1902-03, using the then newfangled curtain wall methodology that utilizes vertical steel beams rather than massive walls to support the 16-story building., dominating the west side of Union Square.
The recorded history of the square begins with the Commissioners’ Map of 1807-11, a successful effort to curb the helter-skelter layout of streets in Manhattan by substituting the familiar controlled grid, starting above Houston Street. Certain established thoroughfares were retained, such as Broadway (then Bloomingdale Road), which intersected with the Bowery. The area of this “union” was the base of a Union Place, originally from 10th to 17th Streets, “a shapeless and ill-looking collection of lots, around which were reared a miserable group of shanties,” as described in the Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York (“Valentine’s Manual”) of 1857. In 1815 the state legislature reduced the size of Union Place, with i14th Street as its southern boundary.. As the need for open places became more apparent, Union Place was expanded, graded, paved and fenced, and officially opened to the public in 1839.
The Bank of the Metropolis was founded in 1871, and was always located on Union Square, first at No.31, then , in 1877 at No. 17, in 1888 at No. 29, and back to No.31. It was active as the bank for neighborhood businesses, and in 1902 its board of directors included Louis J.Tiffany, whose store occupied the quarters of the present Amalgamated Bank, jeweler Charles T. Cook and publisher Charles Scribner, . A solid enterprise, it was absorbed by the Bank of the Manhattan Company , which in turn merged into the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955.
Bruce Price (1845-1903) built many residences in the rural shingle style, working in Tuxedo Park, a wealthy suburban community financed by Pierre Lorillard IV, until he became involved in urban ,settings around 1890. His first “tower skyscraper” was the Sun Building Project, Neo-Renaissance structure with a tripartite configuration, base, shaft and capital Still extant, in the neighborhood, is the St. James (1896) at 26th Street and Broadway, and the American Surety building at 100 Broadway ANOTHER US???NAC Annex? Bway?
The Metropolis is seemingly is a narrow slab, although there is an L expansion. The front on Union Square has three window bays, while the 16th Street side has 18 in a tailed configuration of three, nine, three and three again. Vertically, the tripartite division is applied once more.
In line with the dictum that significant decorations should be at the base, the entrance on Union Square, two stories high, has a bowed portico flanked by two polished granite Ionian columns supporting a broken pediment with a ball-like finial. With its classical ornament embracing both a side window and the entrance to the upstairs offices it proclaims the building’s function as a bank. Beneath the portico are also the square second story windows, separated by panels within panels and decorated with flowers. Beneath the cornice, two swags decorate the large frame bearing the name of the bank..
The entrance on USW leads directly into the narrow banking hall which runs the entire length of the West 16th Street length of the building, widening toward the back. The style is neo-Classical, the lower part of the North wall has white marble panels, the top is plaster. The floor to ceiling piers have inner rectangular green marble frames, rising to simple capitals (the classical Greek tripartite construction held in the interior design as well)
Above the cornice a transition floor leads to the nine story shaft , with square windows ornamented by foliated spandrels (spaces between windows), some centered with acanthus leaves, others with roundels. Look for open-mouthed lion heads on the tenth story
The thirteenth or transition floor is demarcated with a string course below, decorated with incised wavelike or “running dog” motifs, and a projecting band course above, supported by consoles (brackets). Two of the floors constituting the capital have a new decorative element appear between the windows: panels of palmettes centered between scrolls. Above the fifteenth floor, four lions’ heads rest on pilasters decorated with floral pendants, and the top story is crowned by an elaborate dentilled (small blocks beneath the cornice) copper entablature.
There is a lot of style, thought and effort to create beauty in the buildings around and above us that we may pass by, intent on our daily affairs. A pause to look around might refresh us and help reestablish a sense of balance and order, and faith in a world that seems to be spinning towards chaos.
Wally Dobelis thanks Lisa Koenigsberg, Anthony Robins, and the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation..
Among the new designees to the National Register of Historic Places is the former Bank of the Metropolis at 31 Union Square West, neighbor of the Decker Building (see T&V, June 17,2004). If you have had a meal at the Blue Water Grill, its ground floor tenant, you no doubt have been charmed by the splendor of the marble halls that transport the visitor into another era.
The building, designed by Bruce Price, an early skyscraper proponent, was built in 1902-03, using the then newfangled curtain wall methodology that utilizes vertical steel beams rather than massive walls to support the 16-story building., dominating the west side of Union Square.
The recorded history of the square begins with the Commissioners’ Map of 1807-11, a successful effort to curb the helter-skelter layout of streets in Manhattan by substituting the familiar controlled grid, starting above Houston Street. Certain established thoroughfares were retained, such as Broadway (then Bloomingdale Road), which intersected with the Bowery. The area of this “union” was the base of a Union Place, originally from 10th to 17th Streets, “a shapeless and ill-looking collection of lots, around which were reared a miserable group of shanties,” as described in the Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York (“Valentine’s Manual”) of 1857. In 1815 the state legislature reduced the size of Union Place, with i14th Street as its southern boundary.. As the need for open places became more apparent, Union Place was expanded, graded, paved and fenced, and officially opened to the public in 1839.
The Bank of the Metropolis was founded in 1871, and was always located on Union Square, first at No.31, then , in 1877 at No. 17, in 1888 at No. 29, and back to No.31. It was active as the bank for neighborhood businesses, and in 1902 its board of directors included Louis J.Tiffany, whose store occupied the quarters of the present Amalgamated Bank, jeweler Charles T. Cook and publisher Charles Scribner, . A solid enterprise, it was absorbed by the Bank of the Manhattan Company , which in turn merged into the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955.
Bruce Price (1845-1903) built many residences in the rural shingle style, working in Tuxedo Park, a wealthy suburban community financed by Pierre Lorillard IV, until he became involved in urban ,settings around 1890. His first “tower skyscraper” was the Sun Building Project, Neo-Renaissance structure with a tripartite configuration, base, shaft and capital Still extant, in the neighborhood, is the St. James (1896) at 26th Street and Broadway, and the American Surety building at 100 Broadway ANOTHER US???NAC Annex? Bway?
The Metropolis is seemingly is a narrow slab, although there is an L expansion. The front on Union Square has three window bays, while the 16th Street side has 18 in a tailed configuration of three, nine, three and three again. Vertically, the tripartite division is applied once more.
In line with the dictum that significant decorations should be at the base, the entrance on Union Square, two stories high, has a bowed portico flanked by two polished granite Ionian columns supporting a broken pediment with a ball-like finial. With its classical ornament embracing both a side window and the entrance to the upstairs offices it proclaims the building’s function as a bank. Beneath the portico are also the square second story windows, separated by panels within panels and decorated with flowers. Beneath the cornice, two swags decorate the large frame bearing the name of the bank..
The entrance on USW leads directly into the narrow banking hall which runs the entire length of the West 16th Street length of the building, widening toward the back. The style is neo-Classical, the lower part of the North wall has white marble panels, the top is plaster. The floor to ceiling piers have inner rectangular green marble frames, rising to simple capitals (the classical Greek tripartite construction held in the interior design as well)
Above the cornice a transition floor leads to the nine story shaft , with square windows ornamented by foliated spandrels (spaces between windows), some centered with acanthus leaves, others with roundels. Look for open-mouthed lion heads on the tenth story
The thirteenth or transition floor is demarcated with a string course below, decorated with incised wavelike or “running dog” motifs, and a projecting band course above, supported by consoles (brackets). Two of the floors constituting the capital have a new decorative element appear between the windows: panels of palmettes centered between scrolls. Above the fifteenth floor, four lions’ heads rest on pilasters decorated with floral pendants, and the top story is crowned by an elaborate dentilled (small blocks beneath the cornice) copper entablature.
There is a lot of style, thought and effort to create beauty in the buildings around and above us that we may pass by, intent on our daily affairs. A pause to look around might refresh us and help reestablish a sense of balance and order, and faith in a world that seems to be spinning towards chaos.
Wally Dobelis thanks Lisa Koenigsberg, Anthony Robins, and the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation..
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 7:30 PM 
