Hartford Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, high-rise, 1895_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

179-foot, 16-story Neo-Classical/Beaux-Arts office building originally completed in 1895 as a 10-story building for the Hartford Carpet Company. The 16-story addition on the west end was completed in 1905, designed by W. Potter. Hartford had offices here on Union Square from 1895 until 1914. More recently, it has housed studios and architects offices, as well as various other creative firms.

The original building fills a narrow lot along 17th Street, fronting the northwest corner of Union Square, where it is three bays wide. The 2-story stone base is capped by a cornice, and has a wide bay window at the 2nd floor, with angled side panels divided by black cast-iron pilasters. The ground floor has a storefront on the right, and a round-arched entrance on the left, framed by Corinthian columns supporting a triangular pediment with a panel reading "UNION SQUARE".

The upper floors are clad in light-grey painted brick, with three recessed, square-headed windows on floors 3-7. Above a dentiled cornice, the 8th-9th floors have double-height recessed bays separated by broad Corinthian columns. The 9th-floor windows are round-arched and sit above ornately carved stone spandrels. A smaller cornice sets off the top floor, which has an arcade of five smaller windows separated by columns. The entire floor is decorated by white terra-cotta ornament. Above is a broad stone cornice topped by a prominent stone railing. From the 7th floor up, the south elevation mirrors the main facade for one bay; the rest of the south face is clad in brown brick with a few windows on the upper floors, and a tall chimney rising up from near the east end.

The north facade of the original building has a center section of five bays of triple-windows, flanked by 5-bay sections of single-windows. At the 2-story stone base, the center section's bays have large paired windows. The ground floor has been altered numerous times with storefronts. An original entrance just to the west of the center section now contains the entry to a storefront. It is framed by carved stone pillars, with a round-arch bearing the street address of 26 East 17th St.. Flanking the arch are garlands and wreaths encircling the numbers 18 and 95, for the date of construction. Topping the entry is a panel reading "HARTFORD BUILDING" and a dentiled cornice.

The upper floors are clad in brick, rusticated at the outer sections. The windows in 3rd-7th floors of the center section are divided by stone pilasters with small Corinthian capitals. There are paneled stone spandrels between each floor, and the brick piers are uninterrupted to the 7th floor, where they have stylized capitals and support round-arches across each bay. The 8th & 9th floors have double-height round-arches, two per bay, divided by brick piers with the same capitals as below. Within each arch an ornate spandrel separates the two floors. The outer sections each have five square-headed, stone-framed windows per floor from the 3rd to the 7th, and double-height round-arches at the 8th-9th floors. These differ from the center section by being more deeply recessed, and having each bay divided by round columns instead of flat piers.

The entire facade has a dentiled stone cornice running above the 7th floor, and another above the 9th, both projected forward at the outer sectoins. The top floor is the same across the full facade, only projected out at the outer sections. It has three deeply recessed, square-headed openings per bay, separated by rounded columns. At the roof line is another dentiled cornice above a frieze.

The taller 16-story addition at the far west end is very narrow, with a single bay of triple-windows. It has a matching extension of the 2-story base and rusticated brick on the shaft. The windows in each bay are divided by black cast-iron pilasters with small capitals, and there are long, rectangular stone spandrels between floors. The 12th floor has a wide segmental-arch, and the 13th floor is demarcated at the top and bottom by band courses and has three deeply-recessed square-headed openings. The 3-story crown has large console brackets near the top, supporting a stone balcony above the 15th floor. The roof line has a projecting stone cornice.

The west-facing sidewall is clad in dark brown brick, with lighter brick on the east-facing sidewall. This elevation has segmental-arched double-windows up to the 12th floor, with smaller single windows on the top floors. The ground floor is occupied by Rainbow Falafel, Poke Bowl NY, Chop't Creative Salad Co., and Potbelly sandwich shop.

digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-422e-a3d9-e0...