Royal Insurance Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, Neoclassical (architecture), 1927_construction

279-foot, 19-story Neo-Classical office building originally completed in 1927. Designed by Starrett & Van Vleck with metalwork by the Wm. H. Jackson Company. It occupied most of the block between William, Ann, Gold and Fulton Streets, with the exception of the eastern end fronting Gold Street. That property was soon acquired, and a seamless extension to the building was completed in 1931, thus filling the entire block. It was built as the U.S. headquarters of the Royal Insurance Company, which was founded in Liverpool in 1845.

All four facades are clad in limestone, rusticated on the 2-story base, over a high granite water table. Lining the ground floor are large round-arched openings, seven on each of the shorter facades, and 14 on the longer elevations. On William Street, the building's main entrance is set in the center arch, slightly recessed, with three bronze-framed doors and transom. The stone surround has carved foliate corners and a scrolled keystone at the top of the arch. The piers on either side of the entrance slightly project. To the right is a more deeply recessed subway entrance in the next arch. To the left is a storefront entrance, and the remaining arches on this facade have windows; those on the south end have the original brass frames, while the northern ones have newer storefront windows below shallow canopies. The Fulton Street entrance to the building is in the 5th arch from the left, with the same-styled brass-framed doors, but no stone enframement. The far left arch, as well as the 7th from the left, have storefront entrances. The 6th from the left has a large vent, and the rest have black-framed storefront windows. Except for the building entrance, all the arches on this side have rounded canvas canopies. In addition, the far left arch and the 6th from the right are each flanked by a pair of narrow windows. On the east facade at Gold Street, the arches are all above street level, as this is the lowest elevation of the site. Each bay has basement windows with iron bars, taller toward the north end, except for the center bay, which has another, simpler building entrance below the arch. The rear of the building is on Ann Street, where there are also basement windows in the five eastern bays, with a small service entrance to the right of these.

The 2nd floor has paired, square-headed windows with stone sills, except for the aforementioned instances of the narrow ground-level windows, where there are single windows above them on the 2nd floor. Above the main entrance on William Street is a carved entablature with dentils and six short, dentiled pilasters with carved rosettes or other ornament between them. Above this is a large stone panel with a carved shield bearing the Royal Insurance Company's monogram in the center, surrounded by garlands, and flanked by two additional shields set in circles. The entire base is capped by a stone cornice above a fascia of alternating rosettes and vertical grooves.

The 3rd floor is transitional, without rustications. The main piers have simple carved panels, while plain smaller piers separate the paired windows. A dentiled cornice caps this floor. The upper floors continue the pattern of paired windows, with alternating wide and narrow piers, and carved panels in the stone spandrels. Another cornice runs across the 9th floor, where there are shallow setbacks, except for at the end bays, and the center portion of both long elevations. Additional setbacks, some with ornate metal railings, continue above, narrowing the building tow where the 16th & 17th floors are only three main bays wide, flanked by narrow, single-window bays, at the William and Gold Street ends. Above, there is a 2-story pedimented Classical temple at the roof, three single bays wide, with round-arches above the top-floor windows, and just below the triangular pediments that cap the two short ends of the building. A single round window is located within both of these pediments. An angled, copper roof connects them, running along the spine of the building, with a bulky mechanical equipment housing rising up from the center of the roof.

The Royal Insurance Company moved its U.S. head office to Charlotte in 1984. Its former New York headquarters today houses Children's Services of the City of New York. The ground floor is occupied by Lot Less discount store, 150 Market grocery, and Pride Optical.

archive.org/details/SweetsArchitecturalCatalogueAComple...