Cunard Building

History and architecture

Located at the head of Bowling Green and extending through the block to Greenwich Street, the twenty-two-story Cunard Building is among lower Manhattan's most architecturally and historically significant edifices. It was designed in 1917-19 by Benjamin Wistar Morris, a talented architect who received much critical acclaim for his scheme. The building's refined neo-Renaissance skin embellishes a structure that used subtle setbacks and ample, well-located open courts to address the natural light and ventilation demands made by the 1916 Zoning Resolution.

Morris's tripartite design for the limestone facade — an important component of the masonry "canyon" walls which have come to symbolize lower Manhattan and especially lower Broadway — is characterized by its arcaded first story, the arrangement of which is a reflection of the varied spaces within, and two loggia-like elements of the central section, which visually balance the slightly projecting end pavilions. The judiciously employed nautical iconographic program of Rochette & Parzini is an acknowledgment of the client and principal occupant of the building, the Cunard Steamship Line Ltd.

Founded in 1840 by Nova Scotia businessman Samuel Cunard, the Cunard company pioneered transatlantic shipping and travel. From mid-century on, Cunard maintained a presence on or near Bowling Green, as part of "Steamship Row," and eventually erected this building, its own New York headquarters, in 1920-21. The building was built through Cunard's affiliate, the Twenty-five Broadway Corporation, an organization which retained ownership until the 1960's , when operations were moved uptown.