Bowling Green Offices Building

History and architecture

An enormous and beautifully crafted presence at the base of Broadway, facing Bowling Green and extending through the block to Greenwich Street, the seventeen story Bowling Green Offices Building was designed and built in 1895-98 to be at the forefront of New York commercial towers in terms of its size, architectural style, and amenities. The architects were Scottish-born brothers William James and George Ashdown Audsley, whose fame rests largely on the more than twenty-five books they wrote on craftsmanship, decorative art, and related topics. Their design for the office building exhibits the "Hellenic Renaissance" style, which they defined as "a free but pure treatment of ancient Greek architecture," and is articulated in two nearly identical facades, each characterized by its tripartite base-shaft-capital arrangement.

The austere shaft, clad in white brick reflecting the structural skeleton within, is set off by the ornately carved granite base and the stylized terra-cotta ornamentation of the top. The bold, straightforward design reflects the innovative work often associated with buildings of the Chicago School. The amenities and technical achievements of the Bowling Green Offices included a very large steel frame, a plan oriented around a light court that provided plentiful light and ventilation, and electric service. Throughout the twentieth century, the building has been occupied by businesses traditionally associated with this section of Manhattan: steamship companies, including the International Mercantile Marine Co. prior to its purchase of No. 1 Broadway, and related firms, including financial and legal interests.

The client was the Broadway Realty Company, which owned the property for many decades and was directed in its early years by Spencer Trask and his successor, George Foster Peabody, both notable bankers and philanthropists. The architectural firm of Ludlow & Peabody, long associated with the building, reconfigured the original stoops on Broadway in 1912-13 and added a sympathetically designed seventeenth story and set-back four-story tower in 1917-20. The exterior of the building survives largely intact from that period with the exception of the storefronts.