Tombs South Building

 prison, municipal, 1941_construction, historical layer / disappeared object

12-story prison completed in 1941. Designed by Charles B. Meyers and Helmle, Corbett & Harrison, it matches the Criminal Courts Building to the south which was built at the same time. Although a freestanding building, 110 Centre Street appears as a fourth wing of the southern building, and is connected to it by a skybridge at the 10th floor, and three garage bays at the ground level; the garage doors are separated by granite piers, and have copper-clad 2nd level above. Like the facades of the Criminal Courts Building, the Tombs South Building has a 2-story polished granite base, with limestone piers on the upper floors, dividing vertical bays of paired windows and cast-aluminum spandrels whose curved surfaced resemble curtains. On the north facade, there is a small setback above the 8th floor.

A part of the overall Manhattan Detention Complex, the South Building here forms a physical part of the architectural structure of the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building instead, and is used to house detainees who are scheduled for appearance in the courthouse during the same day. Convicts and those referred for remand in detention are removed by NYC DoC mini-bus to the Rickers Island facilities from secure transfers garages with a rear building access onto Baxter Street near the junction with Bayard Street.

Prisoner transfers from both the remainder of the large complex (north of White Street) and into the courthouse complex itself (lying to the south) are arranged through fully enclosed high-level pedestrian walkway bridges (so-called 'Bridge of Sighs' in reference to the famous prisoner bridge in Venice)

The building is on the site of the original Tombs Prison. "The Tombs" is the colloquial name for the Manhattan Detention Complex, a jail in lower Manhattan at 125 White Street, as well as the popular name of a series of downtown jails. The nickname has been used for several structures dating from the early-mid 19th Century.

It is slated to be demolished in 2023 and its c. 1940 bas reliefs by Rene Chambellan salvaged.

www1.nyc.gov/assets/designcommission/downloads/pdf/02-1...