Tribeca Film Center

 office building, 1905_construction, Neo-Renaissance (architecture)

From 1861, the B. Fischer Company were wholesale dealers of coffee, tea, and spices imported from around the world. This 8-story building and another on Duane Street were known as the "Fischer Mills." This Neo-Renaissance building, at 375 Greenwich, was completed in 1905. Designed by Joseph Wolf as a warehouse, it has a tripartite composition. The polished granite and coursed red brick base, spanned by loading platforms and a continuous metal awning, retains its wood and glass doors and transoms in the broad loading bays. The brick midsection is further divided into a two-story lower tier, with fenestration arranged between coursed piers and recessed spandrels, and a four-story arcaded upper tier, with full height arches separating windows with stone lintels from those with splayed brick lintels; the midsection is surmounted by a terra-cotta cornice with brackets. The one-story crown repeats the coursed articulation found below and supports a brick parapet.

This building was the long-time home of the Martinson Coffee Company and other coffee companies; other tenants were a rice company, Samuel Weil & Sons (producers of paste, liquid gums, and glues since 1860), and trucking firms. Tribeca Grill now occupies the first two floors with the remaining floors dedicated to office space including Tribeca Productions and the Tribeca Film Festval.

www.tribecafilmcenter.com/