Broad Exchange Building

History and architecture

Located in the heart of Manhattan's financial district. the Broad Exchange Building was, at the time of its construction in 1900-02, the largest office building with the highest estimated real estate value built in Manhattan. Designed by the renowned architectural firm of Clinton & Russell, the Broad Exchange Building contained 326,500 square feet of rentable floor area and was estimated to cost $3.25 million. The builders of the Broad Exchange used all the new technologies introduced during the 1890s in order to create taller structures.

The twenty story high building has a steel frame, elevator, and caisson construction. The design of the building is a tripartite composition, common to many of New York's turn-of-the century skyscrapers with a base, shaft, and capital. The three-story base of the building is clad in rusticated granite; the fourteen-story main body or shaft is buff-colored brick with terra-cotta trim; and the three-story attic or capital is granite and terra cotta with a copper cornice.

Built by the Alliance Realty Company as a speculative office building, the Broad Exchange Building is representative of the commercial building boom in lower Manhattan in the early twentieth century. The proximity of the Broad Exchange Building to the New York Stock Exchange made it one of the most sought-after addresses for brokers and bankers, including for approximately seventy years, the headquarters of Paine, Webber and Company. An excellent example of turn-of-the-century skyscraper building technology design, the Broad Exchange Building is a significant historical and architectural contribution to Manhattan's financial district.