The Powell Building (New York City, New York)

 apartment building, 1892_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

131-foot, 11-story Beaux-Arts cooperative-apartment building. Originally built as a 7-story office building completed in 1892, designed by Carrere & Hastings with structural elements by the Guastavino Fireproof TIle Co. It was known as the Pierce Building. In 1905, Ida May Powell commissioned architect Henri Fouchaux to design a large extension to the Pierce Building; the enlarged building was renamed for the client's family. The addition also raised the building's height by four stories.

The symmetrical facades of the original portion of the building are divided into a tripartite composition. Sheathed in coursed marble, the 2-story base features arched openings with pronounced keystones surmounted by paired rectangular windows and, on Hudson Street, rectangular openings with Gibbs surrounds surmounted by oval windows. The four-story midsection of each facade is articulated into corner bays by superimposed Ionic engaged columns with entablatures and tall bases and into central bays by tall arches with raised scroll keystones. Larger windows are adorned with elaborate pediments or bracketed cornices; smaller windows are paired. The 7th floor (the crown of the original building) repeats the paired window pattern while pilasters support a modest cornice. Details are executed in terra-cotta. The structure incorporates an iron frame and Guastavino arches.

The 1905 addition increased the width of the Hudson Street facade by two bay, adding a storefront to the base and repeating the end bay configuration and materials. The addition also created a new crown with slender piers, arched window openings, a deep cornice, and details evocative of the original building's character. The exposed north and west elevations are brick walls, partially parged, that are pierced by variously shaped openings with an assortment of window types.

The Powell company occupied the building for many years. Other occupants, typical of the district, included importers of food products (such as cheese, fruits, fish, spices, and frozen foods); the Cuban Commissioner of Agriculture and the American Chamber of Commerce for Trade with Italy, Inc.; merchants of bakers' and confectioners' supplies and of twine, yarns, and rope; and several publishers. The Powell Building was renovated in 1982 and converted to residential usage.

The ground floor housed the acclaimed sushi restaurant Nobu until it relocated to Fulton Street in 2017.

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