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New York City Apartment Building of the Week: How Did 90 West Street Survive 9-11?
April 20, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
On 9-11, 2001, Islamist terrorists murdered 2,819 people, and brought down the World Trade Center. Somehow, the 24-story, century-old skyscraper at 90 West Street stood defiantly. The reason for its survival? Just ask any student or fan of great architecture: “They don’t make buildings like that anymore.”
90 West Street has a Gothic facade made of two layers of terra cotta totaling more than a foot in thickness. None of the vertical steel columns holding up 90 West Street were damaged when the World Trade Center’s south tower collapsed. It is unclear whether the heavy terra cotta acted like armor, or because some of the steel columns’ blows glanced 90 West.
Four to six inches of heavy tile fireproofing encased both fire stairwells at 90 West Street. Four-inch-thick blocks of tile, similar to the material of which flower pots are made of, encased the dozens of steel columns holding up the building. The heavy tile successfully protected 90 West’s steel columns. Though that kind of tile can be brittle, columns in the facade that had been exposed by the impact of debris still had their thick fireproofing intact.
Fireproofing in the floors was still more impressive: an archlike arrangement of tile a foot thick stopped the flames from spreading between floors.
Why not rebuild the World Trade Center, and build any other high-rise using these same techniques? You could probably guess the answer: The cost and installation of such tile today would be prohibitive. It’s too expensive and too heavy.
Hat Tip: NYT
What’s the story behind 90 West?
The skyscraper, once known as the Railroad & Iron Exchange Building, was designed by architect Cass Gilbert and structural engineer Gunvald Aus for the West Street Improvement Corporation. It was built in 1905-1907 for the West Street Improvement Corporation as an office base for transport-related companies. Gilbert was the same genius who designed the Woolworth Building at 233 Broadway.
Later dubbed “The West Street Building,” the 24-story building has a base of limestone facing, a vertically accentuated main facade, and a top finished with terra cotta decor. The terra cotta is extensively sculpted in French Renaissance themes, above a terminal point of arcaded windows. To enhance the decors’ effect, the top floors of the building are illuminated at night.
Built on the waterside, atop a landfill, the building is founded on a bed of pilings driven deep into the soil.
The building top once housed a panoramic restaurant, the Garret Restaurant — the highest in New York at its time.
In the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, the building was restored with The restoration of the building and its gutted interior is estimated to cost $50 to $100 million and the City Opera toyed with the idea of turning the building into an opera and dance center, although its sale to Brack Capital Real Estate for $12.25 million in 2003 will lead to a residential conversion of 410 apartments on 22 floors. With a price tag of $145 million, the conversion development gets $106.5 million in Liberty Bonds.
During the course of the renovation, the original lobby decor was discovered behind plasterboard walls, consisting of pilasters in terra-cotta, arches and sculptures. As for the facade, the damage suffered required an extensive $16 million rebuilding of both the terra-cotta facing and the carved granite base, with carvers from all over the world duplicating the complex patterns of the original work.
The exterior of the building has been landmarked since 1998, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission had to accept the use of granite cladding attached to steel frames instead of full granite blocks simply due to the lack of original granite material. Similarly, the destroyed metal balustrade running along the roof ridge has been replaced with a fiberglass replica.
In addition to other renovation work, over 100 new gargoyles were added to the facades, seven of them depicting actual renovation management persons, a nod towards Gilbert’s Woolworth Building and its lobby gargoyle likenesses. The building was reopened in October 2005.
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