Adams Express Building

 office building, skyscraper, 1914_construction

423-foot, 33-story Neo-Renaissance office building completed in 1914. Designed by Francis Kimball, it replaced the earlier home of the Adams Express Company. On completion, it was the seventh-tallest building in the city. The 3-story base if clad in white marble with a grey granite water table, above which a tower faced in white terra-cotta tiles rise without setbacks to an overhanging copper cornice. The Broadway facade is divided into four bays. In the first two floors, those bays are defined by plain, double-height piers supporting a simple entablature; within each bay , the wall surface is rusticated, and there is a 2-story openings with a storefront or entrance at the ground level and a large windows at the 2nd floor. The main entrance is through the northernmost bay, in a recessed vestibule. There is a storefront entrance through a similar recessed vestibule in the adjoining bay.

The 3rd floor is also faced in marble, with each bay occupied by four rectangular windows, and topped by a dentiled cornice. The 4th floor is transitional - there are narrow stone piers separating the windows, but the surrounding wall surface is faced in terra-cotta tile. The remaining stories of the shaft are all faced in terra-cotta tile, and each bay has four rectangular windows sharing a common sill.

There is an overhanging dentiled cornice at the 31st floor; the 32nd floor is more elaborately designed, with recessed window bays and paired piers separating each bay and supporting a final cornice, with lion heads as ornament. The elevation along Exchange Alley is divided into two 3-bay-wide blocks by a deeply recessed light court beginning at the 2nd floor. The 1st floor runs continuously from Broadway to Trinity Place, where to facade is similar to that on Broadway, with the exception of a narrow extra window bay on the north, and an additional basement level reflecting the lower level of Trinity Place.

Some of the original tenants, besides the Adams Express Company, were the United Gas & Electric Corporation, Cuban Telephone Company, Rojas-Niese & Company, and the Railway Improvement Company. Most importantly, the Chase National Bank leased the entire ground floor and basement, signing a 20-year lease at $65,000 per year.

The 670,000-square foot office building was purchased by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for $90 million in 1988, who spent $20 million on renovations and updating. The building was purchased in 1998 by Crown Properties, Inc. for $58 million. Today the building is home to a diverse range of tenants – from law firms to financial institutions. The ground floor is occupied by Fidelity Investments, and Trinity Place Department Store.