NYU 726 Broadway

 university, office building, health center, Neoclassical (architecture), 1919_construction

10-story Neo-Classical office building completed in 1919, with a rooftop addition in 1980. Designed by William Steele & Sons as a garage, factory and warehouse for John Wanamaker, whose department store was located two blocks north on Broadway. This building was built to house various functions of the department store, including carpenters' and upholsterers' shops, a piano tuning and repair workshop, and three levels for the company's delivery trucks. By the mid-1900s, Wanamaker's was leasing the garage portion of the building to the United Parcel Service, and in 1943, a temporary coal bunker was installed. The building was converted to an office building for the Amalgamated Life Insurance Company around 1980, when the 3-story rooftop addition was constructed.

Both the Broadway and Lafayette Streets facades span six bays, with a 2-story terra-cotta base with rusticated piers and crown molding. The entrances on both sides have grey granite facing, with freight entrances at the southern bays on Lafayette. The brown brick upper floors have projecting piers with quoins and terra-cotta lintels in continuous bands. The 7th floor has terra-cotta facing and an original bracketed roof cornice. The 3-story rooftop addition is clad in brown brick and concrete.

After being the primary tenant for many years, NYU purchased the entire building in 2008 for $210mil. It primarily houses their Student Health Center, as well as offices for the Liberal Studies program and the College of Global Public Health. The ground floor is occupied by the NYU Bookstore which is managed by Follett Higher Education. The top three floors were renovated in 2018 by Mitchell Giurgola Architects to create a striking atrium-focused space for the CAS physics department.

observer.com/2008/12/nyu-drops-210-m-on-726-broadway/
www.mitchellgiurgola.com/portfolio/projects/physics-dep...