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Photos:
Roving Rube

Theme:
Terra Cotta

July 6, 2003

 
Liberty Tower, 55 Liberty Street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1909-10, Henry Ives Cobb; New York City Landmark.
Atlantic Terra Cotta Company. White terra-cotta cladding and ornamentation. Office building converted to apartments.
(Source: "Terra-Cotta Skyline", by Susan Tunick).

The Rube was all set to classify this as a imitation Woolworth Building until he found out it was built first:

...Liberty Tower anticipated much of the revolutionary character of [the Woolworth Building] by being almost entirely freestanding...and designed in a Gothic style...It was also one of the first buildings to use terra-cotta as a primary cladding material -- a style that soon became a trend in skyscraper construction...

In 1979, the architect Joseph Pell Lombardi bought the building...and converted it to a [co-op]. The residential space was sold unimproved, so that each of the eighty-nine apartments had its own architect, design, style, and layout.

(From The Landmarks of New York, by Barbaralee Diamonstein.)

See also: Portrait view, Streetside view

 

 

 


 




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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