NYU Lafayette Street Residence Hall (New York City, New York)

 university, First World War 1914-1918, dormitory, high-rise, Neo-Gothic (architecture)

254-foot, 17-story Neo-Gothic undergraduate dormitory of New York University completed in 1914 as an office building, known as the Hallenbeck-Hungerford Building. Designed by William E. Austin, it has frontages on Franklin, Lafayette and White Streets, wrapping around the smaller Ahrens Building at the southeast corner. Due to the existing Ahrens Building on the lot, it was forced to build around it which resulted in the L-shaped design.

It has a 3-story limestone base, divided into three bays on Franklin Street, six on Lafayette, and four on White by wide piers on granite plinths. Cornices top the 2nd and 3rd floors. The end bays on each facade have double-height segmental-arches framed by carved Gothic stone ornament. The southern bay on Lafayette and the western bays on the shorter facades have entrance, while the others contain storefronts, except for the center bay on Franklin which has a garage door, and the 2nd bay from the west on White Street, which has been filled in with beige brick and a row of four windows with metal bars. All the bays have ornamented black cast-iron spandrels between the ground floor and the 2nd and black cast-iron mullions between the windows. On Lafayette Street, the center bays have three windows each, while the slightly narrower end bays have two; on White and Franklin Streets, the center bays have four windows, and the end bays have three.

The shaft of the building is clad in buff-colored brick. The four center bays on Lafayette are each grouped into 9-story units culminating in limestone segmental-arches at the 12th floor, with cartouches decorating the piers between them. The two center bays on the White Street elevation are organized the same way, as is the single center bay on Franklin Street. The end bays also have large cartouches on the piers, and are surmounted by cornice with large modillions.

The top three floors are stone, with vertically-grooved spandrels in the center bays, and a band course below the top floor, which has segmental-arched windows. All three facades are crowned by a roof cornice with an ornamental frieze. The remaining facades are clad in plain orange brick, with rows of simple, square-headed windows.

From 1928 to 1942, the Carl L. Norden Co. was a tenant; the company's famed bombsights were made here, by hand (often by Mr. Norden himself), until WWII increased demand such that production was moved to a larger building on Varick Street.

The building was purchased by NYU and converted into a residence hall in 1999, housing nearly 1,100 upperclassmen students. The ground floor is occupied by Cafe Lafayette, Check Cashing Corporation, Sail & Beyond Nails, Headquarterz Salon, and Joean Beauty Center.

www.newyorkitecture.com/lafayette-hall/