90 West Street

Completed in 1907, the West Street Building was designed by architect Cass Gilbert as a premier office skyscraper for the shipping and railroad industries. The building combines the classical tripartite configuration of base, shaft and capital, common on late nineteenth-century office buildings, with the twentieth–century romantic emphasis on verticality and decorative crowns. With its clustered piers, terra cotta cladding, and gothic detail, including griffin figures and a foliate cornice with gargoyles, the West Street Building serves as a precursor to Gilbert’s masterpiece, the Woolworth Building. On September 11th, 2001, the West Street Building was severely damaged by fire and falling debris from the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers. After extensive repairs, the building re-opened in 2005 as a residential apartment building.

New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation

2010

This property has been placed on the

National Register

of Historic Places

by the United States

Department of the Interior

Marker is at the intersection of Water Street (New York Route 9A) and Albany Street on Water Street.

Courtesy hmdb.org

Credits and Sources: