Tiffany's Jewel Buffed Down to Inner Beauty

Monday, August 27, 2007, by Joey

Broker-blogger extraordinaire Andrew Fine checks in with the denuding of 15 Union Square West, which was the grand original home of Tiffany's before being covered in bland white brick and serving as an Amalgamated bank. Lately it's been shrounded in black, as the building undergoes a conversion to—wait for it—condos. The cool thing is that the building's original steel frame is partially visible, giving history geeks and archinerds a chance to ogle. Amalgamated sold the building in November for $80 million to Brack Capital, who enlisted Perkins Eastman to oversee the conversion. Corcoran will market and sell this blockbuster-in-waiting when the time comes.
· Secrets of 15 Union Square West...Future Condo, Past Jewel [A Fine Blog]
· Brack planning luxury conversion at Tiffany building [Real Estate Weekly]

Filed under Architecture, Manhattan: East Village, Manhattan: Greenwich Village, Real Estate Development, 15 Union Square West, Brack Capital, Perkins Eastman, Tiffany's

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Comments (10 extant)

way cool, I'll have to check it out..

By scooby smurf at August 27, 2007 11:45 AM

Interesting about the Tiffany's. One correction though -- it is not named Union Square because of any unions that had offices down there. It was the union of several trolley lines, IIRC (hence the rounded southern part of the square, for turning around)

By Bing at August 27, 2007 1:01 PM

If this building gets restored from that hideous white brick facade, it will be a great win for the look of Union Square. Now, if we could just get rid of Zeckendorf Towers on the other side of the square...

By anon at August 27, 2007 1:31 PM

Bling-

A few months ago on the 6 line, there was a overweight,old guy, who seemed slightly "off", who would, very loudly, give a lecture about the history of the city along the way, each topic based on the stop the train was at.

That was pretty much word-for-word what he said about Union Square.

Are you that guy?

By Anonymous at August 27, 2007 2:03 PM

It may have named Union Square even before trolleys, Bing.

I got this from a NYTimes letter to the editor from 2000: “the area that was to become Union Square was acquired in 1832, well before the Civil War, by the New York State Legislature to serve as an intersection of two streets. The square was named for the ''union'' of Albany Post Road (Broadway) and Boston Road (Fourth Avenue)”.

Were there trolleys in 1832?

By Sandy Mattingly at August 27, 2007 2:07 PM

I stand corrected. Nice work. I should have rechecked my 'facts'.

By Bing at August 27, 2007 2:31 PM

This was Tiffany's third or fourth location -- started at 259 Broadway, I think, in 1837. They moved to Prince & Broadway in 1854 (?), and to Union Square in 1868.

By dbrown at August 27, 2007 3:54 PM

For those really interested, David Dunlap wrote about this in the New York Times on June 12, 2007. See his article "Peel Off the Layers, and Tiffany Peeks Out" in Section B, Page 3, Column 2.

By Dunlap Reader at August 27, 2007 3:57 PM

I actually liked the brick facade... it was very simple and rigorous. So I was pretty surprised to find out about the Tiffany structure underneath... interesting how the same geometry is the basis for both. Hopefully this renovation will allow you to see all of the historical layers in the finished product.

By Anonymous at August 27, 2007 5:53 PM

10.

The actual seller of this property was the Unite Here union. Amalgamated Bank was the tenant.

By Comml Broker at August 28, 2007 4:40 PM