Standard Oil Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, Neoclassical (architecture), 1928_construction

520-foot, 31-story Neo-Classical office building completed in 1928. Designed by Thomas Hastings (of the firm of Carrere & Hastings) for the Standard Oil Company, it incorporates portions of Standard Oil's older building of 1885 & 1895 on the site. Directly across Broadway from the Cunard Building, the Standard Oil Building's lower facade follows the curve of the street while its pyramid-topped tower is aligned with the angle of New Street. Before the post-war building boom obscured the Standard Oil Building, the lantern atop its tower could be seen by ships entering New York harbor. The interior lobby was decorated by Mack, Jenney & Tyler.

The irregular pentagonal site, one of the largest parcels assembled in lower Manhattan to that time, dictated both the building's distinctive shape and complicated construction history. The Standard Oil Company first established a headquarters in lower Manhattan in 1885 at 26 Broadway. It was a 10-story building with a granite facade designed by Ebenezer L. Roberts. The building was expanded in 1895 through the construction of six additional stories and a 27-foot-wide extension on the north side; designed by Kimball & Thompson, these portions of the building were in a more elaborated Renaissance Revival style. The unadorned rear elevation of red brick and granite of the earlier building and its additions, now the northern portion of the Standard Oil Building, is still visible on New Street (which functions as a service street for buildings facing Broadway and Broad Street). The complications of assuming control and removing tenants from the four buildings that occupied the expansion site prompted the decision to phase demolition of existing buildings and to erect the addition in five sections. The first portion of the expanded structure to be erected was that at the northwest corner of Beaver and New Streets, which was begun in 1921. The section of the structure on Broadway, including the main entrance (south of the existing Standard Oil Building) was built next, followed by the corner of the building at Broadway and Beaver Street in 1923, and the replacement of the front wall of the old Standard Oil Building in 1924-25. Finally, in 1928, the central portion on Beaver Street was erected.

The facades of the Standard Oil Building are curtain walls of Indiana limestone, varied with areas of rusticated ashlar at the street wall, large expanses of a smooth skin-like midsection, and soaring vertical bays on the exposed facade of the upper tower. The long curved Broadway facade of the building is dominated at the street wall by the main entrance (located near the center - to the north is the original Standard Oil Building with a rebuilt facade). The deeply-recessed, round-arched entry is flanked by reveals ornamented with carved panels; above the entrance with a revolving door hangs a wrought-iron light fixture incorporating the signs of the zodiac. The glazed screen/window above the entrance is framed by spandrels that feature the corporate iconography of tripled torches merging into a single flame, while the globes showing both hemispheres, held by a winged dragon and an eagle, in the spandrels flanking the arched opening suggest Standard Oil's position in world commerce. The main entrance is flanked by 2-story arched window openings that retain special cast-iron window frames that incorporate the "SO" cipher in the spandrel panel. The two secondary entrances in the Broadway facade are interposed on large arched window openings, both of which a re in pedimented door surrounds with clocks mounted above.

The mid-section of the long facade with punched window openings is articulated by quoined end and central bays; ornament is concentrated in several horizontal elements, including a secondary cornice and balustrade at the 10th story level, where a setback occurs on the Beaver Street facade. The wings at the base of the tower, projecting to the east and west, have corners marked by obelisks and balustrades edge the perimeters of the various roof levels. At the are a of the upper colonnade, metal spandrels span the bays; a stepped pyramidal limestone cap is terminated with a finial consisting of torches at the corners and a central brazier.

A deep light court divides the Beaver Street facade above the last-completed portion of the building; this section is distinguished by pilasters at the second and third stories which support a cornice. Large arched windows, as on the Broadway facade, are centered in each of the flanking sections of the base. This facade has long had storefronts at the level just above grade, with the present configuration dating from around 1960; the bank entrance at the corner of Beaver Street and Broadway was created in 1971.

The southern portion of the New Street facade, as well as the eastern portion of the Beaver Street facade, both clad in limestone, were the first portion of the expanded building to be erected; the street wall features carved bands below the 3rd-story windows which do not appear on later sections. The street wall consists of two-story arched window openings that alternate with bays with narrow openings, as on the Broadway facade. The northern portion of the New Street facade -- the rear elevation of the original Standard Oil Building (1884-85) and a slightly recessed 1895 addition -- rises above a store front level that originally contained service bays and loading docks. The unadorned red brick and granite elevation does not relate to the neo-Renaissance architectural character of the rest of the building, and in fact has the appearance of a separate structure.

The lobby, lined with pilasters and columns, sports the names of the founders of the oil company, including John D. Rockefeller. The Standard Oil Clock shows hours with the letter 'S' and minutes with the 'O'.

The Standard Oil Building was occupied initially by the Standard Oil Companies of New York and New Jersey, and related firms in the oil, pipeline, and drilling fields; the building continued to be occupied by a number of such companies, later including more shipping and investment firms. Socony-Mobil (formerly Standard Oil of New York) erected a new uptown headquarters building in 1954 and sold No. 26 Broadway in 1956.

It has since been occupied by a variety of companies. The southwest corner of the ground floor is occupied by an HSBC bank branch.

s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1930.pdf
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