The Jewel of Union Square

Former Tiffany & Co. headquarters will house 36 luxury residences.

By Debra Wood

A stately pillar to opulence from the late 1800s, the former Tiffany & Co. jewelry building in New York continues its transformation to 15 Union Square West, an upscale residential address with 36 custom units.

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“Economically, no one can build a building like this today, a cast-iron building with 16-ft ceilings,” says Isaac Hera, managing director and chief financial officer of developer and general contractor Brack Capital Real Estate (BCRE) of New York, in an email response to questions. “It is irreplaceable. People appreciate when presented with something so unique, with so much history behind it.”

BCRE purchased the building in 2006, and Hera adds, remains committed to returning the structure to its former glory, while incorporating modern comforts and amenities, including an indoor pool, a fitness center and a private storage facility. BCRE is not releasing the project cost. However, the New York Times pegged it at $500,000 in a July 2006 article. Units start at $3 million. Retail will occupy the first floor. The 97,000-sq-ft project adds six, structural-steel framed floors stacked above the original five stories constructed for Charles Lewis Tiffany.

BCRE purchased the building in 2006, and Hera adds, remains committed to returning the structure to its former glory, while incorporating modern comforts and amenities, including an indoor pool, a fitness center and a private storage facility. BCRE is not releasing the project cost. However, the New York Times pegged it at $500,000 in a July 2006 article. Units start at $3 million. Retail will occupy the first floor. The 97,000-sq-ft project adds six, structural-steel framed floors stacked above the original five stories constructed for Charles Lewis Tiffany.

BCRE purchased the building in 2006, and Hera adds, remains committed to returning the structure to its former glory, while incorporating modern comforts and amenities, including an indoor pool, a fitness center and a private storage facility. BCRE is not releasing the project cost. However, the New York Times Architecture, also in New York. He explains that building is taller on the Park side and lower on the 15th Street side.

Perkins Eastman continued its work on the project, overseeing construction, resolving technical issues and reviewing the shop drawings, after Chen left in August 2007.

The cast-iron framed structure sits on granite imported as a single slab in the mid-1860s. An 1869 article in the New York Times, while the building was still under construction, described the structure as having massive, 3-ft thick, solid granite walls that extend to a depth of 30 ft beneath the pavement. Each floor was supported by thee rows of iron pillars. Glass for the windows came from Paris. The non-bylined New York Times piece said, “It promises to be when completed the largest, handsomest and most imposing iron edifice in the city or on the continent, and the firm are [sic] sparing no expense to make it a credit to the Metropolis.”

The jeweler later moved uptown to Fifth Avenue, in 1940, after an accident in which pieces of the building’s cast-iron facade broke off, killing a pedestrian below. Tiffany sold it to Amalgamated Bank, which covered the façade with white brick and subdivided the original high-ceilinged spaces into two floors.

A glass curtain wall allows the arches of the original Tiffany & Co. to remain visible from the street despite the drastic changes to the outside of the more than 100-year-old structure. (Photos courtesy Brack Capital Real Estate.)

“We found the bones of the building, which are beautiful,” Chen says.

BCRE returned the original building to its five stories with high ceilings. It also removed and rebuilt an adjacent structure.

“[We had] a very complicated demolition phasing and sequencing to maintain structural stability,” Hera says. “Due to the fact cast iron cannot be reinforced with structural steel, new structural steel needed to be needled through the existing building to the cellar. The original cast iron columns were encased with concrete and rebar to allow the original columns to carry the additional six stories.”

Construction began in May 2007 and the building topped out in August 2008. Hera expects substantial completion in March 2009.

“The schedule was very aggressive, taking into account the unknown and complexity involved with a conversion of that scale,” Hera says.

The units in the new construction feature terraces, with different orientations. One penthouse has two terraces. The lower floors retain more of the character of the original structure.

“It celebrates the existing archways and cast iron, as part of the apartments,” Chen says. “And we clad the building with an additional skin of glass and zinc. ... You see the arches from the outside and the duality between the old portion and the new portion.”

Chen says the intention was to ensure the curtain wall would not interfere with the 7-ft tall historical arches. The curtain wall has approximately 17-ft tall, 6-ft wide panels of low-E, low-iron glass, imported from Austria. The 1 and 5/8-thick glass and aluminum pieces weigh up 20 lb per sq ft, about 2,040 pounds for a 17-ft by 6 ft panel.

“We’ve been told, these are the biggest insulated glass plates ever used in New York City,” Szendiuch says. “They are that thickness to make them very flat and avoid waving [reflection patterns].”

The curtain wall has panels of low-E, low-iron glass that measure about 17-ft tall by 6-ft wide. Project officials say they are the largest insluated glass plates in New York City at 1-and5/8-in thick. Each panel weighs about 2,040 lbs. (Photo by Jack Buehrer)

The panel height allows unobstructed visualization of the arches from the outside and provides clear views from inside the units.

“Installation was a challenge, because they are very heavy and needed a special crane to pick them up,” Chen says. “The result is stunning pieces of glass with very little reflection and very little distortion.”

The complex façade, Hera says, required BCRE to build a temporary enclosure, so crews could work on the interiors while the curtain wall was installed.

Vicente Wolf Associates created the interiors, common spaces and condominium units, right down to the plumbing fixtures and cabinetry. Everything is custom designed using high-end materials, such as bronze and oak, to appeal to a discriminating buyer.

“It takes part of the past and present and mixes it together,” says Vicente Wolf. “The indoor spaces have a sense of lightness and brightness.”

For instance, the pool area boasts bright apple green and yellow colors and mosaics. The lobby incorporates a floor pattern Wolf discovered in Europe and then interpreted by placing it at an angle.

“We’re not making any compromises: not on the design, not on the materials, not on the quality of construction,” Hera concludes. “This is a one of a kind building. This is the way that we treated it, and people appreciated it.”

Useful source:
http://www.15usw.com/

Team box:
Owner and contractor: Brack Capital Real Estate, New York
Architects: Perkins Eastman, New York
Interior Design: Vicente Wolf Associates, New York
Structural Engineer: DeSimone, New York
Curtain wall Consultant: Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners, New York