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1 William Street
Former names	J. & W. Seligman & Company Building
General information
Architectural style	neo-classicism
Location	New York, New York, U.S.
Coordinates	40°42′17″N 74°00′36″W / 40.7048°N 74.0100°W / 40.7048; -74.0100
Construction started	1906
Completed	1907
Height	157 feet (48 m)
Technical details
Floor count	11
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Francis Kimball Julian Clarence Levi
Main contractor	George A. Fuller Company
New York City Landmark
Designated	February 13, 1996
Reference no.	1943
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Designated	February 20, 2007
Part of	Wall Street Historic District
Reference no.	07000063
References

1 William Street (formerly the J. & W. Seligman & Company Building and the Lehman Brothers Building; also the Banca Commerciale Italiana Building) is an office building in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The building was erected in 1906–1907 and was designed by Francis H. Kimball in conjunction with Julian Clarence Levi. It was created for the Seligmans, a prominent German Jewish family who founded an investment bank called J. & W. Seligman. From 1929 to 1980, the building was the headquarters of investment bank Lehman Brothers, and was subsequently bought by Banca Commerciale Italiana.

The 11-story structure, clad in limestone with a steel frame, is located at the southern corner of the five-pointed intersection of William, South William, and Beaver Streets. It occupies a quadrilateral lot, with an acute angle between South William Street to the west and William Street to the east. In 1996, the building was designated as a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. In 2007, the building was designated as a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places district.

History

Context and construction

The Bavarian-born brothers Joseph and James Seligman, in conjunction with several other brothers, founded dry-goods businesses across the United States in the 1840s. They opened a New York City clothing store at 5 William Street by 1848. With profits from the creation of other branches worldwide, the family received contracts to create Union Army soldiers' uniforms during the American Civil War. After the war ended, the family founded an investment bank called J. & W. Seligman & Co., with headquarters at 59 Exchange Place. The company also developed branches around the world, each headed by one of the brothers, though these branches later became independent.

In March 1905, The New York Times reported that Isaac Seligman bought the lots on the south side of William Street from Stone to South William Streets. The five lots purchased by Isaac included the Seligmans' old store, and were two blocks away from Wall Street, where many of New York City's major financial companies and commodities exchanges were located. The next year, architectural plans for the building were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings. The New York Herald said, "It is to be of the Italian Renaissance type with facades of granite [sic] at the first story and limestone above, with decorative tower." Construction started in May 1906, with work on the foundation beginning the next month. The building was completed by July 1907 at a cost of $1 million, at which point J. & W. Seligman & Co. moved into the space. Originally, the front entrance was on South William Street.

1 William Street, like other contemporary tall buildings nearby, rests on concrete piers sunk using pneumatic caissons and cofferdams down to the bedrock (here about 43–47 feet (13–14 m) below curb level). The foundations for the walls formed a concrete dam 6 feet (1.8 m) wide and 30–40 feet (9.1–12.2 m) feet deep, which prevented water from entering the cellar dug out within it. Harper's Weekly reported in 1910 that during excavation of one of the caissons, an iridescent glass carafe or decanter of Dutch design had been found at a depth of 45 feet (14 m).

Use

In 1919, when Seligman & Co. relocated to nearby 54 Wall Street, 1 William Street was purchased by marine insurers Wilcox, Peck & Hughes (who were already tenants in the building). The same year, a renovation had split the two-story-high banking room into two regular-sized floors. By 1928, two floors of the building were occupied by insurance company Chubb & Son, which since 1892 had owned the adjacent premises at 5–7 South William Street (rebuilt to a design by Carrère and Hastings in 1899–1900).

The investment bank Lehman Brothers bought 1 William Street in 1928. At the time, they were located diagonally across the intersection of Beaver, William, and South William Streets. The firm had to move to make way for construction of 20 Exchange Place, and chose 1 William Street because it would provide more space. Lehman Brothers performed a $500,000 renovation of the structure, which included the relocation of the front entrance from South William Street to the corner with William and Beaver Street, as well as the replacement of the South William Street entrance with windows. Lehman Brothers moved into their offices at 1 William Street in June 1929. Lehman Brothers originally took half the floor area in 1 William Street, but then occupied additional space vacated by tenants with expiring leases, as well as space in two adjacent buildings.

By the 1970s, Lehman Brothers was seeing financial losses, and under chairman Peter G. Petersen, the company merged with Kuhn, Loeb & Co. in 1977. The combined company moved out of the building at the end of 1980, putting the structure on sale for $10 million and consolidating its operations at another facility on 55 Water Street. The following year, the building was purchased by Banca Commerciale Italiana, which erected an 11-story addition to the south between 1982 and 1986. Designed by Italian architect Gino Valle, the annex is faced in limestone like the original structure, with the addition of black granite courses. In 1988, it received an Albert S. Bard Award for Excellence in Architecture and Urban Design from the City Club of New York.

Through a series of mergers in the Italian banking industry, the building has been owned since 2008 by Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest bank.

Description

The building is designed in the Renaissance Revival style, with elements similar to the Baroque Revival style in Britain, such as a curving exterior, sculptural ornament, and towers at the corners. It was not well received by the Architectural Record, in which Montgomery Schuyler described it as "a rather frightful example of the unwisdom of trying to variegate and diversify the accepted type of skyscraper, especially by an architect whose work indicates that his forte lies much rather in conformity than in innovation". However, many considered it to be the most handsome building on Hanover Square.

Exterior

The side facades have a granite water table. The windows on the ground floor contain elaborate entablatures on their frames, while those on the second floor are rectangular with ornate metal railings. On the third through eighth stories, the windows are rectangular with lintels containing voussoirs. A colonnade runs along the facade of the ninth and tenth floors, and the eleventh floor contains square windows. There are water towers on the roof and a chimney on the South William Street side.

To smooth out the acute angle created by the intersection of William and South William Streets, where the building's main entrance is located, the designers included a curved facade at the lower floors, as well as a concave building corner element above the eighth floor. This element is capped by a corner tower, which is round and resembles a "tempietto". The doorway contains double doors made of glass and metal, as well as iron gates, a short flight of granite steps, a flagpole around the doors, a metal plaque, and decorative iron grilles on the transom and second story. The third through eighth floors on this section are rounded, and above the eighth-floor window is a sculpted cartouche.

The South William Street side contained the original front doorway for the building, which comprised a door underneath an arch with glass screen. The magazine New York Architect characterized the building as being "the most complete private banking institution in the city", with a form and sculptural elements that provide a maximum "breadth and solidity in the treatment of the exterior."

Studio Architetti Valle, along with Fred Liebmann and Jeremy P. Lang Architects, designed an 11-story annex in 1982. The annex, located south of the original building contains black granite and limestone cladding, as well as a turret at the southern corner, which complements the other turret at the entrance of the original building. The annex features double doors facing South William Street, as well as a service entrance at Stone Street.

Interior

Upon the building's completion, the basement, ground floor, and mezzanine housed the banking offices, and there was a "richly decorated" board room on the mezzanine, as per the company's requirements. The two-story banking room included a barrel-vaulted ceiling and was split into two floors by 1919. The basement and first two floors were ventilated by a supply and exhaust fan unit. In 1914, improvements were made to the building's lighting which reportedly had a transformative effect on its ambiance.

When Lehman Brothers occupied 1 William Street, it maintained a fancy private dining facility for its employees in the building. In 1979 The New York Times deemed 1 William Street's lunchroom as the best corporate lunchroom in the Wall Street area, saying, "Perhaps nowhere on Wall Street is the food as good and Old World dining carried on with the same care and flair." At the time, chef Pierre Colin prepared 75 meals a day for lunch. Colin said that the dinners were "much more elegant than eating at a midtown restaurant". During dinners, hors d'oeuvres were served on the third floor before guests moved to the eighth-floor Partners' Dining Room, which contained a table made of mahogany wood and silver inlays; Hepplewhite-brand chairs; linen napkins; crystal and china cutlery; oil paintings on the walls; and windows with slight views of the nearby East River. After BCI took over the building, the original decor was kept, but the dining facilities served "only Italian food and wine".

See also

• Architecture
• Banks
• New York City

• List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan below 14th Street

References

Notes

1. A list of the property's owners since 1971 can be found via the Office of the City Register, New York City Department of Finance (search for Manhattan block 29 lot 36).

Citations

1. "1 William Street". Emporis. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
2. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 1.
3. ^ "National Register of Historic Places 2007 Weekly Lists" (PDF). National Park Service. 2007. p. 65. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 28, 2019. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
4. "Julian Clarence Levi architectural drawings and papers, 1895-1963 | Avery Drawings & Archives Collections | Columbia University Libraries Finding Aids". findingaids-dev.library.columbia.edu. Archived from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
5. "Wall Street Historic District" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service. February 20, 2007. pp. 4–5. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 19, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
6. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 2.
7. ^ Muir, R. L.; White, C. J. (1964). Over the Long Term: The Story of J. & W. Seligman & Co. Seligman. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
8. Birmingham, Stephen (1996) . Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families of New York. New York: Harper & Row. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-8156-0411-2.
9. "Mr. Seligman Buys Site". The New York Times. March 22, 1905. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
10. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 4.
11. "In the Real Estate Field". The New York Times. April 13, 1906. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
12. ^ "The Construction of the Seligman Building, New York". The Engineering Record. Vol. 56, no. 2. New York. July 13, 1907. pp. 52–53 – via Internet Archive.
13. "Foundation of Seligman Building". Real Estate Record and Builders Guide. Vol. 78, no. 2012. New York. October 6, 1906. p. 563 – via HathiTrust.
14. Insurance Maps of the City of New York Borough of Manhattan. Vol. 1. New York: Sanborn Map Company. 1905. p. 2.
15. Doty, John W. (1907). "Foundations for Skyscrapers in New York City". In Blum, Max L. (ed.). Municipal Engineers of the City of New York Proceedings for 1906. New York: Municipal Engineers. pp. 140–157 – via HathiTrust.
16. Deutsch, Maurice (March 19, 1910). "A Lesson in Stones". Harper's Weekly. Vol. 54, no. 2778. New York. pp. 11–12 – via HathiTrust.
17. "Seligman's to Sell House on William Street". New-York Tribune. January 28, 1919. p. 14. Retrieved December 15, 2024 – via newspapers.com.
18. "Big Firms Buying Homes In Wall Street District". Section 9. The New York Times. Vol. 68, no. 22394. May 18, 1919. p. 20. Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
19. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 5.
20. Chubb, Thomas Caldecot (1957). If There Were No Losses: The Story of Chubb & Son from its Founding in 1882 until 1957. New York: Chubb & Son. pp. 17, 41.
21. "Latest Dealings In The Real Estate Field; Lehman Bros. Buy On William Street". The New York Times. April 26, 1928. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 5, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
22. "Lehman Bros. To Open New Offices Today; Banking Firm Has Made Extensive Alterations on Its Building in William Street". The New York Times. June 10, 1929. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 5, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
23. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 8.
24. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 6.
25. Sloane, Leonard (November 29, 1977). "Lehman and Kuhn Loeb to Merge". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
26. Crittenden, Ann (December 20, 1980). "Lehman's Office Move Marks End of an Aura; Lehman Leaves One William Street 'The Place Is a Pigsty' High Return on Capital". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
27. Auletta, Ken (February 17, 1985). "Power, Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the Lehman Brothers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
28. Jacqz, Margot (November 1982). "Gino Valle's New York Bank". Skyline. New York. p. 26. ISSN 0162-6981 – via Internet Archive.
29. Stern, Robert A. M.; Fishman, David; Tilove, Jacob (2006). New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Bicentennial and the Millennium. New York: Monacelli Press. pp. 251–252. ISBN 978-1-58093-177-9. OCLC 70267065. OL 22741487M.
30. ^ "Architecture Awards for Restorations". The New York Times. May 30, 1988. p. 17. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
31. Giani, Leonardo (2008). "Ownership and control of Italian banks: A short inquiry into the roots of the current context" (PDF). Corporate Ownership & Control. 6 (1): 87–98. doi:10.22495/cocv6i1p9. Archived from the original on September 15, 2024. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
32. "Confirmatory Deed". Office of the City Register, New York City Department of Finance. August 26, 2008. CRFN: 2008090201065001. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
33. "Leading banks in Italy as of November 2024, by market capitalization". Statista. Hamburg. November 7, 2024. Archived from the original on October 23, 2023. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
34. ^ "Seligman Building". The New York Architect. Vol. 2, no. 3. The Harwell-Evans Co. March 1908 – via HathiTrust. (See also plates).
35. Schuyler, Montgomery (September 1907). "Some Recent Skyscrapers". The Architectural Record. Vol. 22, no. 3#108. New York. pp. 161–176 – via Internet Archive.
36. Korom, Joseph J., Jr (2008). The American Skyscraper 1850–1940: A Celebration of Height. Wellesley, MA: Branden Books. pp. 286–287. ISBN 978-0828321884 – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
37. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 7.
38. "Ventilating and Air Washing Installation in the Seligman Building, New York". Engineering Review. Vol. 21. New York. January 1911. pp. 59–61 – via HathiTrust.
39. "Progress in Lighting". The Real Estate Magazine. Vol. 4, no. 5. New York. May 1914. p. 93 – via HathiTrust.
40. ^ Bogart, Jeffrey D. (August 5, 1979). "The Wall Street Dining Rooms". Business and Finance. The New York Times. pp. F1, F4. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
41. Louie, Elaine (May 3, 1989). "Private Domains: Inside Corporate Dining Preserves". The Living Section. The New York Times. pp. C1, C6. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.

Sources

• Shockley, Jay (February 13, 1996). J. & W. Seligman & Company Building (PDF) (Report). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

External links

• Media related to 1 William Street at Wikimedia Commons

• 1907 establishments in New York City
• Financial District, Manhattan
• Lehman Brothers
• New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
• Office buildings completed in 1907
• Office buildings in Manhattan
• Historic district contributing properties in Manhattan