Telephone & Telegraph Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, Neoclassical (architecture), movie / film / TV location, 1916_construction

195 Broadway in New York City is a 422-foot, 29-story Neo-Classical office building completed in 1916. Designed by William Welles Bosworth as the headquarters of American Telephone & Telegraph, it occupies almost an entire block on one side of Broadway, running from Dey Street to Fulton Street. This building has the distinguished honor of having "more Classical columns than any other in the world."

The first story Doric columns are almost identical to the order of the Parthenon, which Bosworth regarded as “the most perfect building ever built.” The metal grilles at the entrances (which survive in part) were modeled on the type used by the Greeks in the Parthenon and other civic edifices. Sculptural panels depicting the Four Winds on the Horologium on the Acropolis were the inspiration for Paul Manship’s bronze relief panels of the Four Elements in the four westernmost bays on Dey Street (1914) which were copied on the Broadway facade when the addition was constructed in the 1920s. Sculptural panels by Paul Manship (now replaced by copies) were installed above the four revolving door entries. The upper story columns were copied from the recently excavated Temple of Artemis at Sardis in Asia Minor. The Greek Ionic columns at the top of the Fulton Street tower were copied from the temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis while the distinctive stepped pyramid form of the roof was based on then recent scholarly reconstructions of the Mausoleum at Halicarnasus.

The design features layers of white granite columns in Doric and Ionic styles, and a lobby that included 43 oversized Doric columns made of marble. Above the base, the facade is divided into 3-story sections, each separated by dentiled stone cornices. The windows and spandrels are framed with decorative bronze, and some panels are ornamented with carved swag. The tower rises to a stepped crown modeled on the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.

The building was built in stages, the first being the Dey street half of the building with a tower extending onto Fulton Street completed in 1916, with the rest of the building occupying the corner of Fulton and Broadway completed in the second stage around 1919. The last two pictures show the building before stage two.

In 1978, AT&T commissioned a new building at 550 Madison Avenue, which was completed in 1984. Subsequently, Western Union occupied 195 Broadway for a time. Major tenants currently include Thomson Reuters, Omnicom, and MPG. The building was renovated in 1985 and 2005.

Besides the landmarked interior lobby, the ground floor is occupied by a Starbucks coffee and Nobu Downtown. The exterior by the loading dock was used as a filming location for "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous" (2005).

www.ll-holding.com/portfolio/195-broadway/
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2194.pdf
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2199.pdf
evergreene.com/projects/195-broadway/
www.architecturalrecord.com/ext/resources/archives/back...