The Orlando Potter NY Building

The Orlando Potter Building is for me one of the finest achievements in clay in New York City (and U.S.). This is a unique work of art. Sit back and enjoy the time to keep all the details and complexity of its structure and in the head, which is to discover 120 years.

This is another big building and seating position, and admire the architectural beauties of the city of New York. As soon as you sit on a bench in City Hall Park is surrounded by buildings that haveNew York, the story and do not forget your binoculars, because there is much to see. The Orlando Potter Building is a real beauty and has a lot of class, elegance and attractiveness, but also well-known buildings, such as surrounding buildings line Park (1 block north) is that until 1903 the tallest building the world.

It 'was a nice and large four-story Post Office, Beaux-Arts (image 1910) on corner of Broadway and Park Row Street, demolished in 1938 because of thatLand rights dispute between the city and federal authorities. The area of the Post Office was taken over City Hall Park for the World Fair of 1939.

South of Orlando City Hall building is the Potter, is its architectural beauty, the oldest town hall in the nation that still houses its original governmental functions, New York City Hall one of the finest architectural achievements of its time (1803 -1812). City Hall is a designated New York City landmark and its a roundDesignated interior landmark as well. And, of course, opposite the building, the Woolworth Building by Orlando Potter Cass Gilbert, a world-class building and part of New York City is the fame and history. And 'round the City Hall Park large buildings to discover. Note that, as in all New York City, what we see today is not the same landscape that existed when the building and surrounding buildings were built, many changes have been made and are still pronouncedtoday. For example, the first known building on this site is a brick Presbyterian Church by the American architect John McComb (1763 - 1853) is also known for the New York City Hall. When the Presbyterian Church decided to build a new Uptown building in 1856, was split in two and playing a trio of friends that included Orlando B. Potter bought the lot to the south for approximately $ 300,000 (which would be about $ 6,500, 000 dollars now) as you could see New York City already at the turn of the 20thCentury, a healthy city and valuable real estate. The trio built a five-story stone building known as Palace Park.

The newspaper "The New York World, founded in 1860 Toke headquarters in the Palace Park and then called the building industry. January 31, 1882 a devastating fire destroyed the building completely, and 12 people lost their lives. Orlando B. Potter been much criticized for materials for the intensity and speed of fire. Orlando Potter felt used debtlost to people living in the tragedy and at the same time a good deal and he understood what needed to be done for the site in a new event, but I lost about $ 200,000 for insurance and half of its income. He concentrated on finding the necessary materials (refractory), such a dramatic event that does not happen again. He also created a public debate on how buildings are constructed and what kind of materials. Remember that in the Golden Age (late 19thCentury), a 11-storey building is a large building and was really the beginning of the field of high-rise developments is based on 1880, the building's history has allowed the construction of larger size. This definition was based on steel frame - as opposed to construction of bearing walls. It 'sad to say but use the story above, the funds come from tragedies and it is good from this tragedy, Orlando Potter, a readily available materials constructedBuilding for that period was a big step forward the building fireproof, brick, brick and steel. He also proved that you do not need marble or stone to make a beautiful masterpiece. The Potter Building is a masterpiece of monsters in the district which attract people like magnets, and allow the construction Potter unknown Orlando, but not as good because its outstanding architectural concept, design and creation surrounded. His meticulous details were wellMade to create a masterpiece

The Orlando Potter Construction began in April 1883 and was completed in 1886 architectural historian called the "Potter" this building, he has visited Orlando Brunson Potter, a representative of New York in Charlemont, Franklin County, Massachusetts, 10 Founded in March of 1823, the school district, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the Dane Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1848 and practiced inBoston, MA, 1853, he moved to New York in 1853 and worked on developing a business sewing machine (Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Co.) were served as president until 1876, was a leading figure of the New Democratic Party York but was unsuccessful applications to the 1878 edition of forty Congress elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth
Congress (March 4, 1883, March 3, 1885), refused to be a candidate for reelection in 1884, member of the new Rapid TransitYork City 1890-1894, died in New York, 2nd January 1894, burial in Greenwood Cemetery. (Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-present).

Orlando Potter not only find the material you wanted to use, but also the right architect for the job Norris G. Starkweather. Norris Garshom Starkweather, who signed on behalf NG Starkweather was born in his county Garshon Norris Starkweather in Windham, VT 1818 In 1830 we had an apprentice and a master builderwas a farmer on his own in 1845. Norris began his career as an architect in Philadelphia in 1852 with Joseph C. Hoxie and became a full partner in 1854, but not least, the partnership was dissolved and the same year. Norris G. Starkweather began his own studio and was very active with the design of the church. In 1855 he designed the first Presbyterian Church in Norristown, PA, First Baptist Church in Camden, New Jersey (Camden is a city in New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia) andFirst Presbyterian Church of Baltimore. Norris left monitor Philadelphia from Baltimore in 1856 because of the Presbyterian Church in Baltimore for the construction, lasted five years. In Baltimore, Norris has been found and fixed the other commissions and with the restoration of the villas and Barnum's City Hotel in Baltimore. In 1860 he appeared in Washington DC with an office. During the civil war in the sixth Norris Infantry Regiment Maryland company he F. withdrawn in August27, 1862 and picked up by May 24, 1864. In 1868 he made his return to Washington in collaboration with a Philadelphia builder named Thomas M. Plowman. The collaboration lasted until 1871 and from that date to 1881, Starkweather is listed by him. Between that time, several projects carried out as the Cooke Row, the rebuilding of the church of St. John's at Georgetown, the building of the Convent of the Visitation.

In 1881, Norris G. Starkweather leave Washington to New Yorkopened an office with a young architect named Charles E. Gibbs. They were there first office at 37 Park Row, has relocated to 822 Broadway, 1882-1884 and 1884-1886 at 132 Nassau Street, but the partnership dissolved in 1885 and Norris Road 325W at 23 °. The main objectives of the Commission of the company was the Orlando Potter Building.

Norris G. Starkweather died December 18, 1885, before the conclusion of Potter's Palace and was buried in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
The OrlandoPotter Building is less than neighbors of prestige, but a complaint of his own. With only 11 storeys in height really attracts the eye. The solid (black) red brick and terracotta colored Brownstone makes the building looks like an intrusion into the landscape because of its black soil, red and architectural styles. I put styles with an "s" because of the different styles that have been applied, many historians call it the "Queen Ann Style", but is more of anice mix of Renaissance Revival, Colonial Revival and Neo-Grec It is a great example of brick and terra cotta from life has survived more than a century of extreme weather events in New York and still no cleaning cycles take 100 years. The soil is a black cast iron coated with bitumen to prevent premature rust. The building is located on a block of half and two corners of Park Row Street, Beekman Street and Nassau Street. She shops around the ground floorand a total of 59 apartments with entrance at 145 Nassau Street. The front has been and is made to go to Park Row to see the work of the road is a remarkable piece of art and detail. The building looks simple enough, but the more you see (with binoculars), the more you realize its complexity, with different types of windows on each floor, lots of brick-pattern in all forms that give a sense of guilt

The materials used were:

Cast Iron and Iron: the first twoThe floors are made of cast iron cover that fits the style top. Wrought iron for the façade and the building was made of five suppliers: JM Duclos - Co (New York City). logo is embossed on the ironwork on the corner of Beekman Street and Park Row Street, Co JM Duclos reached the front and HW Adams. Jackson architectural iron and iron Lehigh Co., who worked on the internal structure. The beams and rafters are made of laminated ironsoil (except in the basement) are iron beams. The interior is in preparation of hollow cast iron columns inside the iron, the bars recessed structural chicken wire and plaster covered with fire brick and wrought iron flanged beam, set by the brick walls are wrought iron.

Take binoculars and watch the stone face in detail, and you will see a wide variety of brick shapes that you can not see anywhere else. This is a true work of art.

Common brick: brick common, evenknown as a tile base or bond brick is a brick cheaper and less prepared for internal use in heavy load-bearing brick walls, or on less visible parts of the planned buildings. E 'often on the side walls, the walls of neighboring buildings in densely urban block bounded found.

Face Brick: Face brick is a brick oven roasted with a smooth surface, for which the visible parts of buildings. You get a lot of stones shaped face radial, angular,Hinge, coping, tapered ...

Engineering Bricks: Bricks Engineering is a strong, dense heavy as bricks for building drains and foundations used.

Brownstone colored terracotta: baked clay in any form (whether) it is hard clay, fired seeds, waterproof ceramic clay used in construction. It is mainly used for cladding and ornamentation, as they can be fired in molds. Often, white or colored glaze on the face of the brick is applied. Cotto is widely used indecorative art, primarily as architectural material, either in its natural red-brown, or painted, or baked with a glaze. Architectural Terra Cotta become very popular at the turn of the 19th to 20th Century. quadrupled 1900-1912, U.S. production of terra cotta. Atlantic Terra Cotta Company was a major producer and its production to 40% market share of terracotta in New York City. In 1908, Atlantic Terra Cotta Co. was the largest producer ofArchitectural Terra Cotta in the world with four investment, including the beaches of stone, surrounded by Hill, New Jersey, Staten Island, New York, East Point, Georgia, and was particularly Perth Amboy, New Jersey, famous for its ideal consistency for the production Terracotta.

In the case of Orlando Potter Building, Norris G. Starkweather cooked Brownstone land used by Terra Cotta Co., Boston, 1980-1893 in the economy that were served one of the first crush on the east coast usuallyBoston, Chicago and New York City. The Boston Terra Cotta Company used the building in Orlando Potter ITS 1885 catalog, to promote their work was integrated for the detection of major forces in terracotta tiles bearing exterior walls. A total of 540 tons was used (more than 1,000,000 pounds) of The Terra Cotta Co. Boston Superintendent James Taylor (1839-1898), considered the "father of American Terra Cotta." His work is now regarded as masterpieces such asTerra Cotta.

In the hands of ordinary Cotto was worth its weight in gold. James Taylor has often been to New York to control the programming of Terracotta Potter Orlando home and had a lot of ways to make Potter himself, always following the construction of its buildings. Potter and Taylor came together well and see the growing need and demand for Cotto in New York City, Potter decided to create his own company, Terra Cotta, "The NewYork Architectural Terra Cotta Company. "In January of 1886 with Walter Geer and Geer Asahel Clarke. James Taylor has been created, hired as superintendent and has worked for the New New Architectural Terra Cotta Co. until his retirement in 1893. The team was to create the most Cooked perfect the United States. The New York Architectural Terra Cotta Co. was the only major architectural terra cotta, based in New York City, and grow into one of the largest in the United States, butAll things have begun to term and the demand for clay in the late '20s, the decline and the company went bankrupt in 1932 due to loss of interest in pottery, a change in style and materials.

Description of the Palace Potter Orlando.

The first impression depends on how far you are from the building and the time you want to spend in research. If you are far from the first thing that will surprise you is the color red, which with its neighbor, is opposedalso surrounded small compared to the buildings known. Once you start closer, the forms begin to appear, begin to grow out of its facades, the building began to show that it is ornamental brick, which looks at first loose bricks in the model (and they blend with land). The classic approach is hidden from Park Row (the street) in front of City Hall Park from there see both sides of the building (Park Row - Beekman Street) with the third back (NassauStreet sees) from there as a corner building, not a building half a block. Profit from City Hall Park, a beautiful building in front of the bank chose Potter and noted down. This is an eleven-story building with two basements. Park Row on the facade 115 feet long, on Beekman Street is 150 meters and on the Nassau Street, is 89 meters. The Beekman and Nassau is a 90-degree angle and Park Row and Beekman is an angle of 60 degreesCorner.

The black background (base) and the foreground is the soil made from cast iron. The black anti-rust the iron rust protection against premature. It fits very well the styles more. It 's a very beautiful work, which reduces the coldness and impersonality of iron. There is the impression that the iron was a by-product structure. And 'one of the few survivors of the cast iron facades that you can still see Italy in the States (and not only complex but rarely). Theground-level windows were original, but has been changed several times over the years. Originally the shop windows were framed with steel columns with a thin window. The entrance lobby to the elevator was on Park Row North, had double doors, stairs and columns plate, which severely broken scroll pediment. It 'was removed in 1941 and a shop was installed using a portion of the elevator lobby. At the center of the Beekman Street facade was also a hall with a tripleA projecting portico with pediment supported by columns in parentheses. In 1912, this entry has been modified and turned into a business. The Nassau Street on the north side was the original entrance of the lobby elevator, which is now entering the apartments. In the construction of the building there were about two hundred offices on the upper floors. Today, there are a total of 59 apartments.
About section, cast iron lower body section starts with its six floors. If youoffers a good view of the palace is a beautiful harmony and the progressive complexity of ornamental terra cotta and brick patterns.

The body section of the riser between the double glazing has a beautiful brick-tile model with hinge on the corner of Pier hinge and stones in the middle of the pillars on the first two floors. The pillars are also members and contain the smoke from the chimneys of furnaces exhaust at the top of each pillar - the fireplace is a fireplace finished in earthenware ornamentalReasons. If you are at the perimeter of the window and you will also find Bricks Cove. When you begin to look to see all these patterns of bricks that make a nice charm and a certain complexity of research. Each window is made of cast iron between each window contains the column of bricks on a block of clay. On each floor window of the pattern is different for him an imperceptible increase in complexity. The fall of each window is in decorative terra cotta with a different style for eachPlan, the color of brown stone corresponds very well to the brick color and give an impression of unity. On each floor you will discover, masonry, which makes this building unique. Little more than before falling brick floor, a beautiful brick and floor plan for change forward with a research group of "simple search complexity. I like to call simply because they look and make sure, or you will not see and observe all necessary the building has to offer.

The trio G. Norris Starkweather (theArchitect), with the help of Orlando B. Potter (the owner) and James Taylor (Terra Cotta Company, Boston) has some intense research in the model and decorative terracotta bricks that make this building a masterpiece.
In 1992-93, exterior restoration and cleaning of Siri & Marsik (architects made), and Henry, who replaced a complete restoration sealing, patching and some terra cotta bricks. Almost 15 years passed, and it seems that the restoration has been doneyesterday. The worst enemy of clay bricks and environmental pollution. Pollution eroded and obscured all types of materials and represents a concern for the architectural heritage in many large cities
On the fourth floor (2nd floor brick face) above the lintel is a lovely terracotta decorative arch. On the same level (height) of the bow, on the dock you a nice baked earth can do with a decorative floral pattern, if you have binoculars you see this you can see dots inCotto claimed that sticks - rib of the flower. If you do not have binocular look at the picture on page 7 again shows the quality of work. On the fifth floor above the pier window of Cotto is a dragon with good details. (See photo page 8) until the eighth floor, brick and terracotta tiles and beautiful model around the three sides (Park Row, Beekman Street and Nassau St.) on Beekman Street, there is a light U-shaped in court the center of hisFacade, which starts from the third floor, the top of the building, this was a common practice in this period to a maximum daylight in the building and offices receive. Remember that the building was built in 1883, and the electric light bulb was perfected (by Thomas Edison) in 1880, only three years before the building was erected. but gas lighting was a mature, established industry. The gas infrastructure was available, the franchise was granted, and production facilitiesfor both gas and equipment were operating profitably. Perhaps equally important, people had the habit of lighting with gas.

The last two stories:

Work in the brick structure with many forms and terracotta tiles. It 'was done with great proportions. The primary column three quarters round corner (corner of Park Row and Beekman Street) has a prominent peak. Just past the corner of the column in the blind spot is a waste gas from the bottomThis has been hidden from the furnace gases from smokestacks finials Terra Cotta exhaust. The Pillars of the Earth history have cooked eighth composite capitals (see picture below stylized) with Park Row and Beekman corner of a very impressive in detail and quality, the complexity of the forms with the eagle in the middle (see photo above). These structural building gives an impression of the upper floors to the columns and capitals last spirit high window arches make the connection betweencapitals. Before the ninth floor of a brick cornice brackets are, beyond a sense of support to give the top two floors. The top floor is the only building with arched windows. The central section of the eleventh floor, will be crowned with bays alternate eardrums. Two decorative pinnacles in the middle section to build on each facade. At the roofline is terra cotta urns and broken scroll pediments.
Orlando Potter The building was completed at a cost of $ 1.2Million (approximately $ 30,000,000 dollars today.)

When you have completed the construction of several newspapers criticized Orlando Potter and the architect Norris Starkweather. The Record & Guide was the most aggressive states: "all the good work that has been done in recent architecture has been dropped, the designer of the Potter Building, which is thrown coarse, pretentious, overloaded and intensely vulgar"

It 's a matter of fact, the beautiful architecture and architectsMasters such as painting, and most of them died before being detected and prosperity.
The Orlando Potter Building remains one of the finest achievements of the 19 terra-cotta brick be century.