Type Office Completed 1928 Floor count 31 Floors 31 Function Office | Construction started 1921 Roof 158.5 m (520 ft) Height 158 m Opened 1924 | |
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Location 26 Broadway at Beaver St.
Financial District of
New York City Owner Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Architecture firms Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, Carrère and Hastings Similar Bowling Green, Equitable Building, 2 Broadway, 195 Broadway, Adams Express Building | ||
26 Broadway, also known as the Standard Oil Building, is a 31-story, 520-foot-tall (160 m) landmarked office building located at Bowling Green in the Financial District of New York City. As of 2010, the structure is the 197th tallest building in New York City and the 572nd tallest building in the United States. 26 Broadway was also the home address in the late 18th century of Alexander Hamilton, his wife Eliza, and their family.
Contents
Map of 26 Broadway, New York, NY 10004, USA
History
Standard Oil's first building on the site of 26 Broadway was built in 1885 to design specifications by architect Francis H. Kimball, when Standard Oil moved its headquarters from Cleveland, Ohio. It was a 10-story, 86-foot-wide (26 m) building that extended between Broadway and New Street in Manhattan. It was designed by Ebenezer L. Roberts. In 1895, six stories were added and a 27-foot-wide (8.2 m) extension was made on its north side, designed by Kimball & Thompson. After World War I, Walter C. Teagle decided to greatly expand the structure by buying all four neighboring buildings on the block.
The building was extensively overhauled and virtually rebuilt in 1921–28 by Thomas Hastings, the surviving partner of Carrère and Hastings, with Shreve, Lamb and Blake as associate architects. Hastings, who had helped design the Cunard Building (later called the Standard & Poors Building) across the street at 25 Broadway, was chosen as lead architect. The building is unusual in that its lower portion follows the curving contour of Broadway at that point, while its tower is aligned with the other nearby skyscrapers of lower Manhattan. It is one of the first buildings in Manhattan to have setbacks and is topped by a pyramid modeled on the Mausoleum of Maussollos. At the time of completion, the pyramid was the tallest tower at the southern tip of Manhattan and was illuminated as a beacon for ships entering the harbor.
Standard Oil of New Jersey (then called Esso), moved to 75 Rockefeller Plaza in 1946. The Mobil division moved to 150 East 42nd Street in 1954. Standard Oil sold the building in 1956. The building was designated as a New York City landmark in 1995.
Standard Oil's name came from the company's manufacturing standards, standards, that preceded the ASTM standards we utilize today..
Tenants
Lower portions of the building have been used for museums: the Museum of American Finance from 1988 to 2006, and the Sports Museum of America from 2008 to 2009. Current tenants include the JDRF & Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Dowling College Manhattan, Olo (Online Ordering).