Restoring Historic Lobbies in Luxury Buildings

It will be interesting to see if the conversion of these buildings to residential use means that non-billionaires can step inside and have a look. My guess would be no.

As a Verizon retiree I am appalled that you have written another article glorifying the conversion of Verizon's buildings to luxury real estate, without acknowledging the negative impact of Verizon's abandonment of its New York City workforce. Verizon has eliminated thousands of middle-class jobs while refusing to repair customers' phones and reneging on its promise to make FIOS high-speed internet available to everyone who wants it. They have sold off management pensions to an insurance company so that they are no longer protected by federal law and now threaten retiree health benefits. I hope the wealthy few enjoy their new lobbies, and I hope they get hot water. We never did.

Many of these projects are not restorations at all. They read more like the selective reuse of a few historic features! Maintaining the historic DNA doesn't really count where I come from. At best these are rehabilitations incorporating a few restored historic elements or fixtures with new touches by the designers who apparently can't resist putting their own touches on historic interiors because they are too dark or set the wrong mood. Call them what they are, but don't insult me by calling them restorations.

Great article. It would have been nice to cover some of the buildings in the outer boroughs as well. There are buildings along the Grand Concourse with phenominal art deco lobbies that are worth noting.

Beautiful work at the Barclay, but the notion to "update" any of these interiors to modern aesthetic tastes is so very wrong. We've seen this too many times already; i.e. when the village brownstone is gutted except for the exterior brick facade. Nearly everything else inside is gone because the owner likes "shiny chrome and glass." Money doesnt fix tacky.

So it doesn't matter if you're contributing to the collapse of American civilization as long as your lobby is gaudily appointed. Poor, old New Yorkland.

While my apartment building is not as gorgeous as these structures, until recently most apartments had many original details from when it was constructed in 1929. In an attempt to update the building to modern (bad) tastes, many distinctive features -- terra cotta hallway walls, picture frame moldings, patterned radiator covers, sconces, pedestal sinks, arch doorways, lighting fixtures from the 20s, faceted crystal doorknobs -- have been destroyed and tenants could be living in any old plain vanilla building from the 50s.

lovely. and not a single one of these restorations is going to be affordable to the now largely diminished middle class.

Everything in nyc is now for the very very very rich.

such a shame.

When the old Cunard Building on lower Broadway goes condo, I will be first in line to buy. I still remember when the lobby was a post office. It was the one time in my life I did not mind waiting to be served. Gazing at those spectacular frescoes of the places Cunard sailed, to say nothing of the fabulous mosaics in the floor was a visual feast.

The article and commenters seem oblivious to the existence of federal and New York State Historic Tax Credits which are very powerful financing tools that provide a bottom line offset against an investors tax liability (not an income offset but a tax liability offset).

An historic renovation may be a good marketing tool, but it is a better way to finance the high cost of redevelopment in New York City.

The floor of 52 Clark Street in Brooklyn Heights had intricate American Indian style tiles, including Swastikas in the opposite of Nazi designs. A decade ago, they were destroyed, replaced by bland white tiles that also cover the walls.

I am happy to say that 10 East 40th Street, where I worked decades ago, installed a bland drop ceiling in an effort to "modernize" the building. This has now been removed, and the intricate terra cotta ceiling has been fully restored.

Money obviously buys HFZ Capital buildings, but as already evidenced at The Marquand, another of the developer's takeovers, it certainly can't buy taste. Nor can money buy any sense of appreciation for what has stood the test of time. Indeed in these two cases- The Chatsworth and The Marquand, the goal appears simply to be nothing more than appealing to the lowest common denominator of those who happen to have money. And balance? The only balance that interests these people is their checkbooks. As for Landmark protection for the buildings' exteriors, hasn't anyone wondered how both the exteriors of The Marquand and The Chatsworth managed to be granted variances for work that substantially changes them?

I recall reading a work on the grand apartment buildings of the Upper East Side that mentioned a desire on the part of residents for "understated" facades and lobbies. A plain lobby there was compared to another by the same architect on the West Side that featured gilt coffered ceilings. Showy Art Deco apartment lobbies seem to have been more popular in the Bronx.

Loved these photos and the article. When I was in NYC last summer, I tried to go into the Woolworth Building and there is a big sign outside indicating the building is not open to visitors. A real shame. Maybe it could open up for a specified time to allow visitors to see the ceiling.
Another building which is open to the public is the Post Office at 90 Church Street.

It's all true. It is intimidating not to have big money. Get outta town if you don't have big bucks. It's the very rich and the people on welfare who get public housing and a few "middle class" people who have Mitchell-Lamas that once were that. Is there life outside of New York? There had better be.

And yet developers rush to destroy historic buildings to get a few extra square feet and the Landmark Preservation Commission enables them but allowing modifications that destroy the historic character and fabric. The condo developers at 361 Central Park West, First Church of Christ Scientist is just such a project. The developers' plan riddles the walls with windows giving it a Swiss cheese look and will ultimately remove the historic stain glass windows that are an integral part of the building and it's history. It's all about profit because it could be done differently if someone would spend a few bucks on a creative reuse architect. It can be done and it should be done. The LPC should stop bowing to developers and start focusing on its preservation mandate.

Having said that I won't hold my breath as the City is poised to hand zoning and preservation over to the real estate industry in a crazed attempt to get "affordable housing". The developers will get what they want more money and the City will get broken promises they cannot enforce, a few units with poor doors attached. If the City cared about affordable housing and recycling it would preserve old buildings and insist on adaptive reuse and sensible maintenance. Destroying old buildings or allowing their destruction and even supporting it with public funds is wrong but then developers need more millions.

Only a barbarian could look at the photo of the Chatsworth lobby and think it should be changed.

"Scrapped" is certainly the operative word for Developer's schema for the grandiose Beaux Arts Lobbies of the Chatsworth and its Annex. Renderings and DOB applications indicate that, rather than a meticulous Restoration of this magnificent and mostly untouched New York City Landmark, its "updating" will include the destruction of much of its Beaux Arts ornamentation, its 111 year old Old Growth Mahogany herringbone floors, the distortion of its proportions, and the disembowelment of its center space to create a new, very-Vegas spiral staircase to the lower level amenities. Why restore the historic skylights when fake lighting can be substituted? Why not gut major portions of this grand entry to provide exclusive private entrances to new, multi-million dollar "McMansionettes" and "Townhomes"? A modern Italian glass chandelier plunked in the heart of a French Beaux Arts masterpiece?
Rather than handwringing, I suspect the relevant brokers are rubbing their hands in glee in anticipation of the beaucoup bucks to be plundered from the global nouveau riche who, like the architects responsible for this travesty, couldn't find Beaux Arts under B in the dictionary.

As William Blake wrote centuries ago "Exuberance Is Beauty" - a lesson not learned by industrial designers so happy to make things look cheap, sterile, soul-less and disposable.

These lobbies were a matter of prestige for their builders and ennobled everyone who walked through them. Ralph Walker was a master of detail - imagine a modern architect even able to conceive this extravagance. Unfortunately, since 9/11 it's been almost impossible to view any of these lobbies as a casual visitor and it will remain so now that they've become yet another delineator between "them and us".

While not a historic building, I will always remember the lobby of my grandparents' apartment buildling on East 13th St in Brooklyn. The building # was 1776 and there was a large mural painting, on the back wall, of the Spirit of 1776. There was a main entrance and then 5-6 steps up to the lobby and elevators with chairs in the lobby area. I haven't been in the building since 1989 but remember it from my childhood visits in the 50s until 1989. I wonder if the mural is still there along with the elevators and the round windows in the elevator doors to see if someone was there.

It is nice to know that developers finally appreciate historic lobbies. I do, however, question some of what is being done at The Chatsworth. Simplifying some of the decorative motifs in order to "update it so is relevant to the time that we're living in" make little sense. It seems to me the developer feels he has to do something so removing some decorative elements and replacing historic lighting fixtures is the way to go. In fact this action will be regretted in the future. Repair those garlands and clean the gilt bronze chandelier, don't throw them out. Trust me the new fixtures will be junk (regardless of where they were made). The modern contrast will not enliven the space since the classical, and timeless architecture, speaks for itself. Instead it usually cheapens the overall look from my experience. Oh if I were a developer, I could do this so much better.

There is often no connection between the grandeur of the tower's font lobby and the grandeur of the private residences higher in the tower. Some towers featuring particularly grand apartment interiors plus the finest state of the art amenities have modest entrance lobbies offering primarily reputable shelter from the elements just outside the front door and minimal on duty round the clock staff able to provide above basic personal assistance at the front door. Some towers with grand lobbies whose entrance portals make guests and residences feel they are entering a palace or a castle have cramped if not oddly laid out apartment interiors upstairs and. if not recently renovated for market price sale, no particular level of state of the art conveniences.