Railroad & Iron Exchange Building (New York City, New York) | high-rise, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, apartment building, historic landmark, historical building, 1907_construction

 high-rise, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, apartment building, historic landmark, historical building, 1907_construction

325-foot, 23-story Neo-Gothic residential building completed in 1907. Designed by Cass Gilbert as an office building, it was originally named the Railroad and Iron Exchange Building and later named the West Street Building. Upon completion its main tenant was the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Company and there was a restaurant on the top floor, the Garret - billed as "the world's highest restaurant".

90 West Street it a rough C in shape, due to a light court on the east side. It is clad in beige glazed terra-cotta above a 3-story white granite base. The two lower floors are lined with 2-story segmental-arches with black cast-iron infill. The main entrance, at the center of the West Street elevation, is slightly recessed beneath an arch with a slightly rounder top, outlined by a foliate molding and flanked by two copper columns. The 2nd floor is capped by a corbelled cornice. The 3rd floor begins the paired windows that continue up the facades; while the upper floors have simple square-headed windows, those on the 3rd floor alternate pairs with decorative slightly-arched hoods and flat cornices. The end bays have more elaborate surrounds. Another dentiled cornice caps the 3rd floor; this cornice incorporates slightly projecting balconettes with lion head corbels at the base of the 4th-story windows. In addition to the beige terra-cotta tiles of the upper floors, there are also small polychromatic accents of gold, blue, red and green in various locations.

The shaft of the building has vertically-reeded piers that emphasis verticality. The top of the 15th floor is ornately decorated, culminating in arches adorned with finials, bosses, and winged figures. The transitional 16th floor signals the beginning of the 4-story arcaded crown of the building, which in turn carries a 3-story copper mansard roof. The 20th story has closely spaced double and triple window bays flanked by colonnettes. A continuous arched screen shelters the tops of the windows. The griffins separating the bays are set below their own small canopies with blue terra-cotta panels. A foliate cornice with gargoyle motifs sets of the mansard.

An ornate series of arched and finialed terra-cotta dormers form a parapet at the base of the roof. Two tiers of smaller dormers, the upper tier hooded, punctuate the upper portion of the roof. On the east elevation, the inner walls of the light court continue the detail of the wings for one bay; otherwise these walls are faced in buff-colored brick. Large openwork trusses link the light court walls at the 7th, 10th, 12th & 16th floors, although only the uppermost one is visible.

90 West Street was severely damaged in the September 11 attacks in 2001. Following the attacks, the building was restored and converted into a residential building with 410 rental apartments, reopening in March 2005. 90 West Street was added to the National Register of Historical Places on January 25, 2007. The building's exterior was designated as an architectural landmark in 1998.

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