Developers Navigate Historic Lobby Renovations

March 6, 2015 — Some prewar buildings that were originally built as office towers in the early 20th century are being converted into residences. These include 100 Barclay and 70 Pine in Lower Manhattan. The lobbies of both those buildings, reports The New York Times, have been designated landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Preservations, explains The Times, is the name of the game. The article takes a look at five residential conversion projects to see what steps developers are taking to restore these splendid old lobbies. Included among the five projects is one of New York's gems, the Woolworth Building. The Times calls its "original 1913 grand arcade, designed by Cass Gilbert, the most famous office lobby in New York," and we think it's no exaggeration. Alchemy Properties, which is converting the top 30 floors into high-end residences, says it has no plans to compete with the landmarked lobby "when it decided to craft a new lobby around the corner at 2 Park Place," but instead complement it. How? Combine modernity with a feeling of old New York: "a double set of custom metal and glass doors will open to maple-paneled walls and marble floors" and the new lobby's focal point will be "the ornate coffered ceiling that decorated F. W. Woolworth’s personal office, which is being restored, reinforced and relocated from the 40th floor," while the new lobby's elevators will bear the telltale W motif of the original iron elevator surrounds.

Photo source: Woolworth Tours