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Robert Ripps book
History of Tribeca Buildings
Plans in the works for 112-114 Chambers
A developer is proposing to convert two historic buildings on Chambers, adding a one-story penthouse addition and a full renovation throughout. The presentation was made to Community Board 1 in January — they returned with new drawings after the committee rejected their treatment of the second floor of 114. It’s an improvement.
The goal was to maintain each building’s own identity, though there was discussion of having one unified storefront across the two addresses. And there was some opposition to the exposed brick vs. the painted brick of nearby buildings, but ultimately the plan was approved. The penthouse addition will be set back 16 feet from Chambers, and will include a bulkhead for an elevator.
The proposal shows the second floor of 114 taking the same motif — windows that is — as the upper floors which looks 100x better than the previous drawing (see below), where they made the second floor of 114 a commercial window more similar to the 1940s tax photos.
The two buildings are on the very edge of the Tribeca South Historic District Extension, which extends mid-block between West Broadway and Church from Chambers to the north side of Murray.
The two were built on leases of Trinity Church land between 1854 and 1857 by two different developers, but but both share the Italianate store-and-loft style. The Landmarks staff that wrote the report figured it may have been an early 19th Century house that was reconstructed when the the streets around City Hall Park were being redeveloped as commercial buildings for the dry goods trade.
The developer of 112 was a well known physician, Dr. Austin L. Sands, who lived in the neighborhood until his death in 1877 in Cairo. Over the years, the building housed a variety of hardware, cutlery, printing and automotive supply firms, including B.F. Goodrich and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in the ’30s.
The neighboring building, 114, was developed by Henry W. Olcott, a stockbroker who lived there until 1841. Trinity Church sold the building in 1930; in the 1940s and ’50s, the building was owned by noted real estate broker Charles F. Noyes, who owned one of the city’s major property management concerns.
old proposal for second floor storefront
penthouse mockup on roof
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Let’s hope they actually follow through. These building have been an eyesore and are in such poor condition they are a potential danger to the area. But so many projects have gone through the landmarks process and then nothing happens. Multiple buildings on Canal, the two building proposal on Broadway, the two buildings up the street on Chambers. I think there may be some owners who seek these approvals thinking it will make their properties more valuable, but either do not have the intention or funding to move forward once they receive approval.
I am getting really bored of these weird setback additions where we pretend the new addition doesn’t exist. Can we please do something else?!
Perhaps something more architecturally interesting like adding a mansard roof to the façade for the addition, or raising the cornice line and adding another floor below it, or extending the façade with another floor above the cornice line, or just adding an artist loft on top with the large slanting windows going down to the cornice.
wow, I’ve worked in the neighborhood for 25 years and these buildings have been vacant all this time. crazy to hear of something finally happening here.
I’ve actually been around long enough to remember when the Popeye’s was open in 112, but it must have been vacant for at least 20 years now. That part of Chambers has been a massive eyesore for far too long, so I really hope this moves forward. It’s been nice to see Chambers Street in general very slowly improve in recent years.