The Orlando Potter Building NY

  The Orlando Potter Building is for me one of the best terra cotta realizations of New York City (and United States). This is a unique fragment of art. Lay by now occurring, enjoy and manage to pay for your era to discover all the details and mystery of its structure and maintenance in mind that it's 120 years antiquated.

This is other pleasing building and location to sit and admire the beauties of New York City's Architecture. Once you sit all along concerning a bench in the City Hall park you are together surrounded by buildings that made New York City archives and don't forget your binoculars because there is a lot to see .The Orlando Potter Building is a exact beauty and has a lot of class, elegance and draw, it's moreover amid prestigious buildings bearing in mind the clash park building (1 block north) that was until 1903 the tallest building in the world.

There was a pretty and supreme four bank account Post Office, beaux-arts style (characterize 1910) in the region of the corner of Broadway and Park Row Street that was demolished in 1938 because of a home-rights argument along surrounded by the city and federal authorities. The Post Office atmosphere was added to the city hall park for the 1939 World's Fair.

On the south of the Orlando Potter Building is the city hall; Architecture beauty of it's own, The oldest City Hall in the nation that yet houses its indigenous governmental functions, New York's City Hall is one of the finest architectural achievements of its time (1803-1812). City Hall is a designated New York City landmark and its rotunda is a designated interior landmark as skillfully. And of course right in belly of the Orlando Potter Building is the Woolworth Building by Cass Gilbert, a world-class building and share of New York City's glory and archives. There is all not in the make detached and wide off from the City Hall Park satisfying buildings that are to be discovered. Keep in mind that to the front in all New York City, what you see today is not the connected landscape that was there when the Building and surrounding Buildings were built, many changes were made and are yet made today. For example the First known edifice on the subject of speaking speaking this site was a brick Presbyterian Church by the American Architect John McComb (1763 - 1853) plus will known for the New York City Hall. When the Presbyterian Church settled to construct a late growth edifice uptown in 1856, the lot was separated in two and a trio of partners that included Orlando B. Potter bought the south lot for taking into account again $300,000 (that would be roughly $6.500,000 in today's Dollars) As you can see New York City was already at the outlook of the 20th century a healthy and necessary Real Estate city. The trio erected a five-checking account stone structure building known as The Park Building.

The newspaper "The New York World founded in 1860-toke office in the Park Building and later was called the World Building. January 31, 1882 a pungent flame destroyed the building totally and 12 people drifting their lives. Orlando B. Potter was totally criticized for the materials used because of the intensity and swiftness of the flame. Orlando Potter felt guilt for the people that wandering there lives in the tragedy and at the same times was a cordial businessmen and understood what needed to be finished to outlook the page a propos such an matter he plus wandering greater than $200.000 above insurance and half of his allowance was free. He focused going concerning for finding the proper materials (fireproof) consequently such a dramatic business would not happen anew. It plus created a public debate very roughly the showing off buildings were built and taking into account what type of materials. Remember that at the gilded age (fall of the 19th century) an 11-description building was considered as a terrific building and was in slant of fact the coming on of the skyscraper place based in excuse to engineering developments of the 1880 that had enabled construction of high multi-relation buildings. This definition was based regarding the steel skeleton--as alongside constructions of load-bearing masonary. It's sad to declare but archives already proven use that out of tragedies come remedies and it's out of that tragedy that Orlando Potter found the materials to built a building that would be for that epoch a major step manage fireproof construction; brick, terra cotta and steel. He plus proved that you don't need marble or pleasant stones to make a masterpiece. The Potter Building is a masterpiece in the middle of the monsters in the neighborhood that attract people taking into account magnets and depart the Orlando Potter Building nameless but it has no defense to envy them because of its outstanding Architectural concept, design and establishment. Its meticulous details were finely crafted to make a masterpiece,

The Orlando Potter Building construction began in April 1883 and was completed in 1886. Architectural Historians find the maintenance for the declare "Potter" to this building because Potter, Orlando Brunson, a Representative from New York; born in Charlemont, Franklin County, Mass., March 10, 1823; attended the district scholastic, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., and the Dane Law School, Cambridge, Mass.; studied deed; was admitted to the bar in 1848 and commenced practice in Boston, Mass.; in 1853 he moved to New York in 1853 and worked in the loan of a sewing robot matter (Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Co.) were he was President until 1876; he was a prominent figure in the New York Democratic party but failed for election in 1878 to the Forty-sixth Congress; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth

Congress (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1885); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1884; follower of the Rapid Transit Commission of New York City 1890-1894; died in New York City, January 2, 1894; interment in Greenwood Cemetery. (Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present.)

Orlando Potter didn't on your own umpire the material he wanted to use but with the right Architect for the job Norris G. Starkweather. Norris Garshom Starkweather, who signed his say N. G. Starkweather, was born Garshon Norris Starkweather in Windham County, VT in 1818. In 1830 we was an apprenticed to a builder and became a contractor in this area his own in 1845. Norris started his career as an Architect in Philadelphia in 1852 behind Joseph C. Hoxie and became a full gloves in 1854 but the partnership did not last and was dissolved the same year. Norris G. Starkweather started his own practice and was totally nimble bearing in mind church design. In 1855 he meant the First Presbyterian Church in Norristown, PA, The first Baptist Church in Camden, NJ (Camden is a town in New Jersey just regarding the added side of Philadelphia) and the first Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. Norris left Philadelphia of Baltimore in 1856 because of the Baltimore Presbyterian Church to supervise the construction that lasted 5 years. In Baltimore Norris was noticed and secured add-on commissions bearing in mind villas and the remodeling of the Barnum's City Hotel in Baltimore. In 1860 he appears in Washington D.C later than an office. During the civil fighting period Norris is enrolled in the Sixth Regiment of Maryland Infantry, Company F. He is mustered August 27, 1862 and mustered out May 24, 1864. In 1868 he his back in Washington in partnership behind a Philadelphia builder named Thomas M. Plowman. The partnership lasted until 1871 and from that date until 1881 Starkweather is listed by himself. Between that period several projects were dexterous to the fore the Cooke's Row, the remodeling of St. John's Church in Georgetown, the Academy Building for the Convent of the Visitation.

In 1881 Norris G. Starkweather leaves Washington D.C for New York, opens an office behind a young Architect named Charles E. Gibbs. They had there first office at 37 Park Row, moved to 822 Broadway from 1882 till 1884 and at 132 Nassau Street from 1884 - 1886 but in 1885 the partnership dissolved and Norris moved in at 325W 23rd Street. The major commission of the unconditional was the Orlando Potter Building.

Norris G. Starkweather died roughly December 18, 1885 prior to the completion of the Potter Building and was buried in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The Orlando Potter Building Is smaller than it's prestigious neighbors but has an innocent luck engross of it's own. With lonesome 11 stories high it in reality attracts the eye. The all-powerful (black bottom) red brick and terra cotta colored brownstone makes the building looks as well as than an intrusion in the landscape because of its black bottom, red color and Architectural styles. I put styles once a "s" because of the vary styles that were used; several architectural historians call it the "Queen Ann style" but it is more a pretty union of Renaissance Revival, Colonial Revival and even Neo-Grec It is a invincible example of the Brick and Terra Cotta durability, for to the front-thinking than a century it has withstood New York's extreme weather cycles and yet required no restoration for 100 years. The black bottom is a cast iron structure covered behind bitumen to avoid premature rusting. The building sits in savings account to a half block and two corners from Park Row Street, Beekman Street and Nassau Street. It has concerning the ground level stores all just roughly and a quantity of 59 apartments considering done at 145 Nassau Street. The front faade that was and is made to be seen from Park Row Street is a remarkable fragment of art and detail performance. The building looks quite easy but the more you observe it (gone binoculars) more you get its complexity furthermore exchange fenestration patterns at each floor, a lot of brick patterns of all shapes that find the maintenance for a wisdom of complicity

The materials used were:

Cast Iron and Iron: the two first floors are covered of cast iron that matches the upper style. The Ironwork for the faade and building was performed by five suppliers: J.M. Duclos - Co (New York City). The company's logo is stamped approaching the Iron Work around the bottom corner of Beekman Street and Park Row Street; J.M. Duclos Co that competent the faade and H.W. Adams. Jackson Architectural Iron take stroke out and Lehigh Iron Co. that worked upon the interior structure. The floor beams and roof beams are of rolled iron and the floors (except the basement) are iron girders. The interior framing is in iron when interior hollow cast-iron structural columns that are encased in wire netting covered following blaze brick and plaster and flanged wrought-iron joists, set through the brick walls, carry wrought-iron beams.

Take you binocular and see at the turn bricks in detail and you will see an big variety of brick shapes that you won't see elsewhere. It is a genuine fragment of art.

Common brick: Common brick, nom de plume notice brick or bonding brick, is a less costly and less over and over and finished in the middle of along surrounded by brick meant for interior usage in thick brick load-bearing walls or upon the less-visible portions of buildings. It is often found upon the sidewalls that abutted the walls of against buildings in nearby packed urban blocks.

Face Brick: Face brick is a kiln-burned brick when a sleek surface, meant for the visible portions of buildings. You will see a lot of shaped point bricks from radial, angular, hinge, coping, conical...

Engineering brick: Engineering brick is a hermetically sealed, dense brick used for stuffy construction such as sewers and foundations.

Brownstone colored Terra Cotta: baked clay of any involve (in molds) Terra cotta is hard, semi on fire, waterproof ceramic clay used in building construction. Used mainly for wall covering and beautification as it can be radiant stirring in molds. Oftentimes, white or colored glaze is applied upon the turn of the brick. Terra cotta is widely used in the decorative arts, especially as an architectural material, either in its natural red-brown color, or painted, or subsequently a baked glaze. Architectural terra cotta became very popular at the direction of the 19th - 20th century. From 1900 to 1912 the US production of terra cotta quadrupled. Atlantic Terra Cotta Company was one of the important producers and its output accounted for 40% for of the terra cotta advance in New York City. By 1908 Atlantic Terra Cotta Co. was the largest producer of Architectural terra cotta in the world previously four tree-reforest including Rochy Hill, New Jersey; Staten Island, New York; Eastpoint, Georgia; and especially Perth Amboy, New Jersey that was adroitly-known for its unadulterated texture for making terra cotta.

In the conflict of the Orlando Potter Building, Norris G. Starkweather used brownstone terra cotta from The Boston Terra Cotta Co. that was in situation from 1980 till 1893, they were one of the first terra cotta companies upon the east cost mostly serving Boston, Chicago and New York City. The Boston Terra Cotta Company used the Orlando Potter Building in its 1885 catalogue to manner their take pursuit, demonstrating the load bearing strength in which the terra cotta was integrated into the exterior brick bearing walls. A sum of 540 tons was used (on extremity of 1,000,000 pounds) The Boston Terra Cotta Co manager James Taylor (1839-1898) that was considered as "the father of the American Terra Cotta." His exploit as of today is considered as masterpieces of Terra Cotta.

In his hands the unknown terra cotta was worth its weight in gold. James Taylor was frequently in New York supervising the take argument preparation of the terra cotta for Orlando Potter's building and had a lot of opportunities to meet Potter himself who always followed the construction of his buildings. Potter and Taylor got along competently together and seeing the rising needs and request for terra cotta in New York City Potter approved to make his own Terra Cotta Company "The New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company." that was created in January of 1886 once Walter Geer and Asahel Clarke Geer. James Taylor was hired as supervisor and worked for the New York Architectural Terra Cotta Co until his retirement in 1893. The team was conclusive to create the finest in terra cotta in the United States. The New York Architectural Terra Cotta Co. was the lonely major architectural terra cotta company in New York City and it entire quantity to be one of the biggest in the United States but all things have an cease and the demand for terra cotta started to decline in the cease of the 20's and the company went bankrupt in 1932 because of the aimless of assimilation in terra cotta, a alter in style and in materials.

Description of the Orlando Potter Building.

The first flavor depends upon how far you are from the building and the period you ache to spend looking at it. If you'vis--vis far from it the first matter that surprises you is its red color that contrasts as soon as its neighbor, it's as well as little compared to the proficiently-known buildings surrounding it. Once you begin getting closer to it; forms begin appearing, begin growing from its facades, the building starts to do something you it's ornamentals terra cotta that first looks complex in the brick patterns (and they deed out create union gone the enlargement). The classic entre is from Row Park (street) right in stomach of City Hall Park. From there you see 2 faces of the building (Row Park - Beekman Street) taking into account the third hidden in the backing (Nassau Street) from there it looks also than a corner building and not a half block building. Take advantage of the City Hall Park, chose a possible bench to the front of the Potter Building and observe bottom to top. It is an eleven- report building once two basement stories. On Park Row the faade is 115 feet long, upon Beekman Street it is 150 feet and upon the Nassau Street side it is of 89 feet. The Beekman and Nassau is a 90-degree angular corner and Park Row and Beekman is a 60-degree angular corner.

The black ground level (base) and first floor is the cast iron faade floor. The black is linked along along along with-rust to guard the iron from premature rusting. It matches totally nicely the upper styles. It is a utterly understandable perform that diminishes the unfriendliness and impersonality of the iron. It find the child maintenance for an character that the iron was molded to an out cold structure. It is one of the scarce survivors of the cast iron facades that you can still see in the United States (Not lonely scarce but profound). The indigenous auditorium level was shop fronts but was altered several time once the years. Originally the shop fronts were framed behind thin cast iron colonnettes in addition to a display window. The doing into to the elevator lobby was upon Park Row north; it had double doors, shallow steps and columns supporting a close damage scroll pediment. It was removed in 1941 and a shop was installed using a share of the elevator lobby. On the center faade of Beekman Street was along with an relationships previously a triple arched portico plus than a projecting pediment supported by bracketed columns. In 1912 this approach was altered and converted into a shop. On Nassau Street the north fade away was the original entry of the elevator lobby that is now right of admission of the residential apartments. At the construction of the building there were very about two hundred offices upon the upper levels. Today there are a massive of 59 Apartments.

Above the cast iron bottom section starts the body section subsequent to it's six stories. If you bow to a approving see at the building there is a every nice adaptableness and sophisticated complexity in the ornamental terra cotta and brick patterns.

The body section the piers along amid the double windows has a nice brick pattern back hinge bricks upon the corner pier and hinge bricks in the center of the columns upon the two first floors. The piers along with are bearing members and contain flues to exhaust the fumes of the furnaces, upon the top of each piers - flue is a chimney over and finished in the midst of in terra cotta ornamental motifs. If you impression at the window perimeters and you will plus message cove bricks. As you begin observing you discover all this brick patterns that come taking place to the front the keep for a demonstrative appeal and a sure research of millstone. Each windowsill is in cast iron, along amid each window the brick column lays upon a terra cotta block. At each floor the window pattern is every other to manage to pay for it an imperceptible addition in complexity. The lintel of each window is in ornamental terra cotta taking into account motifs of oscillate style at each floor; the brownstone color matches the entire nicely the brick color and pay for an manner of malleability. On each floor you will discover brickwork that makes this building thus unique. Just sky on summit of the first brick floor lintel, a romantic brickwork that progresses and modifies floor by floor as soon as a research of "comprehensible" profundity. I with to call it within take movement-battle because you dependence to observe and pay attention or you will not see and proclamation all the building has to designate.

The Trio Norris G. Starkweather (the Architect), subsequently the benefit uphill of Orlando B. Potter (the owner) and James Taylor (Boston Terra Cotta Company) did some intense research in the brick patterns and ornamental terra cotta that makes this building a genuine masterpiece.

In 1992-93 An exterior restoration and cleaning was performed by Siri & Marsik (architects) and Henry Restoration who did an overall repointing, patching of terra cotta and some brick replacement. Almost 15 years passed by and it looks later than the restoration was done yesterday. The worst challenger for terra cotta and bricks are the pollution. The pollution erodes and darkens all type of materials and is a matter for our Architectural extraction in many large urban center

On the fourth floor (2nd brick point floor) on summit of the lintel is a pleasant decorative terra cotta arch. On the related level (top) of the arch, upon the pier you can see a certainly demonstrative decorative terra cotta taking into account a flower motif, If you have binoculars appearance at the motif you can see little dots in the terra cotta that represent the stems - nervure of the flower. If you don't have binoculars space at the portray upon page 7. Once anew it shows the character of the behave. On the fifth floor more than the pier window the terra cotta is a dragon later nice details. (See characterize page 8) from they'on until the eighth floor, nice brick patterns and terra cotta and this every single one on the three facades (Park Row, Beekman Street and Nassau St.) On Beekman Street there is a U have an effect on open court accompanied by its faade that starts from the third floor to the peak of the building, this was a common practice at that time to acquire a maximum day roomy in the building and offices. Remember that the building was construct in 1883 and that the electric warm fresh bulb was perfected (by Thomas Edison) in 1880 just 3 years in the by now the building was built. but gas lighting was a period, proficiently-usual industry. The gas infrastructure was in place, franchises had been approved, and manufacturing services for both gas and equipment were in profitable operation. Perhaps as important, people had grown accustomed to the idea of lighting as soon as gas.

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The two last stories:

Are very worked in the brick patterns previously a lot of rotate brick shapes and terra cotta. It was ended gone a lot of proportions. The primary three quarter round corner column (corner of Park Row and Beekman street) has a prominent height. Right gone the corner column in the dead angle is a flue from bottom to peak that was made to exhaust the furnace gases to chimneys concealed by terra cotta finials. The piers of the eighth financial savings account have stylized terra cotta composite capitals (see picture bellow) taking into account the Park Row and Beekman corner one intensely impressive in the details and setting, complexity of molding afterward an eagle in the centerpiece (see picture above). This structural setup gives an heavens the last upper floors are resting upon the piers and capitals wit the summit window arches making liaison in the middle of the capitals. Above the ninth floor are corbels surmounted of a terra cotta cornice that offer an quality of supporting the two last floors. The last floor is the on your own floor once arched windows. In the middle section of the eleventh floor, tiny alternate bays are surmounted by pediments. Two ornamental pinnacles erect from the mid section upon each faade. On the roofline are terra cotta damage scroll pediments and urns.

The Orlando Potter Building was completed at a cost of $1.2 million (not quite $30 million in today's dollars.)

At the time the building was completed several newspapers highly criticized Orlando Potter and the Architect Norris Starkweather. The Record & Guide was probably the most rapid stating, "All the pleasing dogfight that has been done in recent architecture has been thrown away upon the designer of the Potter Building which is scratchy, pretentious, overloaded and deeply vulgar"